Casting Lots vs Modern Day Gambling

 

Acts 1:24-26 (CBS – Christian Standard Bible - Tony Evans Study Bible – Footnotes)

Casting lots is a practice comparable to throwing dice.  According to Proverbs, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33).  Interestingly, though, after the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the apostles never again made a decision by this method.  Instead, they depended on the Holy Spirit through prayer.

 

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Is Casting Lots the Same as Modern Gambling?

It might be easy to conclude that casting lots is similar to modern day gambling, but it is not. The only similarity to modern day gambling is the random nature of the activity. The major difference, as you can see, is that the ancient practice of casting lots was used to attempt to seek divine direction in a particular matter. This is not the motivation of gambling, which is to win money. The only divine direction sought in gambling is the prayer to pick the right numbers or get the right roll of the dice.

 

Why Did the Disciples Cast Lots to Choose Judas' Replacement?

When you come to this instance of casting lots in the New Testament, I believe you are witnessing a transition from the Old Testament way of making decisions and deciphering God’s will to the way we make decisions today.

 

There is a clear distinction between the decision making before Pentecost and after Pentecost. The difference is after Pentecost believers were filled with the Holy Spirit, which meant they no longer had to rely upon an outward witness to decipher what God’s will was in a particular situation. They now had an inward witness, mainly God the Holy Spirit who would now lead and direct them. This is what Jesus promised in John 16:13, that the Holy Spirit would guide us in all truth. At the time they were choosing Matthias, the Holy Spirit had not been given to them yet, so the disciples relied on the ancient custom of casting lots because this is what they were used to.

 

Casting lots was the attempt to figure out God’s direction, which is why the Bible does not condemn casting lots. What we must remember today is we don’t have to cast lots anymore, it is simply not necessary. We don’t have to wonder what direction God wants us to take because he will guide us by his Holy Spirit. Our job now is to make sure we are in tune with the Holy Spirit, because when we are we will know what God wants us to do, and most importantly we will have the ability to do it.