"Joshua Casting Lots to Divide the Promised Land", pen & ink, after the workshop of Raphael.
Joshua 14:2 - Their inheritance was by lot, just as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine and one-half tribes.
One of the most widely used Google search phrases, bringing folks to my blog, is "knowing God's will".
I suppose my title question is going to wind up a mystery, as I have turned up no definitive answers anywhere.
Sometimes, I wonder if the church at large doesn't just stay away from certain practices, in the Scriptures, because they are so easily abused. Please don't misinterpret that statement as support, one way or the other, for such practices, but merely an observation.
Here are a few interesting things to read on this subject:
- a secular article on casting lots citing John Wesley, and Benjamin Franklin using lots to make important decisions.
- In Exodus 28:30, God told Moses to have the Urim and Thummim, put in the priest's ephod. These remain somewhat of a mystery today, but tradition holds that they are something akin to a holy "yes", or "no". Here is an interesting article from the Jewish Encyclopedia on the Urim and Thummim.
- Here is Dr. John Piper on the practice of drawing lots to determine God's will.
- God warns Israel about the abomination of fortune telling, and divination.
- A very interesting article from the Reformed Reader arguing that the Urim and Thummin is a "type" of Christ, light and perfection, and has been completely fulfilled in Christ.
- Proverbs 16:33 - "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord."
- Acts 1:26 describes the disciples casting lots to replace the traitor Judas.
- The lots were probably marked stones that were placed in a pot and then shaken out (cf. 1 Chron. 26:13–16). This does not imply that people should cast lots to make their decisions today, for there is no such command in any NT letter or in any of Jesus' earthly teachings. The appointment of a twelfth apostle was a unique situation, a choice that was made by Jesus himself. In the rest of the NT, the elders and deacons and other church leaders are chosen according to decisions made by human beings, whether by an apostle or by others in the churches (see Acts 6:3–6; 14:23; 15:22; 2 Cor. 8:19; cf. 1 Tim. 3:1–13; Titus 1:5–9).
So, here's the question of the day:
When we need to decide whether we go this way, or that, might we turn to casting of lots, or the Urim and Thummim? Or, as many have proclaimed, these things died in Christ, and we are to seek our answers in the Scriptures, the Church, our appointed Elders, Prayer, and the indwelt Holy Spirit?
I look forward to your thoughtful responses.
