Is Casting Lots Divination?

[David_AB]

Firstly I hope this is in the correct forum.
I have two passages that seem to be in conflict.
The first one forbids a practice and the second one seems to show the apostles practicing what is forbidden.

Can anyone clarify this for me?


Deuteronomy 18:10. "Let no-one be found among you who practices......divination."

Acts 1:26 "Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles"

 

[Meowzltov]

The first one forbids a practice and the second one seems to show the apostles practicing what is forbidden.

Can anyone clarify this for me?

Technically, casting lots is divination.

 

[Neogaia777]

Firstly I hope this is in the correct forum.
I have two passages that seem to be in conflict.
The first one forbids a practice and the second one seems to show the apostles practicing what is forbidden.

Can anyone clarify this for me?


Deuteronomy 18:10. "Let no-one be found among you who practices......divination."

Acts 1:26 "Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles"

I posted a thread on this a while back, but can't find it now...

I forgot what they concluded, if they did...

You notice, God had another choosing in mind, perhaps under the new covenant, Paul...

God Bless!

 

[David_AB]

Technically, casting lots is divination.

Could they be somehow not guilty of divination because in 1:24 they prayed to the Lord first?

Acts 1:24 "Then they prayed 'Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen...'"

It seems very odd they the new testament seems to ignore this as a forbidden practice.

 

[Meowzltov]

Could they be somehow not guilty of divination because in 1:24 they prayed to the Lord first?

Acts 1:24 "Then they prayed 'Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen...'"

It seems very odd they the new testament seems to ignore this as a forbidden practice.

I know of Christians who have prayed before fornicating that the Lord would reveal to them if it was okay, and then they felt really good about having sex. Obviously praying about it first doesn't guarantee you will discern God's will, nor does it stop a sin from being a sin.

 

[Neogaia777]

I know of Christians who have prayed before fornicating that the Lord would reveal to them if it was okay, and then they felt really good about having sex. Obviously praying about it first doesn't guarantee you will discern God's will, nor does it stop a sin from being a sin.

Having sex is a unique case reserved for marriage, that is not like other sins in that way...

God Bless!

 

[FireDragon76]

I don't think it is divination in the sense commonly thought of. It's about taking the human element out of a choice. Of course I think it could be abused, you can't just have two potential candidates, one a moral monster, the other a saint, and put that in God's hands.

 

[Neogaia777]

I don't think it is divination in the sense commonly thought of. It's about taking the human element out of a choice. Of course I think it could be abused, you can't just have two potential candidates, one a moral monster, the other a saint, and put that in God's hands.

That's what was put into the peoples, or perhaps more specifically, crowd, or put more specifically, "mob" or mob or gang mentality people have in life, hands...

But Barabas (considered a moral monster) and Jesus (considered a saint) were put before the people by Pilate, the one who handed him over...

God Bless!

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[Neogaia777]

Didn't the others on the ship also cast lots in the time of
Jonah?
And I have also wondered about the cup that was put in
Benjamin's sack. It was stated that it was used to divine.

I can answer the former, yes they did cast lots, and that's how they figured out that it was Jonah, if memory serves me right...?

(You can always look it up)

I don't know to the second...

Anyone...?

God Bless!

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[Neogaia777]

Thanks. I'll check, because I don't think Jonah participated in the time of lots. Here is what has
bugged me in the past and still does as to the time of
Joseph.

Genesis 44:5

“Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.”

Genesis 44:15

“And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?”

I'll have to look up those verses and get back to you, OK...?

God Bless!

 

[Neogaia777]

Jonah 1
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

What I thought, thanks...

God Bless!

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[FrankDux]

Casting lots was only forbidden for those not in the priesthood, in the Bible

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[vinsight4u]

/nvm

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Could they be somehow not guilty of divination because in 1:24 they prayed to the Lord first?

Acts 1:24 "Then they prayed 'Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen...'"

It seems very odd they the new testament seems to ignore this as a forbidden practice.

"seems to" is key.

Trusting YHWH, doing as He says to do, obediently, willingly,
is not forbidden.

Disobeying YHWH is forbidden.

Remember in OT, Saul, waiting on YHWH'S Prophet,
told to wait,
did not wait, but went ahead and made the sacrifice,
(double check what he did)

and he and his family LOST being King because he simply
did
not wait for the man and the time YHWH appointed.

People in any religion disobey God daily, so recieve a curse - a loss of what they might have had - if only they had waited on God and done what God said.

Casting lots was relatively frequent in Scripture, among God's People, and God revealed His Way to them as God said He would.

Since there is so little obedience to God in the world today, it may be nigh impossible to find righteous practice in anything today at all similar to this, even if and when God directs it. He has shown a better way - Jesus - and there are many countless testimonies of God's Guidance by and through and in Jesus all over the world since the first century. Just not in religion (form without power) usually.