In 1 Samuel 23 King Saul finds out that David is staying at a town called Keilah. In his jealous hatred for David, Saul takes his army to Keilah in order to kill him. When David finds out about this he inquires of the Lord using the Urim and Thummim, stored in the High Priest’s Ephod (v. 6). We believe the Urim and Thummim were a pair of dice through which the High Priest could determine God’s will. Through the Urim and Thummim, David is told to flee Keilah, for the inhabitants of that town will surely hand him over to Saul (v. 12).
Do we sometimes wish we had a divine set of dice through which we could determine God’s will? Sadly for Christians the practice of casting lots ends with the birth of the church. It is never mentioned again following the disciples casting lots in Acts 1 for a replacement for Judas. Instead of simply telling us what to do, God wants Christians to make decisions for themselves, like grownups. Yet how does a Christian make decisions in a godly way? Proverbs 16:3 holds the key:
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
This verse does not mean that if we place our plans in God’s hands through prayer he will automatically bring success. It means that if we have already committed everything we do in life to God’s ways, we will become the kind of people who make wise, and therefore successful decisions. Christian guidance is not being told what to do directly, it is growing in godliness to become wise in our decision making.
If there are areas of our lives we are not fully committed to following God ways in, then we are on the path of foolishness. Let us instead commit ALL our ways to the Lord, and become the kind of Christians who make wise decisions. ‘Commit to the LORD whatever you do!’
