In Deuteronomy 17:9-10, the Lord told the children of Israel, “And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you.”
The problem in Israel was the man “who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord you God, or the judge, that man shall die” (12). The Hebrew word here translated presumptuously, (z??ôn) is tied to the concept of pride or arrogance. An insolent man.
Here is the problem of our time (as with any other) – men who pridefully determine to do their own will. To do as they please, rejecting and/or ignoring God’s will for them. God says that man would die. He told the Jews, “So you shall put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously” (12-13).
We are told in the new covenant, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6). Each us must humble ourselves to the will of the Almighty!
