Tommy was just a little lad when he first heard about God’s scales. He went to a gospel meeting one Sunday night, but he was so small that I don’t think the preacher even saw him, for he spoke to the grown-up folks, and poor Tommy could hardly understand what had been said at all. But he did remember the text, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” Daniel 5:2727TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. (Daniel 5:27). Tommy kept whispering that verse over to himself and wondering what it all meant. The preacher was reading from the 5th chapter of Daniel, but by the time Tommy found the book of Daniel, the preacher had read most of it, and Tommy was away behind. But he kept the place marked in his own Bible, and when he reached home, he slowly and carefully read the story of the wicked king, and of God’s word of warning, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
Somehow, the boy felt that he was found wanting too. He knew very well what scales were, for his father had a pair of scales in the store, and he had often seen him weigh meat and sugar. Tommy felt that he was something like that wicked king. When he would be weighed in God’s scales, he would be found wanting. He would not be good enough for heaven, and he feared he would be lost in hell. This made poor Tommy tremble and he could hardly sleep. He told his father and his mother of his fears, and they both told him to be a good boy and go to Sunday school and then he would be ready for heaven. But still the poor boy felt that he was “found wanting.” Someone else told him that if his own good deeds were not enough, that Jesus would add His own, and then he would not be found wanting. But all this gave him no real peace.
One day, as he walked slowly along the street, thinking of the day when he would stand before God and be found wanting, he saw a lady reading her Bible as she sat by the door of her little home.
Timidly, Tommy stopped and looked at her. She looked up and smiled, and then Tommy walked right up and said, “I would like to ask you a question. I am afraid I have been weighed in God’s balances and found wanting. What shall I do?” The lady was greatly surprised at such a question from a young boy, but she knew God’s answer, and this is what she told him.
“Let us turn to Romans 3 and see if what you say is true. God says here in verse 23, ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’ So you are right, Tommy. You and I and everyone else is found wanting if we are weighed in God’s scales. But now I want to show you two more verses. Here in 1 John, chapter 1 and verse? we read, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ And then back here in Titus, chapter 3, verse 5 we read, Not by works of righousness which we have done, but aording to His mercy He saved us.’”
For quite a long time they talked, and verse after verse of God’s precious Word was read by the anxious boy, until he saw that he did indeed come very far short in God’s sight, and that nothing that he could do would make things one bit better. But he also saw that the Lord Jesus Christ had died to put away his sins and to make him perfectly fit to stand in the presence of God.
If you were weighed in God’s scales tonight, would you be found wanting? You cannot meet God’s standard alone, or even with help! You must own, as Tommy did, that you can do nothing but trust Jesus who has done it all.
ML 02/07/1954