It Is Dangerous To Presume Upon God

And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God (2 Sa 6:5–7).

Uzzah's seemingly innocent and well- intentioned act had a disastrous outcome. He was killed by God for presuming upon Him. Uzzah's act of reaching out his hand to stabilize the ark of God was, indeed, a very noble one. His intentions were good. He certainly did not want to see the ark crash to the ground. Therefore he presumed upon God that it was acceptable to violate His command (Num. 4:14) since the situation allowed for it.

That presumption cost him his life. It kindled the Lord's anger who then took Uzzah's life. What's the big deal? Wasn't it a good thing for Uzzah to help the Lord by preventing His ark from falling to the ground? It seems such a trivial thing for such grave consequences.This of course would be the argumentation from much of contemporary Christianity. It even seems that David momentarily had that attitude (as many of us do today) for he became angry with the Lord for taking Uzzah's life (v.8).

Of course when we take that attitude it is because we are not viewing things in their proper perspective. We are looking more upon the seemingly innocent actions of Uzzah rather than upon the holiness of God. God is a holy God. "Holy, Holy Holy" cry the seraphim. This same holiness of the thrice holy God moved Isaiah to cry out "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” 

A failure to always view God in light of His holiness is a reason why Uzzah presumed upon God with his actions but also why many Christians today do the same also. Especially in worship services, evangelism, preaching, discipleship and so on. We presume upon God. We tend to think as long as we are sincere and our motives and intentions are well meaning then it must be acceptable to God. We may even tack on that "it is for His glory." But we really ought to learn from the biblical examples as we are told to do in 1 Corinthians 10:11. The examples of Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:1-4) and Uzzah should serve as instruction for us not presume upon God. The severity of the outcome of their actions should remind us just how holy, holy, holy the Lord Almighty is. They should serve as a warning from presuming upon God in our worship practices, methodologies and allowances.

We must ever be examining our traditions in light of the Lord as revealed in His Word. We all have traditions and as Dr. James White often says, "He who says he has no traditions is the most enslaved to them." But how many people will examine their traditions according to the Bible? It is a very serious thing to consider how many of our traditions stem from presumption. Altar calls, the sinners prayer just to name a couple. There are fewer things nowadays that spark the ire of people more than tampering with their traditions. Whether these be doctrine or practices. How times have we heard "We've been doing this for (insert large number) years" or "I've been studying the Bible for (insert large number) years." Have you ever pondered that you have been doings things wrong for (insert large number) years? Or that you may have studied the Bible wrongly for (insert large number) years? Is not that an arrogant thing to say? Is not that a form of presuming upon God? In fact that form of presumption is really saying that since I or my church has been doing it this way for however many years, then it surely must be right?

I pointed out earlier that even David became upset with God for taking Uzzah's life. Yet the text also says that David was "afraid of the LORD" (v. 9). Though he momentarily became upset with the Lord, David was reminded of the holiness of God. Yes, David feared the Lord. He saw the Lord consume Uzzah and trembled before the Lord Most High. The fear of God stems from knowing the holiness of God. A failure to view God in his holiness is to fail to fear Him and leads to much presumption. Presuming upon God, my friends, has serious consequences.


Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Re 14:6–7).
Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando