Balance Scale

When was the last time you went to a deli and asked for a certain weight of sandwich meat sliced the way you liked it? You asked for a pound of peppered roast beef, and you got 16 ounces of peppered roast beef. When you go to the butcher and ask for 10 lbs of hamburger meat, you expect 10 lbs of hamburger, not 9.5 lbs. Food vendors are responsible to be in compliance with the standards set by the Bureau of Weights and Measures for accuracy. 

Today, we deal in absolute weights, but in the early stages of society the weight standard was relative. There is no way of knowing the earliest usage of a balance scale for selling, trading, and buying of goods, but it was the method for determining the weight of something at least as far back as ancient Babylon and Egypt. The earlier scales were far cruder than the picture on the left used only for illustrative purposes. The balance was a very simple device with a beam supported in the middle and a pan on each end suspended by cords. The object to be weighed was placed on one pan, and the known quantity of weight made of stone or metal was placed in the other. By simply adding or removing known weights, the weight of the object was determined once both pans were equaled or balanced.  

The problem with the balance scale was the “known” weights. There were no standardized trade values in the ancient world for each city set up its own standards of weights as well as measures. You can only imagine the confusion and distrust generated between different peoples and cultures. So much so that many carried their own weights with them to guarantee to their satisfaction they were getting a fair and just value (cf. Deut 25:13; Prov 16:11). Using dishonest weights and measures were frowned upon for God’s people (Prov 11:1; 20:10, 23). The law of Moses required that scales and measure were to be accurate and fair (Lev 19:36; Deut 25:13).

Ancient weights appeared in many forms imaginable, such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, domes, or animal shapes. The latter was more popular by being easily recognizable and handled. 

Photo by Gustav Jeeninga

 

Believe it or not, the balance scale was used in antiquity for more than weighing physical things. Figuratively speaking, it was also considered to weigh a person’s good works versus his or her bad works after death. If the good outweighed the bad the person was deemed worthy to enter into Paradise! This sounds bizarre but not surprising doesn’t it?

Let me explain by asking a question; how much good is good enough to get into heaven? Many people today are basing and banking on the hope that their own goodness and good works will outweigh the bad in an attempt to convince God they are worthy to be in heaven. This belief can be traced all the way back to Cain, Adam’s firstborn (Gen 4:1).

Cain was the first man to be born of a woman. This indeed was a great honor that sets him apart from all other men in history. Well, we know he trashed all of that by killing his brother Abel, overshadowing the incredible honor of being the first indirect creation of God of the human race and having the rights of firstborn. “The way of Cain” (Jude 1:11) is basically the way of all men who seek to satisfy God by human effort (or works), rejecting salvation by grace through faith in an acceptable blood sacrifice (Jesus Christ) which Abel’s offering (Heb 11:4) foreshadowed – the death of Jesus Christ as God’s Sacrifice for sin. Rather than being cleansed from sin by the Sacrifice that satisfied the just demands of the only holy and righteous God, the “hope my good outweighs my bad” heart rejects that notion of its own sinfulness and attempts to improve by being good and doing good works to appease God. 

By the way grace and objects of grace are not particularly liked by the “work your way to heaven” mentality; Cain is the first illustration of that because his actions revealed that he was of “the wicked one” (1 Jn 3:12) and became the first murderer in human history (Gn 4:25), another first! The balance scale may or may not have existed in the time of Cain, but spiritually speaking, this idea of a balance scale of where "my good works outweigh my bad ones gets me into heaven" thinking was embryonic with Cain, again another first, and everyone who rejects God's accepted sacrifice for salvation (Jesus Christ) are those who follow in "the way of Cain."

The ancient Egyptians had their own interesting spin on the way of Cain (The way of Cain doesn’t mean a person has to know of Cain and follow his ways. Anyone who attempts to get to heaven by good works is following the way of Cain.) and how to reach what they called the “Field of Reeds” their version of paradise. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a compilation of funerary texts, including the Papyrus of Hunefer, a scribe living in ca.1300 B.C. Below is his famous hieroglyphics which classically depicts the Egyptians belief system of good works to be considered worthy to enter into the afterlife.

On Hunefer’s papyrus there are three scenes concerning a dead man’s experience in the hall of judgment. The first scene reveals the decease being lead into the judgment hall by the jackal-headed Anubis, protector of the dead and embalmer.

Anubis

Scene two shows the weighing of the heart of the deceased person already placed on the golden scales by Osiris, lord of the dead, underworld, and the afterlife on the left pan. On the pan on the right is the feather of Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice.

Ma'at

A strange looking creature by the name of Ammit, the devourer of the dead, hungrily awaits a bad outcome.

Ammit

To the right of the scales is the Ibis-headed Thoth, god of knowledge and writing, recording everything happening during the weighing of the heart. 

Thoth

The third and final scene depicts the deceased, having denied Ammit some soul food by successfully passing the divine tribunal of Osiris’ Hall of Truth, being presented by the falcon-headed Horus, god of the king, sky, and vengeance

Horus

to the enthroned Osiris, 

Osiris

  with Isis, goddess of motherhood, magic, and fertility, 

Isis

and Nephtys, goddess of lamentation,

Nephtys

welcoming the deceased into the afterlife.

