Casting Lots – Proverbs 16:33

Tacitus, in Chapter X of his Germania (98 CE), describes casting lots as a practice used by the Germanic tribes. He states:

“To divination and casting of lots, they pay attention beyond any other people. Their method of casting lots is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then, the priest of the community if the lots are consulted publicly, or the father of the family if it is done privately, after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to heaven, picks up three pieces, one at a time, and interprets them according to the signs previously marked upon them.”

This is not the way Israel cast lots.  It was always a procedure to pick between possible choices

The lot is cast into the lap,

but its every decision is from the LORD. (Proverbs 16:33, ESV)

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection the apostles were meeting in an upper room in Jerusalem and were led by Scripture to replace Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, with another man, to round out the number of apostles to twelve again.  They had specific standards of who could fill this role and had two candidates who met the criteria.  So to make sure the decision was the Lord’s decision they cast lots and the lot fell to Matthias.  Acts 1 recounts this.

There is an interesting article in Wikipedia on lot casting under the heading “cleromancy“.  In gotquestions.org they note:

In spite of the many references to casting lots in the Old Testament, nothing is known about the actual lots themselves. They could have been sticks of various lengths, flat stones like coins, or some kind of dice; but their exact nature is unknown. The closest modern practice to casting lots is likely flipping a coin.

Despite the random way in which the lots can fall it is assumed that God’s sovereignty in controlling all things makes them not random.  He causes them to fall the way they do.  The assumption of all of Scripture is that nothing happens randomly, that God is behind every aspect of His creation, without, at the same time, eradicating human responsibility for every decision.

We are never commanded to use lots to determine God’s will.  In the case of replacing Judas with Matthias as apostle, the apostles began with what they already knew was God’s will concerning who could be an apostle and only needed determination between two equal candidates.  There is a need for wisdom in making decisions, as Proverbs is so diligently trying to instruct us, but there may be times when the lot is or can be a part of that decision process.