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was sinister, being against the people of Israel and therefore against God's plan and
purpose.
"And they (the nations) have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an
harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink" (Joel 3: 3).
". . . . . strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates,
and cast lots upon Jerusalem" (Obad. 11).
". . . . . and when they had crucified Him, they parted His garments, casting lots upon
them" (Mark 15: 24).
Here the Gentiles are seen casting lots as a means of apportioning the people of Israel,
Jerusalem and our Lord's garments. This method was, and still is, a common one of
distributing, without bias items of different worth among people. The Gentiles would not
pretend that in doing this they were endeavouring to ascertain how their god(s) had willed
such distribution. To them it was chance, which it was. However, in Jonah 1: 7 the
pagan sailors cast lots to know "for whose cause this evil is upon us . . . . . and the lot fell
on Jonah". Could it be that here the Lord was working behind the scenes, guiding the
Gentile lot? Again the book of Esther records:
"In the first month (that is, the month of Nisan), in the twelfth year of King
Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month
to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar" (Esther 3: 7).
The ones who cast the Pur, the lot, before Haman were possibly one of the types
mentioned in Isa. 47: 12, 13. The Pur was cast from "month to month" possibly by
the "monthly prognosticators" and the reason Haman wanted the lot cast was to ascertain
a favourable time for the destruction of the Jews!
"Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised
against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and
to destroy them" (Esther 9: 24).
They started to cast lots on the first day of the first month and the lot fell on the
thirteenth day of the twelfth month (Esther 3: 7, 13), but why did it take so long? If this
was a choice of one in two (i.e. like the Urim and Thummim), then to go to the 13th day
of the first month is a one in ten thousand chance! To go to the 13th day of the twelfth
month!! Could it be that the Lord was at work here, directing the heathen lot in order to
work out His own purpose? The extremely lengthened period of time before the day of
execution of the Jews gave time for the action of Esther and for new edicts to be issued
and sent over all the kingdom--thus the Jews were saved from destruction.
A detailed study of Urim and Thummim and the casting of lots shows them to be of a
miraculous nature peculiar to the people of Israel and evidence to them that they were in
covenant relationship with God. We must be careful of such views as "this method of
selection was not repeated by the apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit" (Cassell's
Concise Bible Dictionary) and "when Israel is restored, Christ Himself will take the place
of the ancient Urim and Thummim" (New and Concise Bible Dictionary). Ezek. 45: 1,
47: 27 and 48: 29 indicate a distribution of the land to a restored Israel "by lot" and
remembering that John did not record every miracle of Christ's (John 20: 30, 31; and