Dishonest Weights and Measures (repost)

In walking through technology references in Proverbs, I've come to the first of several on dishonest weights and measures, so I refer you back to that post for thoughts on those.

Wisdom Rejoices

Today, we'll look at Proverbs 8:22-31 and how it relates to technology. If you back up to verse 12, you'll see that the speaker is the personification of Wisdom and that section speaks to its many blessings. In this passage, Wisdom tells us that it was possessed or created at the beginning - before the earth was made. Starting with v. 27, we see Wisdom was present with God during the creation of the earth. Wisdom was working beside God "like a master workman," was a delight to God, and rejoiced before Him in the work that was done.

What does a technologist take from this? First, that the creation is in many ways like an act of making technology. God chose to specifically design things the way they are. We see the verbs shape, made, drew (a circle), established, and marked out, showing an active construction project. An engineer taking cues from what God did is a good thing.

Second, wisdom is a part of, indeed a prerequisite of, creating something good. In the end, God declared the creation "very good," and we see Wisdom here rejoicing over that creation as well. Much like my previous post on Proverbs 1:7, wisdom is needed to make a good design, "like a master workman."

Third, wisdom delights in the work that is good. We can rejoice in God and take delight in a technology that is new and good.

Wisdom in Engineering

To continue my look through Proverbs for passages dealing with technology, I came next to Proverbs 3:19-20:

The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.

This is a simple point, but as the first and best engineer, God did His work by wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Looking at how we train engineers, we certainly get a lot of knowledge from many different fields in our classes. However, only at some times did I gain wisdom. It was the professors that had real industry experience or at least a lot of consulting that gave us most of that; sharing not just textbook knowledge but stories from their own experience. You could tell that they had really been out there and gotten dirty rather than staying in the ivory tower.

My point is, God used both knowledge and wisdom to design and build, so we need to train those who make technology in both. And, we can never have enough of those, so we must keep an attitude of learning both throughout our lives.

Starting Knowledge for Technology

Creating and using technology requires knowledge. I assume that's pretty clear; an engineer needs to know quite a bit to be able to design an effective car engine or a safe bridge. And in engineering (and other technical fields), one subject builds on another so you go from foundational knowledge (algebra, chemistry, physics, technical writing, etc.) to more advanced, specialized knowledge for your field. But where do we start? What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge?

Blockheaded Idolators

Isaiah 44:12-20 shows the foolishness of making and worshiping idols - really worshiping any created thing besides God. A man takes half of some wood and burns it for warmth and cooking; with the other half he shapes an idol and worships it. His first action shows his own power over the material, while his second action shows he thinks the material now has power over him.  Beyond this humorous and pointed picture, I have a few observations related to technology.

Nehemiah The Project Manager

When we lived in Texas I was part of a men's breakfast study group at our church. For a time, we studied the book of Nehemiah. Over the course of this study (and teaching a few times) I became fascinated with him. Many Biblical figures such as David and Peter are held up as great examples of manhood for their courage and boldness. Nehemiah can and should be considered part of that group of men we can look to. Besides his prayerfulness, leadership, and courage, he was a skilled project manager.

Source of Stability and Salvation

Isaiah 33:5-6 stood out to me recently when I read it. These verses point out some things we pursue nearly universally as humans: stability, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. Certainly a great many Americans value our relative stability. 9/11 was a blow to that, but we've gone back to our lives quickly. I wonder how often we think of the wars going on overseas that now work to maintain that stability. Whether we call it salvation or something else, we value being rescued from trouble and freedom from guilt. Our God-given curiosity has pushed us to pursue wisdom and knowledge.

Turning to Technology Rather Than God

Welcome back to me!

Isaiah 22:8-11 is a prophecy about Jerusalem. The people are facing a siege and so work to repair the city wall and make sure they have a good water supply. All this will take a great deal of planning, coordination, and effort to shore up the technology that keeps the city in existence.

Morality of Confiscating Technology

Deuteronomy 24:6 is part of the law code of ancient Israel. It states that one cannot require a mill or upper millstone be taken in pledge for a debt. In other words, you can't take someone's technology that they require for their livelihood as collateral.

A few things I take away from this:

• God knows the centrality of technology in how we make a living
• God himself has a high view of that technology and seeks to protect it
• We must not take away someone's means/technology to make a legitimate livelihood

The Technology You Meant for Evil...

With Good Friday and Easter this week, I've reflected on that event and all it entailed. Keeping with the theme of this blog, I thought about the technology involved in the events of those days. Mainly on how evil they were, yet how God used even these for good.

Remember God as the Source of Technology

You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. -Deuteronomy 8:18

This passage speaks to any means we may use to gain wealth, including creating technology. Two main points I see here:

1) God gives the power - it is He that gives us wisdom, knowledge, and skill to work with technology and to earn a living from that.

2) We are to remember this. It seems obvious, but we can all think of times when we forget this to be the case. For me, I struggle with pride and so consider my skill to be something I have personally achieved rather than having it given to me from God. If we believe in a sovereign God, we can see that He directed us to and provided the means for our education, including all the institutions and teachers that provided it.

Are there other ways we don't remember God as the one who gives us the ability to make and use technology?

The Bible's Building Code

When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.
Deuteronomy 22:8

This verse is one of the earliest building codes. If we understand what this verse teaches, we can apply it to many other situations where we must incorporate some safety mechanism in technology.

"New" Technology?

I have struggled with Ecclesiastes 1:9-11. I have made many "new" things in my life, particularly computer software that didn't exist before. How many people, engineers, computer scientists, artists, architects, craftsmen, have made something "new" that was never seen before? Assuming (as I do) that Scripture is the inerrant, infallible Word of God, what does it mean here?

