Presumption

Acts 1:15-26: Peter concluded that they needed to replace Judas as the twelfth Apostle. It leads to a lot of questions. Did God require this to happen? Peter thought so as he took Psalm 109:8 to justify his reasoning. But look at who and how he was chosen. First, only two people were selected by the group. Were there not others who met Peter’s qualifications? This is before the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. Did the Holy Spirit direct them to choose these two or was it Peter’s presumption? Just because Scripture records what happened, it doesn’t mean that it was what the Lord wanted. There is disagreement among scholars about this.

I think that if the Lord wanted a replacement at this time, He would have let them know. He would also have cast lots among all who were qualified, not just the two chosen by men. In addition, I believe Paul was the chosen replacement, it was in God's timing not man's. History is either silent or confused about what happened to Matthias. If he were indeed God’s chosen Apostle, I would think it would be clearer.

Lesson: it is easy to run ahead of God in making our decisions. I know I’ve done that many times. It is easy to give God two choices about what we want and think God wants one over the other and we want Him to decide. However, it is most likely He has something completely different in store. Instead of asking God what He wants, we ask God to bless our choices instead of accepting or even looking for His choice. That is the sin of presumption.