"Presumption" is a word hardly used nowadays. Yet "presumptuousness" exists and existed even in Ezekiel's time. Ezekiel, the prophet, was one of the people of Judah exiled to Babylon in 598 B.C. Addressing his fellow exiles, he wrote of God, bristling with anger at the presumptiousness of the Prince of Tyre who thought of himself as a god.

Tyre, in Phoenicia, was an island with a natural harbour off today's Lebanon. Its people had a long history of being great traders and sailors. They were also great rivals of the Jews. They were so successful their ruler thought of himself as a god, and they gloated over the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel warned them that their presumptuousness would lead to their downfall. True enough, Ezekiel's prophecy was realised when Nebuchadnezzar turned against them after the fall of Jerusalem, and laid siege to their city for thirteen years.

Just as Tyre suffered for its presumptuousness, Jesus warned His disciples against their presumption that the rich could enter easily the kingdom of heaven. The heavily-burdened camel could more easily get through the eye of the needle (the narrow gate alongside the main gate of a city) than the rich into heaven. Yet Jesus gave them hope, for with God everything was possible, the possibility being that God would reward those who give up everything for love of God.