Once when I was doing a little shopping in a local store, I noticed something odd. Cokes by the case were a lot higher than usual. I mean a lot higher. I looked again and saw the problem. It wasn’t a case. It was a pack of 32 cokes. The price was about 50% higher than a normal case, but then it was bigger than a normal case of 24. But wait! It was not a case and a half of cokes it was a case and four cans short of a case and a half for the price of a case and a half. Now if this is confusing to you then the marketers have done as they intended. They did not want you to do the math. It was their way of raising the price without you noticing. Coca-Cola is not the only company to do this. Candy bars got smaller for the same price. Cereal companies took out just a few ounces of cereal and kept the size of the box the same.
A few years back I went through a drive through at a barbecue restaurant. I wanted to buy a pound of barbecue to take home. I examined the menu, but could not find a pound of barbecue anywhere. I found sandwiches, drinks, and buns, but the barbecue was listed only by the half-pound. I asked the girl at the window, “How much is a pound of barbecue?” She gave me the price of a half-pound. I didn’t care about that, so ask her again, “How much is a pound?” “Oh,“ she said, “we do not sell it by the pound.” Now I can do math and know that you can buy two half-pounds and that equals a pound. I also know why they would not advertise the pound price. They thought it seemed cheaper by the half-pound. In Puerto Rico you cannot by a gallon a gasoline. You can only buy it by the liter but 4 liters does not equal a gallon. You don’t know how much a gallon of gasoline is!
Gasoline by the liter, cokes by the case plus ten, and small portions all designed to fool us. These things cause people to be very skeptical. Sometimes the skepticism even turns to God and people doubt God.
We must never let the world erode our trust in God.
Moses wrote, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.” (Numbers 23:19) God does not lie. He does not disappoint. He does not fail. He does not try to trick or deceive. God is faithful. As the book of Lamentations says, ““His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Lonnie Davis