Posted on 12/16/2020 12:47:34 AM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33).
“The lot is cast into the lap,” that is if you pray to the Lord. The lot is very similar to drawing straws or rolling dice—very much like gambling. If it is for personal profit it is gambling, but there have been times when God used it to instruct the Old Testament saint. We even have an instance of it being used in the New Testament: “And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26). Here they cast lots to see who was to replace Judas.
A lot of well-meaning people believe that the Apostles are doing wrong here, that they shouldn’t have picked Matthias but should have waited for God to call Paul. Well, Paul was not a saved man at this time, but even beyond that he was never to have anything to do with any kind of a Jewish ministry. His calling and apostleship was to the Gentiles. They needed twelve Jewish Apostles to preach to the nation of Israel about the kingdom, before Israel could accept that kingdom. In fact, God had said to the twelve Jewish Apostles that they would sit upon twelve thrones to judge the house of Israel.
When the preaching of the Apostles was committed to the nation of Israel in the Book of Acts, how did the nation of Israel react to the preaching? They rejected it, and they were judged unworthy of it, so God put it off and called another man and made him the Apostle to the Gentiles.
At any rate, the Holy Spirit wrote that they cast lots and chose Matthias to take the place of Judas, “and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” He therefore was the twelfth Apostle and over in Acts 2 it says that Peter stood up with the eleven (2:14).
The lot is thrown into the lap, like you put an item into one of your hands behind your back and then you ask someone to pick which hand it is in. They would throw some colored things into their lap, and depending how it came up, would be the answer they were looking for—yes or no.
“. . . but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD,” in other words, the Lord would control how the things came up to show them what He wanted them to do . . . IF . . . they had prayed and asked God to use this method to show them: “And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:24-25).
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Bump.
The sole and only commandment that Jesus gave them is recorded by Luke in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, was this (Acts 1:4,5 AV):
"And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.The unquestionable, unadorned, precise last earthly command of Jesus to them was simply, "Wait."
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
Not do! Just . . . Wait.
But the impatient Peter, not willing to just watch, and pray with the others. for just a few days, could not obediently wait. So, almost immediately, he began to agitate. With neither commandment from The Christ nor His restraining Presence, nor having the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter began his manipulations to install himself as the dominant ringleader of this group, an effort which Jesus had waarned him against, even up until a few hours before His arrest and crucifixion. Peter found a Scripture seized on it, that through eisegesis bent it to say what he wanted the company to accept; to wit, effectively being the instrument through which one of the company would be chosen and installed as an Apostle to fill the position vacated by Judas Iscariot.
In doing so, he then would be seen as the prime mover, to give him leverage to claim primacy over the group. So he shepherded them into nominating only two men from the company, Joseph Justus (called Barsabas) and Matthias, from whom a replacement for Judas would be chosen. But in his sly cleverness, that this choice not rest merely upon his own perceived temporal authority, but that it would be assumed a Providential appointment, Peter broughty into effect another verse the one above from Proverbs, which in misinterpretation and misapplication puts the choice into God's lap, through making this a gamble which supposedly God decides through their appeal to Him, and not Peter.
But effectively, it wouldn't matter, would it? For either of the men to accept the position would make the person a subordinate to Peter, and bolster his claim to superiority in authority to the remainder of equals.
To sum this up, the whole manipulation, a devilish one, would be one in which Peter would force God to support him as the earthly viceroy of Jesus, wouldn't it?
But in fact, this whole drama was not one which Jesus in His ministry sough from or prescribed for Peter. And in fact, it was not one in which either Barsabas or Matthias were ever mentioned again in the Scripture or by any of the other Ten original Disciples, nor had either of them been chosen or ordained by Jesus as a prophet.
