In these days when dieting and slimming are all the rage, it might be pertinent to ask, How much do I weigh? Simple. Here is a scale; let me weigh myself. I might be pleased or shocked when I check the needle, but either way, whatever the reading – it is not telling me the truth! The fact is that I do not really weigh anything at all. I can prove that quite easily by bungee jumping or being an astronaut orbiting the earth. In free fall or in orbit (which is the same thing, actually), I weigh nothing. Indeed one way to get that discouraging statistic on the dial down quickly is to go to the World Trade Center and stand on my scale while taking an express lift from the 96th to the ground floor*.
What my scale is measuring is not something intrinsic to me like my eye color or my voice. My weight is an entirely relative thing, depending on where I happen to be when I weigh myself, and what I am doing at the time. I can reduce my weight by climbing a mountain, certainly because of the extra altitude – and possibly also from the effort! What the scale is actually measuring is the pull of the earth’s gravity on my body.
Divine relativity
Isaiah taught relativity long before Albert Einstein. You must realise that God measures weight very differently from us. To Him, big men, puffed up with conceit, have zero weight (Psa. 62:9). Whole nations are like a few specks of dust on the balance, too tiny to move the needle (Isa. 40:15,17). In fact, the prophet suggests, they are a minus quantity, less than zero. Which, of course, is mathematically absurd. But God’s scale is not ours. He uses altogether different units.
Remember Belshazzar, who, we are told, did not humble himself? On the wall, the divine hand wrote, Tekel: You have been checked on My scales and found to be a light weight (Dan. 5:27).
In stark contrast, Isaiah says that God weighs the path of the just (Isa. 26:7). To God, our faith weighs far more than the biggest monuments and towers that puny man can build. And many times throughout the Scriptures God’s holy Name is said to be heavy or weighty – Hebrew kabod, usually translated ‘glorious’ (Ex. 15:11; Deut. 28:58; Neh. 9:5).
“What massive stones!”
In his brilliant journal articles about the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem, Israeli Christadelphian archaeologist Bro. Leen Ritmeyer tells about one of the carefully hewn stones of the Temple which is 45 feet long and weighs an incredible 570 tons. He discusses, with graphic illustrations, the method by which the Jewish stonemasons managed to transport that huge stone block from the quarry to the Temple site and fit it flawlessly into the rising edifice.
Jesus and his apostles must have seen that stone, and many others like it. On a sightseeing tour, the apostles were awed with the sheer grandeur: Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings! The Lord Jesus was not impressed. In his eyes, those gigantic blocks of stone, obviously meant to project King Herod’s egomania, were utterly inconsequential. Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down (Mark 13:1-2). When I was at the top of a great skyscraper, I was told that I was supposed to marvel at the greatness of man’s achievements and the triumph of capitalism. When I told the guide it reminded me more of the Tower of Babel, he didn’t seem to like it.
In contrast to the relative weightlessness of the old Jewish Temple, or modern skyscrapers, we read from David of the majesty and glory (weight) of God’s coming Kingdom (Psa. 145:5,12).
So I will ask myself again: How much do I weigh? It all depends on what is inside me. If I am puffed up with self, then nothing. If I am full of faith, my weight will exceed by far the weight of those temple blocks and soaring human towers and match the weight of the Kingdom to which my God has invited me to be a glorious part.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One