Presumption

Every time I got a little arrogant or rude around my grandmother she would say “Boy, you are getting a little too big for your britches”. It’s a common phrase used in the southern United States to warn someone that they are becoming too confident or that their ego has become too inflated. A certain amount of self esteem is a good thing. But, being presumptive can get you in a great deal of trouble. 

One such case was when I was in high school. There was a very large young man that played on the varsity football team. I will call him Jessie. He was as strong as an ox and had become something of a bully. He had a bad habit of going to the head of the line at lunch time and just stepping in any place he wanted. As I said it had become a habit and everyone grew to despise him. If anyone tried to resist him or threatened to report him he would threaten to give them a beating and that would be the end of that. One day I was several people away from the front of the line when Jessie strode in like a king and went to the front of the line. It so happened that he stepped in front of an average sized fellow that had recently transferred to our school from another state. The new guy said “excuse me but, the line starts in the back. Jessie said “I’m not moving. So, what are you going to do about it”? About a split second later the bully was stretched out on the floor and the new guy just casually stepped over him and continued to wait his turn. The whole room became silent for a moment and then someone started laughing. Then everyone started laughing. Jessie was apparently so stunned by the blow and also the humiliation of everyone laughing that he was frozen. A male teacher soon came running and took both of them away. The new guy was back at school the next day but Jessie took a couple of says to come back and I never saw him cut in line again. Lesson learned I suppose.

I was listening to a Christian pastor speaking a while back and some things he was saying made me uncomfortable. Not simply because I disagreed with him. But, because I recognized that at one time I had said and believed the same things he was saying. At one time those words came out of my own mouth. That is what made me uncomfortable. Those words were arrogant and self assured. They were the words of someone that thought they had superior knowledge. Those words were presumptive. Again, being presumptive can get you into a great deal of trouble, especially if you are presumptive concerning YHVH.

Exodus 32:1-10

 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Well, Moses pleaded with YHVH for their lives and so it was that they were spared. But, it cost them dearly. 

In the gospels it is recorded that Yeshua frequently criticized the scribes and Pharisees for teaching presumptive commands of their own making, because, a great volume of teachings had accumulated since YHVH gave the commands to Moses. Many of these teachings watered down God’s commands and many of them went beyond that which had been commanded. Yeshua warned the scribes and pharisees that these additions were presumptuous and that to follow that which had not been commanded would make your worship of YHVH in vain.

Mark 7:7 “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

A couple of weeks ago a friend was discussing his plans for the Christmas holiday and asked me what my plans were. I admitted to him that I had no plans and he seemed perplexed. He continued to question me so I had to tell him that I don’t celebrate Christmas. He was taken aback and I had to explain to him that in my opinion Christmas and Easter were sanitized pagan celebrations. His reply was that yes, they may have their roots in preexisting pagan celebrations but that through Jesus they had been consecrated to God. I told that I saw no evidence to support that idea and that I would be glad to change my mind if he could provide any. He then began to talk about tradition and to appeal to my sympathies because it was about “the children”. I told him that tradition was not always a good thing and that I was uncomfortable lying to children about a magical man and that they would come to know that I had lied to them at some point. 

I realize that some people do try to honor Jesus with their celebrations of Christmas and Easter. However, The blending and sanitizing of pagan worship into the worship of YHVH is a dangerously presumptive thing to attempt. YHVH has made it plain over and over that His commands are not to be altered or disobeyed. You must not add to nor take away.

I once heard a man bragging about his sexual conquests and then he chuckled and said “when I get to heaven I am going to tell God that this is going to take a while because I have a lot of explaining to do”. I thought “Wow, this guy thinks he is going to talk God into letting him into heaven”. This may have been an extreme example of arrogance. But, we almost all think that our opinions are God’s opinions. I am sometimes amazed at how God seems to want exactly what the man behind the pulpit wants. It’s uncanny.

Proverbs 14:12 says

There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Yeshua said in John 4: 24,

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says,

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and HE shall direct thy paths. 

Or in other words “Don’t get too big for your britches”.