Take a trip back in time, before there were computers or TV’s. Before you could “buy” something with a swipe of a plastic card (look at me, no one swipes cards anymore…) you had to have the physical cash to do a transaction, or you had to write a cheque (not a misspelling). We didn’t have a credit score; a person took you at your word for credit. Go back before they took the silver out of our money. There was scarcity to it. There is a limited amount of silver (and Gold) in the earth, so it works well as a medium of exchange. That is what money should be, a way of exchanging goods and services more efficiently.
From the beginning of time, it seems that God set up gold and silver as a medium of exchange. It is not the only thing that can be monetized, but it is a very good prospect. Without going too far down the rabbit hole, ever since man has been using money, the corrupt hearts of man have been figuring out how to cheat the system. Some mix quantities of undesirable metals with Gold or silver to make them less expensive and buy more with less precious metal. For a long time in history – and even still today – men will use scales to determine the weight and therefore the amount of precious metal present or the amount a – say – wheat that is to be bought. Of course, human sinful nature such as it is, men cheat the scale. They cannot get away with very much; maybe their shekel weight is gust 1-2 gerah off. They do 20 transactions a day, that’s an additional shekel worth of profit. (A gerah is 1/20th of a shekel).
This may seem like a small mater. A person could probably not perceive the difference in the weight unless closely examining it. It is harmless. Like taking a grape from the grocery store. It is a slight thing to us usually – but God sees it as a great deal. Proverbs talks quite a bit about this sort of thing.
Proverbs 11:1 KJV
1 A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.
A just – or correct weight – is God’s delight. He desires us to walk in uprightness and honesty no matter how small the item may be.
S. T.
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."
