33. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.
The lot cast into the lap, or into the bottom of an urn,† often determined important matters. Officers were thus chosen;† work determined;† dwellings fixed;† discoveries made;† contentions caused to cease.† Yet the LORD's disposal was manifestly shewn. Canaan was thus divided, so as to accord fully with Jacob's prophecies.† The offender was brought to justice.† What could be more beyond human direction? Yet what more entirely under the Divine disposal? No one doubted the decision. Saul was acknowledged to be King,† Matthias was numbered among the Apostles† — without disputing. Even when cast profanely or superstitiously, the same Sovereignty overruled. Haman's lot was so disposed, as wholly to overthrow his exterminative project; giving full time for the deliverance of his victims.† The soldier's lot was the direct fulfillment of a prophecy, that could not otherwise have been accomplished.† The Heathen sailors cast it in ignorance; yet was it the Divine discovery of the guilty criminal. (Jonah 1:7.) Heathen divinations were controlled by the same absolute power. (Ezekiel 21:21, 22.)
The lot is however a solemn matter, not to be lightly cast. (Acts 1:24-26.) It is and acknowledgment of absolute Sovereignty; giving up our personal responsibility, and virtually appealing to an Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent God. It teaches us, that things that we conceive to be accident are really under Providence. ‘What is chance to man is the appointment of God.’† The lot, cast ‘at peradventure, carrying a show of casualty,’† is under a certain disposal. Yet admitting it to be a Scriptural ordinance, its expediency under our more full light is more than doubtful. “We have” at least “a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” (2 Peter 1:19.) The book of God is given us expressly as “a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path.” (Psalm 119:105.) The rule is more clear in itself, and linked with a most encouraging promise — “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Chapter 3:6.) It is far better to exercise faith, than indolently to tamper with personal responsibility.
The instructive lesson to learn, is that there is no blank in the most minute circumstances. Things, not only apparently contingent, but depending upon a whole train of contingencies, are exactly fulfilled. The name of a King (1 Kings 13:2), or of a deliverer (Isaiah 44:28), is declared many hundred years before their existence — before therefore it could be known to any — save the Omniscient Governor of the universe — whether such persons would exist. The falling of a hair or a sparrow is directed, no less than the birth and death of Princes, or the revolutions of empires. (Matthew 10:29, 30.) Everything is a wheel of Providence. Who directed the Ishmaelites on their journey to Egypt at the very moment, that Joseph was cast into the pit?† Who guided Pharaoh's daughter to the stream, just when the ark, with its precious deposit, was committed to the waters? (Exodus 2:3-5.) What gave Ahasuerus a sleepless night, that he might be amused with the records of his kingdom? (Esther 6:1.) Who prepared the whale at the very time and place, that Jonah's lot was cast? (Jonah 1:17.) Who can fail to see the hand of God, most wonderful in the most apparently casual contingencies, overruling all second causes to fulfill his will while they work their own? ‘When kingdoms are tossed up and down like a tennis-ball (Isaiah 22:18); not one event can fly out of the bounds of his Providence. The smallest are not below it. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without it. Not a hair, but it is numbered by it.’†
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