Presumption

Often in the church people speak of rebellion being as the sin of witchcraft or divination. Equating the easily accepted western attitude of ‘doing it my own way’ or ‘doing my own thing’ down to a much darker form of evil. Much like when Christ said, ‘if anyone hates his brother he is a murderer.’  He took something seemingly harmless and common and placed it on the same level as worthy of great punishment.

So why is presumption the same as the totally wicked act of idolatry. In reading the Old Testament it is clear that idolatry is serious business. God did not tolerate it well with His special people the Jews. They were supposed to be different. They had the role of demonstrating to the nations who the true God of Heaven is – but when they held up the counterfeit idols of the nations around them (thus forfeiting and rejecting their divine purpose) God’s great anger arose and His wrath was demonstrated.

How could presumption be equal to idolatry?  Reading the book of Proverbs sheds light on this. After consuming this book multiple times, one can begin to see that it contains a different definition of ‘evil’ than our culture presents. ‘Evil’ becomes unmasked as not just doing bad things, but more broadly as living life on His planet without regard for Him. Living life and not stopping to consider Him. Just living life as if He was not the Creator, as if He did not lay out a framework for living in His space.

For believers in Christ, we are called to seek God, to cast our attention to Him. Not just guess our way through life as if He cannot lead or speak. In doing so. we exalt oursleves, our intellect, our low persepctive, to the role of director and leader, hence idolatry.

Proverbs 3:5-6 continues to sussinctly call us away from our humanistic idol: “Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight”.  Not drifting, not carelessly wandering through, but actively seeking God, the ultimate designer of life is ‘good’. Anything less is a form of evil, specifically, idolatry.

Bill.