What determines worth? What make something valuable? These are important questions to consider as people set priorities for their lives. How you answer these queries reveals a lot about your aims and goals in life. To aid us in this task there are a few qualifiers to ponder as we decide upon things that are worth something and items that are worthless.
The first to consider is desirability. An item often becomes valuable based on the longings of the person. As the saying goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” What is worth a lot to me may be worthless to you. “One person’s trash is another’s treasure.” So, for many things desirability determines worth. And if a large number of people have the same desires, items can attain significant value in a society.
Thus, another qualifier to consider is rarity. If something is hard to get or is small in quantity, it can become worth much. The condition of an item can affect worth. Things are considered worthless if they are damaged or do not function as intended. Potential usefulness or enjoyment also determines worth. Does anything have inherent worth? That is another philosophical query to contemplate.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things.” The Hebrew word used is shav. This word is used in various Biblical passages but does not get translated as worthless in most English Bibles. Knowing this can give fresh meaning to some interesting comments in the sacred text.
Exodus 20:7, also familiar to many as the 2nd or 3rd commandment, depending upon which numbering system you follow, directs, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” This version, as does many, translates shav as vain. The commandment is much clearer if you consider the command to not call upon God as if it is a worthless thing to do. The nuances of shav imply praying but expecting nothing to happen or only empty promises from a faraway deity. For too long people have connected this ordinance to the language of cursing and swearing. I can attest to this fact, as it happens once and awhile to me, when a person apologizes and changes their verbal expressions once they discover I am a Christian pastor. They presume that using “four letter words” offends me and might offend God. But through digging deeper into the meaning of words, this is far from the real truth of the commandment!
If a person considers prayer a worthless action in which to engage, then they should not offer words to any god. The commandment indicates that God is not pleased with people who pray but do it without any meaning in their heart, an emptiness and nothingness in their souls. The prophet Isaiah said, “Bring no more shav offerings.” He did not mean that offerings and sacrifices to God are to stop but that those who bring them need faith in their hearts and believe in the worth of the ritual action in their relationship with God.
When we consider items in our world to be worth something, it is a personal matter. This thing has worth to me because it gives me pleasure or serves my purposes. During the time of the prophet Micah, people did not see belief in God as giving them any personal pleasure nor serving their purposes, so they stated, “‘It is shav to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?” Is personal benefit the only reason to pray to God or believe in God? Is God only worth something because He can give me things, even like eternal life? Is God’s name valuable inherently in itself?
It is a mark of maturity to respect people who consider an item, action, or insight to be of worth even though it may have little value to them personally. This is something to consider as we all try to get along with one another in a climate of vitriolic disagreement.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
