Psalm 119:57-59

The Bible records two kinds of promises from God–unconditional and conditional. An unconditional pledge is one whose fulfillment rests solely with the Lord; His commitment is independent of people and situations. An example would be God’s covenant never to send another flood to destroy the entire earth (Gen. 9:11). No matter how the world behaves, He will not take this action again.

The second type of divine promise is conditional. In other words, the Lord is willing to act under certain circumstances. It’s often written as an “if-then” statement and involves our cooperation. Let’s look at three conditional promises involving salvation, forgiveness, and wisdom.

Romans 10:10 tells us that salvation is pledged to those who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord. We are saved when we genuinely trust in the Savior.

If we come to the Lord with sincere confession of sin, we have the assurance of divine forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). The Lord’s fulfillment of this vow depends upon our obedient action.

James 1:5-6 instructs us to ask God for wisdom without doubting that we will receive it. If we approach the Lord with faith, then He will give us understanding.

God will do exactly what He’s promised. But He requires our obedient cooperation before fulfilling His conditional pledges. To receive the stated blessing, we must satisfy the conditions He has set. If you are waiting for the Lord to fulfill His pledge, check to be sure you are carrying out your part.

There are several places in Scripture that speak of God’s abhorrence of “dishonest scales.” Having recently read an editorial that sought to expose what the writer deemed “the unfair scales” of our justice system, the phrase catches my attention. There is something within us that cries out at the sight of injustice; we long to find the place where life is fair. But what does it mean to measure our own lives with an honest scale?

As the Israelites emerged from their slavery in Egypt and the perils of the desert through mighty acts of deliverance, they were asked to remember the almighty hand of God. The great plagues that came upon Egypt, the triumphant parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven—all were arguably unforgettable—and yet God specifically asked them to remember. Remember the great movement of God among you; remember the God who saw your misery and acted out in justice. Indeed, remember. For how easy it is to forget. How easy it is to forget that God not only sees the injustice of our situation, our yearning for help and crying for deliverance, but also the injustice we impose on others, our unwillingness to forgive, and our eagerness to tip the scales in our favor.

Through the prophet Micah, the LORD inquired of Israel, “Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed? Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?”(1)

Used in ancient Israel, the ephah was a large vessel with which merchants measured out goods for a buyer. Likewise, the shekel was used to weigh out the silver with which the buyer paid for it. By shortening the ephah and increasing the weight of the shekel, the merchant found a way to sell less than he promised for more than he agreed. The practice of utilizing measures to get ahead in business was quite prevalent amongst merchants in the ancient world—perhaps as prevalent as it is today. In a poem titled “Song of the Devil” W.H. Auden voices a chorus familiar to the ages:  “Values are relative/Dough is dough.”

Yet as God declared through Micah and again through Hosea and Amos, dishonest dealings make a mockery of the one who set the values. The cry of the prophet for economic justice is the cry of the God who is just. And God who is just demands a careful commitment to all that God values: “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.”(2)

Moreover, God who is just not only calls for justice in our dealings with others, but in our dealings with God. Here, the Christian story reports that we ourselves have been weighed on scales and found wanting. This is a difficult truth to accept, particularly where we want to measure the world with a sliding scale of tolerance. All the more difficult to comprehend, Christ’s death is said somehow to level the scales. Where we are lacking, where we are unjust, where we have tipped the scales dishonestly in our favor, where sin throws off the balance, and we carry our bag of false weights, Christ comes to restore our own value inasmuch as those we have slighted.  As the apostle Peter writes, “Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God.” In Christ the scales are balanced; what is wanting is restored in him by the Spirit. Setting on both sides of the scale, he is our full and just weight.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Micah 6:10-11.

(2) Deuteronomy 25:13-15.

Morning “I am the Lord, I change not.” / Malachi 3:6

It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom

change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow

mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed–all things are

changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the

folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must

soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but

there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in

whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when,

after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid

shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this

troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth–“I am the

Lord, I change not.”

The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a

hold-fast, is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him when it fixes

itself upon this glorious truth. With God “is no variableness, neither shadow

of turning.” Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his

wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the

refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their

sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with

“an everlasting love”; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all

earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will

still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes

not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.

“Death and change are busy ever,

Man decays, and ages move;

But his mercy waneth never;

God is wisdom, God is love.”

 

Evening “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” /

Psalm 119:53

My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for

otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with rivers of

waters because of prevailing unholiness, Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains

that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the

conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in

Ezekiel’s vision, were those who sighed and cried for the abominations of

Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to

go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to

see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder,

because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man’s highest interest to

keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in others horrifies a

believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when

he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, “He fell

today, and I may fall to-morrow.” Sin to a believer is horrible, because it

crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How can

a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my

heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God

to His face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it,

the just God will have it, or repay His adversary to his face. An awakened

heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation

of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is

prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou

come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy. View it

with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness,

without which no man can see the Lord.

Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law.     Psalm 119:53

My soul, do you feel this holy trembling at the sins of others? For if you do not, you lack inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness. Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was deeply troubled by the conduct of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel’s vision were those who sighed and cried for the sins of Jerusalem. Gracious souls cannot help but be grieved to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally [experientially], and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze.

Sin makes the righteous shudder because it violates a holy law that it is in every man’s highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the nation. Sin in others horrifies a believer because it makes him think of the baseness of his own heart: When he sees a transgressor he is reminded of his own frailty and vulnerability: “He fell today, and I may fall tomorrow.” Sin to a believer is horrible because it crucified the Savior; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How troubling it should be when the Christian learns to tolerate rather than shrink from it in disgust.

Each of us must examine his heart. It is an awful thing to insult God to His face. The good God deserves better treatment; the great God claims it; the just God will have it or repay His adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How dreadful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest you begin to smile at sin itself. It is your enemy, and your Lord’s enemy: Learn to detest it and to distance yourself from it, for only then can you give evidence of the possession of holiness, without which no one can see the Lord.

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