Numbered and Weighed
And they prayed and said, ‘You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.’ And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles. – Acts 1:24-26.
For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end. – Luke 22:37.
And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word. Mene: God has numbered your kingdom and finished it; Tekel: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; Peres: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. – Daniel 5:25-28.
We human beings are good at numbering and weighing things. Ian Jewell with his eagle eye became suspicious that the toilet paper rolls his company was buying were not as long as they ought to be. Ian began counting the sheets in the rolls. Ah hah! There were only 200 sheets and not the 320 that the supplier had claimed in the contract with the Western England Council. Ian says, “We immediately discovered the errors and realized there was a large cost implication to the council which needed to be recovered.” The council received $28,100 in compensation for the 40,000 rolls it uses in a year which were an approximate 4,800,000 sheets short. Who would have thought anyone would cheat you on toilet paper!
Nearly everything in this world is numbered and weighed in one form or another by human beings. Spiritually we shouldn’t be surprised that we and our works are numbered and weighed by God. God knows everything physically about us including the number of hairs we have or don’t have on our heads. Spiritually He knows everything as well down to the smallest detail, thought, motive and action. To number the people in the Book of Numbers meant to count the people. Spiritually it means much the same. Matthias was to be numbered with the Apostles meaning that if you were to count them you would count Matthias with them. Judas, however, is to be counted with the “transgressors.” If it were possible for us to count the transgressors, you would count Judas as being among them. God not only counts, but He also weighs as Belshazzar found out (Daniel 5). Belshazzar was weighed by God and found wanting and, as a result, his (Belshazzar’s) kingdom was finished and that very night he was killed.
If God were to number you would you be numbered among those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior or would you be numbered among the transgressors? If God were to weigh your life would He find a full roll or would He find you wanting in many areas of your life? How long before God finishes your life and my life? We do not know. But while we have time let us commit the remainder of our lives to the Lord Jesus and make sure that our lives are counting in the lives of those around us.
(God is into numbering and weighing lives. How would your life count for the Kingdom of God? How much weight do you carry for God?)