Presumption is as iniquity and idolatry

Deuteronomy 1:43-44 (ESV)
So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country. [44] Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.

So I spoke to you, and you would not listen. God spoke through Moses, and said "Do not go up", but Israel refused to listen, and went up to fight against the Amorites. As Christ said to Jews of His time, the Word of God had no place in their hearts:
John 8:37-38 (ESV)
I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. [38] I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father."

The reason why we cannot listen to the words of God is that there is another voice in our hearts. As we see from Christ's words above, it is the voice of the devil. It is the voice that tells us to hate Christ. It is the voice that tells us to despise the Word of God:
Genesis 3:1 (ESV)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, ''You shall not eat of any tree in the garden''?"

When our mind is filled with the voices of Satan that tell us to mock, twist, doubt and reject God's Word, then there is no place for the Word to be heard and believed on in our heart. And when we don't listen to the word of God, we can only go by presumption. Israel guessed that it would be the right thing to go up and attack the Amorites. They didn't "really" think God would actually make them go back to the wilderness. They thought to themselves: 'God is loving and forgiving, and He can't possibly have been so offended'. So they simply guessed that God would be with them as they go up, even though Moses clearly told them God would not be with them.

The Jews, having refused to listen to the testimony of Christ, guessed and presumed that killing Christ was the right thing to do. They did not trust in God's words, and leaned on their understanding, thus by killing Christ they were doing God a service in killing a blasphemer:
Matthew 26:64-66 (ESV)
Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." [65] Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. [66] What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."

But how so wrong was their judgment, because they presumed without hearing the word of God, and became the murderers of God in the flesh. What sin has been accounted to the Jews, the killing of the Beloved Son of God, because they refused to listen to God's word and listened more to their presumptions! How many those who have persecuted born again Christians thought they were doing great service to God, when in fact they were delivering God's children to death:
John 16:2-3 (ESV)
They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. [3] And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

See what Christ says, though these people think they are offering service to God by killing these Christians, they will do this because they do not know God. They don't know God because they do not know His word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How scary is this idea then, of 'service to God' that springs not from faith in God's Word, especially the Gospel. It can lead to killing of Christ, and His dear people. Let us not presumptuously go up the hill, for presumption is same as idolatry:
1 Samuel 15:23 (ESV)
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."

God has not left anything to be guessed or presumed in any situation. We are not blindfolded men choosing randomly which way to go. God knows which way to go, and He has shown clearly in His bible which way we must walk and how His will must be carried out in every situation. We know especially that if a way is that which Christ walked, we must walk that way. If the way is suffering that leads to love for God and man, then we know that God wants us to walk that way. What is there to presume? It is Satan that makes us to refuse God's clear word and makes us to do guesswork. Eve guessed that the fruit was good for food, but how much did her guess prove disastrous, for she had forsaken the Word of God. When we reject God's word, we just choose to do whatever is right in our own eyes, like blind men fumbling our way in the dark. This is idolatry, it is witchcraft. This is the sin that Saul committed, by not listening to God's commandments, but doing what seemed right in his eyes:
1 Samuel 15:15 (ESV)
Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction."

Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. God had promised that He would send hornets before Israel to defeat the inhabitants of Canaan:
Exodus 23:28 (ESV)
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
But now the Amorites come out to Israel like hornets to chase the Israelites away from their presence. Those who ignore God's word and presume and guess their own way shall be treated as one of God's enemies. God was not with Israel at this moment, but with the Amorites, for Israel was going against God's word. When we do not listen to God's voice, but listen to our own voice and follow our own hearts, God becomes our enemy, not friend. God will not bless our ministry which is ignorant of God's word. He would rather be with our enemies than to bless us in our blind charge.

He who does not listen to God's voice but the voice of the world is the world's friend. For whoever we listen to and obey is our friend:
John 15:14 (ESV)
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
James 4:4 (ESV)
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

When we do those things that the world dictates and command us to do, and we don't do what Christ tells us to do - and we can't do both, it's one or the other - we make ourselves the enemy of Christ. If we listen to the world and does what the world commands, Christ will be against us and He will treat us like He treats all His enemies. He will make no difference between us and the Amorites, for we don't make any difference between Christ and the world:
Revelation 2:16 (ESV)
Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Unless we want Christ to war against us, then we had better be His friend. Unless we want His sword of His word to devour us, we had better listen and do as He commands. Christ hates the world, and is preparing to invade the Earth. Some people are worried of alien invasion, but they realize not that it is GOD who is going to invade the kingdoms of men with the wrath of God. God loved the world, and sent His Son to die for the sinners in the world, but He, at the same time, despises the world, and is planning to destroy it for all its abominations. He likewise calls us to hate the world:
1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions-is not from the Father but is from the world. [17] And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

