God's Will

The Lord replied, “Take Joshua son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him to lead the people. Transfer some of your authority to him so the whole community of Israel will obey him. When direction from the Lord is needed, Joshua will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will use the Urim—one of the sacred lots cast before the Lord—to determine his will. This is how Joshua and the rest of the community of Israel will determine everything they should do.” [Numbers 27.18-21]

The details in today's OYCB reading as a whole are not difficult to understand. However, mention of the Urim raises some unknowns in regard to this time.

While I will not presume to present any facts here relative to the use of the Urim and Thummim (as if I had any knowledge of their use), I do wish to point out something of significance associated with their use!

It was first said in the passage above that Joshua had the Spirit in him. This is significant because typically, the presence of the Spirit would negate the need for the Urim (and Thummin)! Of note is the content of the passage above that indicates that although Joshua had the Spirit in him, the Urim would be used to determine God's will!

Post Resurrection followers of God (believers in Jesus) are directed to be led by the Spirit. Is there any place for 'casting of lots' in contemporary devotion to God?

For the most part, and since Jesus imparted the Holy Spirit to His followers, it has been believed that any type of casting of lots is now unnecessary subsequent to the Spirit being imparted. But we see in today's OYCB reading that Joshua HAD the Spirit and still required the Urim to "determine everything they should do."

We see however no indication from Jesus or any New Testament account of the use of 'casting lots' to determine direction from God. On the contrary, the Spirit is attributed as the sole factor in knowing the will of God.

Father, thank You for Your Holy Spirit given to us to lead and guide us! Help us to fine tune our ability to listen to Your Spirit!