The Weighing of the Vessels
II TIMOTHY 2:20
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
ROMANS 9:21-24
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
The Weighing of the Vessels
Humanity is likened unto vessels. A vessel is made for the purpose to be filled with something - you can fill a vessel with almost anything, and you can fill a human with almost anything.
A person can be filled with rock music, evil thoughts, alcohol, worldliness, false concepts and opinions, and if he is a religious person then he can be filled with the false teachings of the religions of the world – or he can be filled with the word for the age by the spirit of God.
PSALM 62:9
9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. (Vanity = Hebrew word hebel {heh'bel} = Air, breath, vapour – in other words, Emptiness). ***In other words, whether you are of low degree or high degree, even the smallest weight that God would put on one side of the scale of the balance, you would be lighter.
ISAIAH 40:15
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
*We think we are so great – but we must realise that we are nothing unless God makes something out of us.
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Being able to measure something by length and by weight has been and is very important to the human race.
If you want to bake a cake, you need some way to be able to weigh the ingredients, if you want to build a house, there is a lot of measurements required, if you want to buy or sell fresh food goods, then you will need to have some way to weigh them. In fact for any form of trade and commerce you need to be able to measure and weigh.
So in the bible days (and in many bygone ages), the most common apparatus used for measuring weight was known as a balance, this is where you would use the weights on one side of the scale to balance the both sides to tell you the weight of what was on the other side of the scale – it was a very accurate way of measuring as long as the weights were accurate.
PROVERBS 11:1
1 ¶ A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
People who wanted to be dishonest when trading with others would often have two different sets of weights; they would have one set of weights for buying, and another set of lighter weights for selling - the buying weights would of course be heavier than the weights they would use for selling.
JOB 31:6
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
People often misunderstand your integrity (remember that your integrity is your character which is your motives and intents, because they are the bedrocks on which your actions rest). Often people will weigh you with the balances of what they have heard about you or what they perceive upon first meeting you or some rumour about you, and that is more than often an unfair balance, because what they are weighing you against is a false weight – it’s an unjust balance.
PROVERBS 16:11
11 ¶ A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
God will weigh everyone by His word of truth.
JESUS.CHRIST.THE.SAME.YESTERDAY.TODAY.AND.FOREVER_ SALEM.OR WEDNESDAY_ 62-0718
E-14 Now, as a child, a little boy, mother and father both Irish, when I felt that call of God, I went down to the church, and the priest tells me that salvation is in the church. Well, then I come to find out from my friends that belonged to different churches, which one of them churches has salvation in it then? See? If the Catholic would be right, then the Lutheran surely's wrong. If the Lutheran's right, then there's something wrong with the Baptists. So which one of them churches would be right?
After searching, trying to find out, digging, and whatever I could do, I came to find out that God is in His Word, and the Word is right. God will not judge the world by a church, but by the Word, for I see over in the Book of Revelation it said, "Whosoever shall take one part away or add anything to it, the same will be taken out of his part of the Book of Life." Then I believe it's infallible, that it must be kept just the way it's written.
I believe it's of no private interpretation. I believe that God has watched over it, and it's just exactly the way: that He will judge the world by this Book. Now, He's got to have a standard somewhere to judge the world by. So the church will be judged by the Word.
**God does not weigh you by your mistakes; he weighs you by the motives and intents of your heart.
HEBREWS 4:12
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
DANIEL 5:1-8
1 ¶ Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. (Notice, what was once a vessel sanctified for the purpose of God in the temple of God was now being filled and used for the purpose of a Babylonian drunken party – that is the condition of the world that we are living in today)
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone (they praised materialism – it is the same condition of man today, so God must also act the same way in judgement or he was wrong when he brought judgement back then).
5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom (you had to use bribery to get anyone to do anything for you – what’s in it for me??).
8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
Notice how that in such a short time (just one generation) they had forgotten the prophet that God had sent among them – man has such a short memory, that is why he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again and history keeps repeating itself.
DANIEL 5:13-17
13 Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?
14 I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
15 And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:
16 And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.
17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.
DANIEL 5:22-28
22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; (It takes humility to acknowledge and receive a prophet in the time that you are living in)
23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
24 Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
25 And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting (His motive and integrity was weighed against the word and came up short).
28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.