We must only love the world with the love of the Father. We must love them like the Father loved the world, by giving them Jesus Christ, that they may believe and have eternal life. Any other love we have for the world is hateful to the Father, for it is not true love. True love seeks the best for the other person, and Jesus Christ and the Gospel is anyone's best. Peter also gave the man outside the Beautiful Gate Jesus Christ, for he truly loved the man. Peter gave the best that he had, which was not money or food, but Jesus Christ His Lord:
Acts 3:6-8 (ESV)
But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" [7] And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. [8] And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

Evangelism is giving the best thing that we have to the other person. And the best thing that we have is the Name of Jesus Christ. What do we have that is better than Christ, better than the Gospel? We can give them food, but food will be eaten and it will disappear, we can give them clothes and they will fade, but if we give them the Treasure who is in heaven, Jesus Christ, who will never be corrupted, who is like the treasure whom moths and rust will not come and ruin, since corruption has no more hold on Him. Thus the greatest expression of love to another person is giving of Jesus Christ, because this what God did for us. Any love that falls short of this love is not worthy to be called love.

Beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. Seir is the mountain tract, and meaning that the Amorites chased Israel all the way down the tract to Hormah. This place was not called Hormah at the time when this happened, since Hormah means "devoted to destruction", and Israel had not yet devoted the land to destruction at this time. It was after the 40 year wandering in the wilderness, when the king of Arad came and attacked Israel. Then only did Israel call this region Hormah:
Numbers 21:1-3 (ESV)
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. [2] And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction." [3] And the LORD heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.

What could God mean here, by saying that Israel were defeated all the way to "Hormah"? Perhaps Moses meaning here that God was delivering Israel to near destruction, just as Israel had devoted the cities of Negeb to destruction. And God did deliver this generation to destruction, by making them all to perish in the wilderness. But by His grace God did not devote Israel to utter destruction, but saved the remnant of the second generation. As it is written:
Isaiah 1:9 (ESV)
If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

God SHOULD have devoted this evil, unfaithful nation of Israel to utter destruction. And God almost did, if it wasn't for Moses' intercession. For why should God show them compassion? God had shown this people so many miracles and signs, yet they still did not believe in Him. Was it because Israel was more righteous than the nations of Canaan, that God does not utterly wipe them out, and shows them mercy? By no means, for in the wilderness they commit idolatry, fornication, blasphemy, breaking every law that God had given. There was nothing in them that caused God to forgive them, to remove their sin from them. It was because of Christ, who had taken their sin and laid them on His own body, that He may be crushed under the weight of God's wrath. This was the cause of God's mercy and His grace.

God should have destroyed the Jews when they disbelieved in Jesus, and even killed Him because of their unbelief. And God did destroy them, and scatter them from Jerusalem. But He did not destroy them completely, and left a remnant who believed in Christ:
Romans 11:3-5 (ESV)
"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." [4] But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." [5] So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
And God promise is that the majority of this evil nation of Israel will one day be saved:
Romans 11:26-27 (ESV)
And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; [27] "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

God's free and sovereign grace is what will keep Israel, and us believers in Christ, from utterly falling away. It is not because of any of our works, but of God's election. We should have been Hormah, but God always keeps in His people a stump, that they will not totally perish:
Daniel 4:23 (ESV)
And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ''Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,''

God's grace is the root that holds us up, the foundation that keeps us standing, the net that catches us when we fall, the anchor that keeps us from swaying. No matter where we go, we will still be in God's hand of grace, and no thief will ever pluck us from His hand. God's grace remains in us as a holy seed, always keeping us sanctified, always making us to hate sin, and to love righteousness, that we never fall away fully into the abyss of sin:
1 John 3:9 (ESV)
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

It is grace that we look forward to at the end of the ages, when we shall be in the presence of Christ not by our works, but by His grace:
1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Let us give praise for His grace that shall be revealed to us, for the grace that is now working in our lives, and the grace that chose us like a firebrand that He rescued from a burning rubble. Let us give thanks that He does not treat us like those who have not received mercy, but shows special care for us, not because of what we are, but because of His own free will. We shall forever praise Him for His glory in His election. Let us forever thank Him for making us vessels of grace and not of wrath. Amen.