Now that the dead person’s heart was weighed and revealed to be pure, the deceased person is deemed worthy of eternal life having matched the weight of Ma’at's feather. Had the heart been evil or heavier than the feather of truth, the heart would have been thrown on the floor to be gobbled up by Ammit; this is known as the second death or becoming non-existent; a fate feared by the ancient Egyptians more than death itself.

Concerning the heart and why it was placed on the scale by Osiris, the ancient Egyptians established the process of mummification in the belief that the body of the deceased was needed in the afterlife. Since they believed the soul resided within the heart, the heart was not removed for the “weighing of the heart” in Osiris’ judgment hall in the underworld called Durat. The liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were removed and placed in canopic jars but not part of the judgment by Osiris. 

Even if the dead person successfully survived the "weighing of the heart" by Osiris, the deceased still underwent a long, arduous, and perilous journey before reaching the paradise of Aaru. Upon arrival the person had to enter a series of gates guarded by demons with knives before experiencing eternal bliss in the Field of Reeds! The land in the Field of Reeds was similar to the dead person’s life on earth, except for the absence of sadness, sickness, and death. This is why the Pharaohs stockpiled wealth in their tombs so that it would be available to them in Aaru. You can get all of this and more from Wikipedia.

Mask of Tutankhamun's mummy

The Scriptures take a dramatic departure from the ancient account of how Egyptian believed people made it into paradise. If we read the references of the Old Testament  (Job 15:14, 16; 25:4; Psa14:1-3;  51:5; 53:1-3; Eccl 7:20; Isa 53:6; 64:6; Jer 17:9) and the New (Mk 10:18; Rom 3:10-12, 23, 28; 4:5 5:1, 12; 6:23; 11:6; Gal 2:16; 3:22; Eph 2:1-3; Gal 3:22; Titus 3:5-7; Rev 20:14-15; 21:8), we quickly deduce that the spiritual condition of the heart is beyond human repair and any concept of entering into paradise by good works is utterly foolhardy and futile.  We are saved only by the grace and mercy of God through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works. Cain and Hunefer had it all wrong from a Scriptural point of view and so does anyone else who is depending upon being good and good works to reach heaven.

Can you imagine what would happen if God employed the Egyptian method of the weighing of the heart to determine the disposition of our soul when we died?! On the one pan is our heart (the one Jeremiah described as “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, Jer 17:9), and on the other pan rests the holiness of God represented by a single “feather"; we will call it the feather (of a dove) of the Holy Spirit. Once our heart is placed on the pan, it immediately crashes to the surface due to the weight of the impurity of the heart. And like Ammit, hell is there to greet us swiftly! If this was how Yahweh conducted the judgment of the dead, no one could be saved; we would all wind up toast in the lake of fire! 

The biblical truth in the matter is that good works and grace are mutually exclusive when it comes to salvation (cf. Rom 11:5-6). So in hoping that our good character and good works outweigh any character flaws and bad behavior to influence our eternal destiny are nothing more than a work-based salvation in direct conflict with a faith-based salvation by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9).

Salvation at its core revolves around a very critical question – who is going to pay the penalty for sin which is eternal (the second) death (Rom 6:23): the death of Jesus on the cross (Rom 5:8-9) or us? If we reject Christ’s offer of salvation, we will be held personally culpable to pay the penalty of sin in the lake of fire. This self-inflicted wound will never heal; it’s forever and ever in a very "you really don't want to go there" kind of place. The Psalmist gives us some insight into the "landscape" of such a place often missed (Psa 73:19) in addition to what is revealed in the New Testament about hell.

The second death involves the Christ-less soul being eternally separated from God in hell and ultimately in the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, not being devoured by a frightful creature of the underworld and the soul ceasing to exist, the Egyptians version of the second death. It should be noted that “death” in the Scripture always has reference to a separation, never annihilation or a state of eternal non-existence (Lk 16:24; Rev 14:11). 

As the soul separates from the body at physical death, so the soul that is void of the Holy Spirit eternally separates from God at death (contrast 2 Cor 5:8). Jesus died on the cross for our sin, satisfying the just demands of the only holy and righteous Yahweh so we would not have to experience “the second death” by placing our faith in God’s provision for sin – Jesus. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, a biblical view of the second death is quite the opposite. The soul was designed to be eternal, impervious to non-existence but vulnerable to a conscious awareness of utter hopelessness, pain, suffering,  eternal separation and isolation in the lake of fire or a conscious awareness of eternal bliss in heaven. 

When the Bible speaks of “hope” (elpis, G1680, cf. Rom 5:2; Titus 1:2; 3:7), it never denotes or connotes uncertainty but certainty, a positive expectation, anticipation, or confidence. The death of Christ brought about the incredible possibility that we can choose to ever be with the Lord and avoid being ever separated from Him with great assurance. It is not the circumstances of life that determine our destiny but the choices that we make. 

When it comes to salvation, it is imperative that we choose Christ (Jn 14:6) over a belief in a state of oblivion (we live and die like a dog) or being pan handled by a grievous error that “good” works will tip the scales in our favor as far as a favorable eternity. Good works are important in sanctification but not in salvation. The choice could not be any clearer: life after death through “I am the way” (cf. Jn 14:6; Rom 6:23; 5:8, 19; 2 Cor 5:21; Rom 10:13 or death (second) after death (first) through “the way of Cain."

How much good is good enough? Absolutely zero in regards to salvation according to the Scriptures. If you are trusting in the pan to reach heaven, you will wind up like Cain or Hunefer. There is another option, a name that is above all other names, Jesus. <><