I went to Matthew Henry for some insight. He points out that new things may not be new as they may have come before and simply not been recorded, and that there is nothing new in natural creation as it was finished on the sixth day. The hearts of men are the same, so corruption and sin always run their course with ancient heresies and false philosophies.

But, I ask, what about the moon landing? Surely that is one of the greatest technological achievements and something that is "new." Well, I think from the perspective of this passage, no, that is not new. Travel by various contrivance is not new. The moon itself and all the gravitational forces between it and the earth are not new. Going someplace people have not been before is not new. We learned a great deal about how the world and universe work, but was it really new? Though difficult for me, I must conclude that the Apollo program was not "new" in the sense of this passage.

As Matthew Henry quotes:

Tatianus the Assyrian, showing the Grecians how all the arts which they valued themselves upon owed their original to those nations which they counted barbarous, thus reasons with them: "For shame, do not call those things eureseis—inventions, which are but mimeseis—imitations."

To conclude, a major application Henry makes is to show us our pride in thinking we came up with something new rather than pursuing what is truly new - new life in Christ. And indeed such mercies are new every morning.

Who built the ark? Noah, Noah...

Many are familiar with the story of Noah's ark, but have you ever thought of the technology involved? Look closely at the narrative. God gives some engineering specifications to this large structure: materials, dimensions, door location, and numbers of decks. Even with that (and assuming that is all of the revelation God gave Noah), Noah and his sons would have had to make many decisions about how to actually build the ark. And God, apparently, gave them the freedom to do that.

Also, the size of the ark is immense: a cubit is about 18 inches, so this is a 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high boat.

My takeaways:

• Is there enough room for all those animals and their supplies for a whole year? Well, it certainly is a huge boat.
• God gave some necessary specifications but not an exact blueprint. The rest was left to Noah & sons to figure out how to implement. Praise God that He gave us good minds to be able to figure out such problems.

God Designed the Problem and the Solution

I must give credit to Dr. Andrew Peterson from one of his lectures in his RTS Virtual course Disabilities and the Church for pointing out this passage and its teaching on technology.

Take a look at Isaiah 28:23-29. The prophet describes certain agricultural tasks, noting that there are different ways to process different crops. In verse 29 we find that the matching of crop to technology (particularly seen in verses 27-28) is from God. How is this so? After all, people invented the tools and techniques.

Where Does our Skill Come From?

Given that we engage in technology, and that some engage more than others, where does that skill come from?

Exodus 28:3 is just one place to look of many that make a similar point. Here, we see that God has given the skill needed to make the priestly garments for Aaron and his sons. It is not that these "skillful" folks didn't learn and practice, but that God ultimately gave them their inclination and abilities.

Maybe this is obvious to you, but for me as an engineer, this fact can get obscured. When going through my undergraduate degree, it is easy to think that engineering is about all the various science, math, equations, graphs, and other skills you need. It seems to come from professors, textbooks, standard tables, or bare scientific laws. Or perhaps, an engineering student may credit his or her math-oriented brain for being able to take this all in and apply it in a useful way.

It is humbling to point, not to the collective wisdom of man on statics, calculus, and power curves, nor to our own seeming brilliance, but to God as the source of what we are able to do in technology.

Against Virtual Church

I'm a big fan of technology. I think it is absolutely amazing what we are able to do with it in terms of transportation, communication, medicine, and so many other fields. However, there are some things that are not improved by technology, even if they are possible.

Being part of the local church is one of those.

Technology Required for Worship

There's plenty of ink and pixels spilled to discuss how we should "do worship" in the church. One can tune in to some of the megachurches that broadcast their work to see what technology they use. Here's an example - an iBand.



I confess my church worship experience is very limited, so I don't know if that is extreme or mainstream. In thinking about technology in our current church, we use instruments, some fluorescent lights, an audio system, various printed pages (a bulletin, a hymnal, etc.), chairs, and probably other things I'm leaving out.

However, not everywhere in the world has these things, nor have they always had some of these ( like an audio system). So what is the very basic technology required to have church? I would include only three things:

• Bread making
• Wine making
• Some vessel for holding water
• Some means of storing and reading text

As best I can tell, that covers everything required. The church administers the sacrements, so we need bread, wine, and some thing to hold water. We could probably even leave out the water vessel if the church is close enough to some body of water or a spring. Finally, some means for storing and retrieving the text of the Bible is necessary for worship. We don't need anything else to pray, sing, read scripture, administer sacrements, preach, or pronounce benedictions.

I don't think that all technology above and beyond this is bad, but this should make us consider what is really essential and central to worship.

What do you think - did I leave any technology out?

God the Designer

As an engineer, I revel in reading Psalm 104.

God designed the earth, set it all in place, and made the habitats for the various creatures. And this wasn't haphazard, but done "in wisdom" (v. 24).

The psalm is also bookended by praise to God for His creation. Indeed, the psalmist declares he will sing to the Lord (v. 33) even as God Himself rejoices over His works (v. 31).

Some takeaways:

• Biology, ecology, forestry, geology, etc. are good things that point to our God's work
• Go outside and share this joy in God's works
• God designed in wisdom - so must I
• God rejoices in His creation - can I do the same with mine?

What else strikes you in this psalm relevant to technology, design, or other topics?

Dishonest Weights and Measures

In Proverbs, there are four verses that condemn dishonest weights and measures: 11:1, 16:11, 20:10, 23. This is certainly a working out of the commandment to not bear false witness; it also falls under covetousness - the underlying heart condition that leads one to gain more profit from another. To be clear, I don't think these refer to a broken gauge (an accident), nor to the deli counter ringing up 1.07 pounds of sliced salami as just one pound (generosity), but one that is wrong in the owner's favor by design. Let's look in more detail at how honest and dishonest weights and measures are described.