The Cast Lot

Proverbs 16:33 ~ "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD."

While working in the U.S. Air Force, I was temporarily serving near Las Vegas, Nevada. Several of us would go downtown to get dinner, and one man in our team would invariably stop at several slot machines, card tables and other gambling kiosks that availed themselves to those who would drift through.

This young airman lamented often that he was very bad at gambling--so much so that when he went to the local ATM, it even refused to give him money. He came to me one weary afternoon. A look of anguish filled his eyes as he confessed to me that he had squandered all his savings and he didn't know how he would tell his wife when we returned to our primary base.  Several of us took up a collection for him, and held it until we returned home and he was out of range of those dreadful temptations.

And so he blamed all his woes on that miserable companion: bad luck.

But was it merely "bad luck?" Is there such a thing?

Let me ask you, my friends, how much do you trust the sovereignty of God?

Consider the text above: "the lot is cast." Dice are rolled and do we believe that is it merely random chance that brings up the numbers? Many often live as if life is a circumstantial experience that is left completely to chance. Shuffle the deck. Are the cards sufficiently confused--or does God know each and every one, and actually placed them in that order?

Mankind struggles on this side of eternity with what appears to be merely coincidental realities, for we only see the randomness of circumstance and the happenstance of experience while we dwell in this mortal frame. 

But you must move to the second portion of the text: "but its every decision is from the LORD." There is not one atom of existence outside of the sovereign will of Almighty God. From Him comes every decision of every throw of every dice. 

Now, before you go running off to flip a coin to decide every action you must take, understand the purpose of the text. It is not an encouragement for you to start gambling in order to determine the will of God. This is written to show you that everything--even things as small and innocuous as the casting of a lot--is under God's sovereign control. 

Believer, let this move you to trust Him more. Let this guide your faith to know that there is nothing that has happened to you that is beyond God's power or outside of His control. You have never been hit by a random set of circumstances. And though it might look like it from our vantage point, let us place our faith in the One who holds the universe together--the Lord Jesus Christ. God has purposes for everything, and you can trust Him.

In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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