And in fact, it was Saul of Tarsus, renamed Paul, that was sought by, chosen by, and ordained by Himself by which His Gospel was presented to the Gentiles, and whom in the course of his duties was required to chasten Peter for his continuing disobedience. This was fully recognized by James, Peter, and John; and with whom the apportionment of ministries was made (Gal. 2:5-7). Matthias was not mentioned as the replacement, nor was Peter elevated by the Newly Written Scriptures or by the Apostles as being anything but a co-equal, not their superior, not their papal "Papa."
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One should never use this Proverbs nugget of wisdom as an excuse for gambling, hoping that The Heavenly Father would make it an avenue for materially blessing His spiritually regenerated child. If you bought a lottery ticket and won nothing on it, you can know that God had no intention that you would waste any part of His estate that He has entrusted His steward with in such a foolish and false speculative venture.
“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words” (Acts 2:14).
You may believe that Peter was in error, but Luke speaking under inspiration of God acknowledged him.
God records a lot of things that people did in Scripture that He did not sanction or approve of.
Just because Peter’s actions were recorded does not mean his actions were sanctioned by God.
Peter took this action on himself and gave God two choices. Of course there’s going to be one of the selected when lots are drawn.
Clearly God had not chosen him but rather Paul as Matthias is NEVER mentioned in Scripture again.
The reason that I believe Matthias was acceptable is because Jesus established that there would be 12 apostles to the Jews, and one to the Gentiles - Paul.
“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office” (Romans 11:13).
“Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles” (2 Timothy 1:11).
Doctrinal truth for the church is found primarily in Romans through Philemon.
ONLY Jesus chose the original twelve, and in John 6 he even told them that one of them was a devil. Matthias was not chosen by Jesus, BUT Saul WAS.
Paul had a dual assignment. When he went on mission he always went first to the local synagogue, so he too was an Apostle to the Jews, but then also to the Gentiles, for in the Age of God’s Grace there is no differentiation of Jew and Gentile for all who believe are born again into the Body of Christ and are The Redeemed. Matthias was chosen by lots, Paul was chosen by Jesus.
GAmbling requires some of your own assets in the game to be able to play.
Casting a lot requires nothing from you other than your willingness to receive the object of some value being bandied about.
Obviously from a GROUP of contenders.
The Eleven must have felt it above their paygrade to do the actual selecting.
21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 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.”
23 So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.
By "him" I think you are speaking of Matthias. I am sure that Matthias was a good man and faithful, upon whom the Holy Ghost fell together with the others, on the day that Peter preached hi first words as a regenerated believer.
However, yhis is not the point, which was to show that Peter led the whole group into disobedience. In the last verse of the previous chapter (Luke's report is only subdivided for reference) it was said of Matthias, "he was numbered with the eleven apostles." That is, the erring group, presuming that God and not merely chance, had done the choosing, and thus they counted him as being an apostle. However, the text does not say that God or the Holy Spirit counted him as an apostle, does it?
You can go through this by yourself, seeing that Matthias did not fulfill the characteristics that defined the special class of exclusive chosen intimates where Jesus alone did the choosing, as He later on did with Saul of Tarsus. Paul indeed, an unlikely candidate, was chosen, recruited, taught, ordained, and accepted by at least three of the other eleven originals as not only a disciple, but a true apostle and prophet.
It is not recorded anywhere that Jesus ordered Peter to nudge the other disciples into themselves appointing a replacement for Judas, or even that Judas was to be replaced at all. That was a supposition that Peter nade up out of the whole cloth, so that he could insist on the relevance of his false use of the old testament writings to justify his unwarranted project, rather than just waiting on the arrival of the Spirit for further instructions beyond those of Jesus.
Perhaps you could illuminate me by supplying a passage that indicates such a concept with such limitations.
For me, the principle is that the apostles (meaning ones sent) is at the end of Matthew:
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, . . ." (Mt. 28:19a AV).This explains, without argument, that Jesus commanded all of the Eleven remaining to go to all the ethnos, tribes of people, everywhere, not merely or only to the Jews. Your assumption makes no sense to me.
But keep on posting these passages from Provebs, it is a good thing to do.
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