When is the last time you weighed yourself? I weighed myself this morning and then I decided to have Slimfast for lunch!
Say, did you know that scientists have a way of weighing the earth? Physicists at the University of Washington recently made new calculations on the earth’s weight based upon a more precise measurement of the sun’s gravitational pull upon the earth; and they discovered that the earth weighs 5.972 sextillian metric tons. That’s 5,972 followed by 18 zeros (or about one trillion metric tons for each person on earth). Wow! Now that’s a lot of weight!
But there’s something that weighs even more than that – it’s the weight of our glory when we get to heaven. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory…” Now eternal is a concept of infinity, so an eternal weight is more than any actual weight, including the weight of the earth.
This word “weight” is the Greek word (baros) and refers to a load or burden, or something in abundance. It is usually translated to be either the word “burden” or “weight.”
In this verse, therefore, the glory which we will know in the presence of God as a result of enduring the afflictions of life, is called “an eternal weight of glory.” In other words, the glory that will surround us in heaven will be so great and so incredible that the only way to describe it is to call it “an eternal weight of glory.”
Say, would you swap a penny for a million dollars? Well, that’s like swapping the troubles of earth for the glory of heaven!