“God Does Not Play Dice”

I Chronicles 24:1–5, 31

“These were the divisions of the descendants of Aaron: The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died before their father did, and they had no sons; so Eleazar and Ithamar served as the priests. With the help of Zadok a descendant of Eleazar and Ahimelek a descendant of Ithamar, David separated them into divisions for their appointed order of ministering. A larger number of leaders were found among Eleazar’s descendants than among Ithamar’s, and they were divided accordingly: sixteen heads of families from Eleazar’s descendants and eight heads of families from Ithamar’s descendants. They divided them impartially by casting lots, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar… They also cast lots, just as their relatives the descendants of Aaron did, in the presence of King David and of Zadok, Ahimelek, and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites. The families of the oldest brother were treated the same as those of the youngest.”

“The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD (Prov 16:33).” Today’s verses tell us about casting lots so everyone in the priesthood, irrespective of age or perceived importance, will have a fair chance to the assigned responsibilities at the temple. God’s providence plays the determining role in the results of the casting of lots so that conflicts can be averted or resolved no matter how great the contention (Prov 18:18). The bible indicates that something as random as the rolling of dice or the tossing of a coin is not outside of God’s sovereign control. And, therefore, its results are not merely of what we would attribute to chance. The writer at Gotquestions.org notes, that “from an earthly perspective, things may seem to happen at random, but throughout the whole of Scripture, it is clear that God is in control of all of His creation and is somehow able to take the random acts of natural law, the free will of both good and evil people, and the wicked intent of demons and combine them all to accomplish His good and perfect will.” Nothing is senseless in the grander scheme of things, because God is sovereign and He is timeless, He can see through how all events relate to one another and thus He is able to orchestrate, direct, and redirect all threads of what happens in the universe and in our limited knowledge we do not see the big picture. Theologian JI Packer describes this and likens it to a train signal box: In the train yards in the city of York is a master control room containing an electronic panel showing in lights the position of every train in the yard. Someone in the control tower, who sees the whole panel, can understand just why a particular train was put on hold at one spot or why another was shunted into a siding somewhere else, even though to someone down on the tracks the movements of the trains may appear to be inexplicable and chaotic. The good news is we can trust God and He is at that master control room in the transportation system of the universe, and He is powerful and wise enough to know each and every detail and how it may affect the course of history in general, and our lives in particular, the promise is this, and let us hold on to it: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).”