Casting Lots

I have friends who would not say “Good luck,” “lucky,” “Potluck,” or any reference to luck. Further, some frown upon playing the lottery, slot machines, or gambling, although they don’t mind investing in stocks.

The Scriptures, however, refer to “lots” and “casting lots” frequently. Jacob told Joseph God’s promise and said, “Ephraim and Manasseh are mine just as Reuben and Simeon are, but any children born to you after them are yours. They shall inherit their brothers’ names (i.e., Ephraim and Manasseh’s names) among their lot (Gen 48:6). Similarly, he said, “Issachar relentlessly desired the good lot among his brothers” (Gen 49:14, the Septuagint version). YHWH God said to Moses, “I will bring you into the land that I swore, with my hands raised high, that I will give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their lot. I am YHWH” (Exod 6:8; cp. Num 16:14). All the tithes given to the temple were the lots of the Levites, and they had no lots (land) in the land God gave them (Num 18:21, 24).

When Aaron had to choose between two goats – one to sacrifice on the altar and the other to send away as a scapegoat – he had to cast lots (Lev 16:8–10). The land was distributed by casting lots (Num 26:55). The sailors selected Jonah as the culprit for the storm by casting lots (Jonah 1:7). In the NT, the soldiers cast lots for Jesus’s clothing (Matt 27:35), and the apostles chose a replacement for Judas by casting lots or ballots (Acts 1:17). The underlying principle was that since God controlled life, decisions, and lots, one can decern God’s will by casting lots.

More than that, lots stood for God’s preferences, whether people (Ephraim and Manasseh), animals (sacrifice versus scapegoat), or land. As such, it shouldn’t surprise us that Peter referred to salvation as a lot:

“Simon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who, by faith, have the same-honorable lot as ours in the justice/rightness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet 1:1)

He and his audience had the same lot – preferred place before God and Christ’s justice by faith. This short phrase – “a lot in God’s justice by faith” – summarized the gospel or good news. The expanded version was that God offered his justice to people because of Jesus Christ’s atoning work of death and resurrection, and anyone who put their faith (i.e., believed) in Christ and his work attained a right standing with God.

Peter was an apostle of Christ. One would think that elevated him above everyone else, like a viceroy or secretary of the State over the commoners. But he had the same-honorable (isotimos from isos “same” and timos “honor”) lot as the “commoners” he addressed because he was also a slave (doulos) of Jesus Christ. Only in Christ is a lofty person like an apostle (an ambassador) equally a slave, a menial servant. The Lord Jesus taught Peter that when he girded himself with a slave’s uniform and washed his feet. Peter wasn’t addressing his audience as an authority but as a slave who had been given a task – to be Christ’s ambassador.

Christian leaders (and laity) have no reason to be proud, hold titles, take honorable places in meetings or fellowships, or wear specialized headgear or clothing that sets them apart from the laity. Christian leadership is servitude, not in words but in action.