Acts 1:21-26 (NIV)
Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Peter, moved by Jesus’ prophecy of His twelve apostles sitting on twelve thrones at the last judgment (Matthew 19:28), urged the other believers to choose one from among their number to replace Judas as the twelfth apostle. The only criteria was that it had to be someone who had faithfully and consistently followed Jesus from the days of John the Baptist’s ministry all the way to the present.
In most people’s minds, as Jesus went about during His ministry, He was accompanied by the “twelve disciples,” and others came to Him for healing, or perhaps followed Him for a short time. But the reality was that He had quite a large group of committed followers. In fact, at one point, after He had sent the twelve out to teach in the towns and villages ahead of Him (Luke 9:1-9), He was able to send out another group of seventy-two (Luke 10:1-24), all of them consistent and committed followers.
It was from followers such as those, followers who had been eyewitnesses to the things that Jesus had said and done in the years before, and who were now present in the upper room that day, that the group was to nominate candidates. And the people brought forward two names: Joseph son of Sabbas, and Matthias.
This is the only time that the assembled apostles made a decision by casting lots. After Pentecost, they received God’s instructions directly from the Holy Spirit who spoke directly to their hearts. But, since they didn’t yet have that ability to hear His voice clearly, they relied on an older method of determining God’s will: casting lots.
In its simplest form, which was deciding between two options, casting lost could be likened to flipping a coin and relying on God to cause it to fall with the side up that represented His choice. Sometimes casting lots was done by placing names on pieces of parchment or shards of clay that had the choices written on them, and drawing one out of a bag or a bowl. Sometimes this was done using two stones in a bag, one representing one choice, and the second the other choice, much like the Urim and Thummim kept in the breastplate of the high priest (Exodus 28:30, Leviticus 8:8). A prayer would be said, and then someone would reach into the bag and pull out the first stone they touched, trusting that God would guide their hand to the correct one. In this case, the lot indicated that Matthias had been chosen by God to fill the twelfth slot on the roster of apostles, and it was treated as His will from that moment on.
Father, it’s interesting to get this glimpse of the way that the Church made decisions before Pentecost. And it is instructional to realize that, after that day, they didn’t have to rely on those methods to determine Your will, since You could speak directly to their hearts. We still need to hear Your voice today, Lord. Work in our hearts with Your Spirit, carve a channel from our hearts to our spiritual ears, and help us to learn Your voice, so that You can easily guide us every moment of every day. Amen.
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