“The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him” - Proverbs 20:23 (NIV).

It is a well known habit among many butchers. A customers orders a kilogram of beef. The butcher uses a weighing scale that seem to prove one kilogram. What the customer is not aware of is that the weighing scale has been adjusted and once it tips one kilogram it is actually far less. The customer walks away happily satisfied he has a kilo under tuck, only that he has been cheated.

The Bible says, “The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him” (Proverbs 11:1). These practices so common around, whether at an adjusted pump station or pharmacy counter dispensing fake drugs, ache the heart of God and rob from us the favor He has promised us.

Being dishonest can become a way of life. It is all about taking advantage of someone who is taken for a fool because one has pulled a fast one or is not aware of the facts. We see it all the time among politicians scouting for votes as they promise heaven and earth while laughing with mouthfuls, for upon accessing office that is the last one hears of either. There are judges who dispense justice in favor of someone who has bribed them that some people have decided to shun courts to solve conflicts. We find examiners who grade poorly those who have not coughed them expected dues. In certain homes some children grow up put at a distance just because of being from a different set of parents.

Once a land lacks fairness in its treatment of one another, people resort to a number of ways to size up. Sometimes they too decide to live a life of pulling a fast one on “every fool” meaning in the end everyone has to watch their backs. But even worse, those hurt, sometime return nothing but curses, for those that have caused them to suffer slight. There are those children once slighted who grow up filled with bitterness, and can’t wait to desert or find an opportunity to get even.

Fairness is one of the blessings from the Almighty God, resulting in His blessings. “All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.. Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. They will spend their days in prosperity, and their descendants will inherit the land” (Psalm 28:10-13). Let us be fair with one another.

Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I pray for the heart of fairness, for you are a fair and just God, this I pray in Jesus’s name.