The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is the Lord’s alone. Proverbs 16:33 (NRSV)
I am not fond of gambling. I can’t say that I’ve ever been a “lucky” person that way, (I generally lose when I play games of chance,) and I’ve always believed most forms of gambling to be ways of easily parting money from fools. Casting lots is a form of gambling in that it relies on the “random chance” of choosing an object out of a bucket or of drawing straws to determine who wins or what decision should be made. It’s very similar to what today’s gamblers do when they roll the dice.
Even though I am not a big fan of the “random chance” variable that exists when spinning a wheel or choosing a straw, the truth is that there is no such thing as true random chance.
One might roll the dice, but God’s in control of where they land- and so He must be if He is truly an omniscient and omnipresent God.
This morning I was thinking about all the tens of millions of combinations of DNA that have to come together when a child- or even a “lower” creature such as a dog or a cat is conceived.
Even with the same parents each offspring can be vastly different- but God decides which DNA combinations to put together.
Even when we think we are gambling, God has every detail and every outcome in His hand.