“I’ll Run the Risk”

What does God think about presumption?

Scripture: Numbers 15 – 17 

There is a story told about a young man who inherited an estate from an uncle. He was exhorted to seek Christ and said, I will do as soon as I pay off the debts of the estate. “Young man,” said the pastor, “beware: you may never see that day: whilst you are gaining the world you may lose your soul.” The young heir said, “I’ll run the risk.” He went into the woods and was engaged in felling a tree when a falling limb caused his instant death within a few hours of his bold presumption.”

That is the scene we find in these chapters. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram assumed that challenging the leadership of Moses would gain them the leadership they coveted. Like one person told me some time ago when confronted with his sin; “God will understand.” God did understand but not to his liking for God stripped him of his family and position. Be sure your sin will find you out. [Num 32:23]

Like the young man in the story, these three said: “we’ll run the risk.” Moses warning fell on deaf ears and in the end, all three were swallowed up by the earth as evidence they had presumed wrongly that Moses was not God’s chosen leader. God is serious about presuming wrongly. Perhaps that is one reason David prayed earnestly and we should as well: “Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”[Ps 19:13]

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[story courtesy of biblehub.com]

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