Casting Lots vs Superstition/Divination

[AMM]

Is casting lots a form of superstition/divination? It seems like it would be, except that it's used throughout Scripture by holy and pious men. Is casting lots, so long as it is done with prayer and as a way of letting a decision be made according to God's will, and not our fallen reasoning, an acceptable thing for Orthodox Christians to do?

(Note: I'm asking in the Eastern Orthodox subforum.)

 

[archer75]

If it's used as a quasi-random decision-maker when there's no good way to make the decision by means of the human mind, I don't see why not.

Like if an abbot died and all the monks really really didn't want to be abbot, maybe this could be used?

@dzheremi , don't the Copts do something like this?

 

[ArmyMatt]

lots are cast with prayer, and then the answer is trusted to be at least from God's allowance.

because there is no attempt to manipulate God, or to do x to get y as a result, it isn't superstition or whatever.

 

[AMM]

Would a priest need to be consulted or could anyone cast lots so long as they were just trusting God, like you said, not trying to manipulate things?

 

[archer75]

Would a priest need to be consulted or could anyone cast lots so long as they were just trusting God, like you said, not trying to manipulate things?

I would seriously consider talking to a trusted priest about this first. Even if it's not superstition or magic, that sort of thing can easily go downhill fast. Best to have someone to consult with, IMO.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Would a priest need to be consulted or could anyone cast lots so long as they were just trusting God, like you said, not trying to manipulate things?

usually when it's something important, lots are cast with/by a bishop.

 

[dzheremi]

@dzheremi , don't the Copts do something like this?

Yes, the Copts put the names of the final three candidates into a container and have a blindfolded child select from the container. There is a lot that goes into the process before that, including Church-wide fasts at every step in the process (as when whittling the list of candidates down to the final three).

This was all formalized in the 1957 bylaws put in place in the anarchy that followed the deposing of Pope Yusab II a few years before. I'm away from my books at the moment, so I couldn't tell you if this was something that was established by said laws or if they merely made into law what had already been the established practice. It was supposed to be a priority of any candidate (as submitted to the locum tenens, HG Bishop Pachomios) to re-draft the laws to fit the reality of the modern Coptic Orthodox Church (e.g., remove the nationality restriction so that bishops in the "lands of immigration" which wouldn't have existed in 1957 can also be candidates), but I don't know if that would've touched the actual method of selecting from the names, and anyway it didn't happen thanks to the frankly insane level of terrorism directed at the Copts in the time since the fall of Herr Morsi which has understandably led the leadership to focus on other, more immediate matters which threaten the Church and its flock.

 

[gzt]

It's commonly been done here, too, that a few candidates for an office are put forth and the bishop/metropolitan/patriarch is chosen by lot - it's how St Tikhon was put in charge in Moscow. It seems a rather reasonable thing to do - they exercise their wisdom and discernment to choose a few people who might be capable, and then give God the opportunity to act if it matters.

 

[buzuxi02]

It presupposes that all the candidates are already fairly qualified.