If I asked you to illustrate the concept of chance or randomness with a single image, an icon if you will, what would you choose? For me, the first thing that comes to mind is a pair of dice. Playing games with my children when they were younger, one of my daughters used to frustrate her siblings with how long and hard she shook the dice before dumping them on the table. It frustrated them because they knew that no matter how vigorously she rattled the little dotted blocks, there was really no skill in how they landed. The whole point of dice is to remove the human element from the process. It’s the same logic behind flipping a coin between the two teams in the Super Bowl to see who kicks off and who receives. No one is favored, and no one has the advantage. It is random heads or tails, chance, or luck. Or is it?
Though you won’t find the word dice in the Bible, you will find the term “lot,” or goral in Hebrew, which simply means pebble. No one is exactly sure what lots were, but they were some sort of small objects, perhaps with markings on them, that could be tossed to see how they would fall for the purpose of making decisions. The first reference to lots in Scripture is in Leviticus 16 when God instructs Moses in how Aaron is to choose which goat is to be sacrificed as the sin offering, and which one is to be set free as the scapegoat. Next, we find the land divided between the 12 tribes of Israel by lot. And though the lot isn’t mentioned in the discovery of Achan’s sin in the book of Joshua, most Bible commentators assume it was the method used. The same appears to be the case in the selection of Saul as the first king of Israel. The duties of priests and Levites were decided by lot. Jonah was chosen by lots as the cause of the violent storm that came upon his ship while he fled from Nineveh. Jesus’s garment was awarded to one particular Roman soldier by lot, and Judas’s replacement, Matthias, was selected by lot. As you can see, some rather weighty moments in biblical history have hung on how these tiny pieces rolled out. Are we really to assume randomness and a “hands-off” approach by God in all of these?
Well, we might, if it weren’t for Proverbs 16:33, which reads, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” Let the weight of those words sink in. It’s not how we are accustomed to thinking of things. The wording of this verse is very precise. When we read “cast” we recognize a seemingly random action by man. What could be more arbitrary than how the dice land? But when we read “its every decision is from the LORD” we realize that things aren’t how they appear. We don’t live in the world of a deist god, who only intermittently interacts with his world. No, we live in a world whose God upholds it moment by moment by the “word of His power,” (Heb. 1:3) and in whom “all things hold together.” (Col. 1:17) What we are tasting in this lesson of the lots is the revelation of God’s Providence, His intricate determining of all things according to the counsel of His will. Notice that it’s not just some tosses of the lots, but “every” time, and that it’s not mere foreknowledge of how things will land, but their actual “decision is from the LORD.” We are being shown here that there is no loose screw, no maverick molecule, and no chance wreaking havoc in our lives. God’s hand controls it all.
And what would “chance” mean anyway? Have you ever considered the meaning of the concept? Is it supposed to be an energy source, an impersonal power, a mindless influence on the things around us? Why would we allow such a pagan concept to lodge in our minds? I think there are two main reasons. First, all of our formal education has taught us that our very existence is due to random mutations and purposeless events. Why would we think there was any meaning in the myriad movements of material objects? And we think that because we can toss our lots and dice, and spin our roulette wheels we have somehow proven or uncovered randomness at work in the world. This verse says otherwise. But secondly – and more importantly – I think the thought of such utter control by our Creator frightens us. We are fine with the rescues and redemptions from any number of horrific situations, but the thought that He could have anything to do with the disasters in the first place is beyond our comprehension. We want the God who forms light and makes peace, but not the one who creates darkness and calamity as well. But His word says, “I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Isa. 45:7)
But can you not see that this reality is the very ground of the promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”? (Rom. 8:28) Scripture reveals a God whose power sustains the smallest inanimate things and turns the heart of kings wherever He wishes. (Pro. 21:1) His intricate involvement means that every facet of existence has meaning and purpose. Your prayers and actions matter because they are all part of how He brings His plans to pass. And your failures couldn’t happen apart from Him giving you the breath to make them. There is no place where we can escape His sustaining power and presence, we are hedged in by His lines and borders. (Ps. 139:5) But King David, considering this reality, wrote, “O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance. (Ps. 16:5-6) He was recognizing God’s providential allotment in his life, not just of the land that Judah received but every moment of his existence – and there were some pretty tough ones in there! But he knew that no impersonal fate directed his steps, and no roll of the dice was outside of God’s control. And this, beloved, is true of our lives as well.
