1 Chronicles 24:5(New International Version)

⁵ They divided them impartially by casting lots, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar.

When I was going through my bible recently, I came across this portion of scripture. And I thought, “oh, interesting, that’s how they determined God’s will back then.”

“It must be an Old Testament thing.”

Then I did a separate study on Acts and came across this verse:

Acts 1:26 (New International Version)

²⁶ Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

And I was like, “oh, hey, casting lots in the New Testament era too!”

I am so ashamed to report that my stupidity got the better of me, and I went down this line of reasoning:

“If casting lots is depicted so positively in the bible, then I can do it now too. They used Urim and Thummin, didn’t they? That’s like dice, but instead of 2 options, it’s 6. So I should just use dice to determine God’s will.”

(I am silently dying of embarrassment.)

And from that moment on, it set off 6 (so ironic) months of wandering, using dice to determine His will.

Let me say, all those decisions I made using dice have since proven to be faulty, and God showed me one by one that this is not the way He chooses to speak to us anymore.

I asked Him how He wanted me to serve in church, and the dice rolled to being a server for a ministry at church aimed towards mental health.

I thought it was a command from God, and I applied, but it didn’t work out.

And after I consulted God in prayer, He answered by letting me bump into two mentally ill people who acted out on the way home.

It was like He was telling me “do you need a direct command from Me to help the mentally ill?”

It was also His way of showing me that dice was not the way to go.

Then, yet another time, I asked Him incessantly to show me an answer to a question I had using dice.

And this time, I tried to roll twice. And both times were polar opposite answers! How could both be correct? That was impossible.

I later discovered my answer to my question in the bible commentary I was studying later when I opened my bible.

That was also His way to tell me, “if you want to speak to Me, open your bible.”

So after this ordeal, I want to put those 6 months of wandering to good use to tell you, if you are entertaining thoughts of using casting lots, or something similar, to determine God’s will – DON’T DO IT.

OPEN YOUR BIBLE!

(If you’re seeking to speak to God on something, let me point you to this post I’ve written:)

Ways God speaks to us