Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Lots

Decision-making is sometimes an excrutiating process for me. It occurred to me today that in the Bible decisions were frequently made by casting lots. This happens a lot in the Old Testament. Operating with the firm belief that God is in control of everything, people would pray and then expect God to make the lots fall in accordance with His will. There are two times in the New Testament that this is mentioned: the soldiers cast lots to see who will get Jesus' clothes, and in Acts 1 the disciples cast lots to choose a replacement for Judas. The Bible doesn't say whether the soldiers prayed first, so lets assume they didn't, but the disciples did pray quite a bit and then the lot fell to Matthias. Baker's Commentary points out that this is the last time that lots are cast in the Bible because immediately following this is Pentecost when God bestowed the Holy Spirit who then became the guide for decision-making through prayer and the Word. I kind of like the lot-casting, myself. There is a clear answer specifically applicable to the situation at hand, and often the Holy Spirit is so much more subtle. Alas, I know I just need to trust the work of the Holy Spirit more and so I pray that God will help me with that...as I know He will.

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