Carving your own idol

The bleating of Amalekite sheep brought down the first king of Israel. When confronted by Samuel why they were not "devoted to destruction" as the Lord commanded, Saul piously explained it would be more honoring to God to sacrifice them later over in Gilgal. We would do well to consider Samuel's reply:

Presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.1 Sam 15:23

How very common it is today for people to presume about God! And we see in this verse what idolatry this is! We imagine we know what God is like and what He would like from us. Truth be told we know very little about God because we know very little about the Scriptures. Rather than approaching the Bible longing to learn more and looking to God himself to open to us his own word, we find it much easier to simply presume. And this is how we carve our own idols.

J.I. Packer has wisely asked, "We profess our anxiety to keep clear of legalistic bondage, but are we not in much greater danger of Antinomian license?"