Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

• Leviticus 16:6-10

After you have written descriptions of the seven parts of the land, bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the Lord our God.

• Joshua 18:8

Young and old alike, teacher as well as student, cast lots for their duties.

• 1 Chronicles 25:8

They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

• Psalm 22:18

And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

• Mark 15:24

So they nominated 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.

• Acts 1:23-26

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.  Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’  She was not a human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant.  Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs.  After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.

This Week’s Question

In the last episode, Babs wanted the afterglow of the Holy Spirit at work to continue, but we had to move forward and pray for that to happen again.

My sales calls were from San Francisco to San Jose and then to Sacramento.  With a weekend upon us, I took her to Lake Tahoe for the weekend.  My next sales call was on Tuesday in Oregon.  We could take a day to have some fun and she could see a little of Nevada.  We were going to be in all forty-eight contiguous states during this year of sales calls.  I did that every year, sometimes missing Nevada, but the weather was favorable through Donner Pass, so why not make it all forty-eight (not counting Alaska and Hawaii, since they are not contiguous)?

The night we got there, we stayed at a ski resort.  The next day, we drove around the lake to the Nevada side, and we spent the night next to a casino.  We went next door to the casino to have a nice meal.  As we walked through the casino, Babs and I were separated briefly.  When I doubled back to find her, she was staring at dice in her hand.

She giggled, “See what the nice man gave me!  Those people at the table over there were making a lot of fuss over these things.”

I swallowed, “Babs, did you walk away from the table with the dice they were rolling?”

Babs shook her head, “I did at first, but these are other dice that the nice man in the vest and the bow tie gave me for being a good sport.  I think he could tell I had no idea what they were doing.”

I nodded, “Okay, we are at the buffet.  I hear it is the best in town, but I think they all say that.  Let’s find a table and while they bring us our water, you can tell me what happened.”

Once we were seated, she started.  “This man, who smelled of too much alcohol, asked me to kiss his dice.   I took what he offered and started to walk away, but they stopped me.  They said to kiss the dice that I had in my hand.  I told them I had no idea where these dice had been.  The man said to blow on them.  I did, and I handed them back to him.  He threw the dice, and everyone screamed, especially the man.  The nice man in the bow tie said he was a winner.  Then the guy turned back to me and told me to kiss him.  I said I had no idea where his lips had been, and I thought his wife would be a better choice for the kiss.  He grumbled and said his wife had cost him plenty of bad luck and tons of alimony.  He turned around and tossed the dice again and a few people yelled, ‘Craps!’  And while the man grumbled and walked away, the nice man in the bow tie said that I could have a fresh set of dice that had never been thrown before.  And here they are.  I have no idea how to play them, but, Harold, what is alimony?”

I laughed, “Let’s save alimony for another day.  You will look it up on the computer tonight anyway, but remember, I said we would walk through the casino to this buffet dinner.  We were not going to gamble.  God provides us with all we need.  We do not need anything.  Gambling what God has provided us shows God that we do not trust in His provision, and many people go away from the casino with nothing left.  That may have been what happened to the man who was tossing the dice and lost after you did not wish to kiss him.  And do not worry about making him lose.  Blowing on someone’s dice and kissing things like that are superstitions, doing something to gain wealth without trusting in God.  See where all this is going?”

Babs asked, “Should I throw them away?”

I smiled, “Maybe I can buy you some more and we can play a game with them, just for fun, no betting, no money changing hands.”  She brightened.  I asked, “Do you know what dice are called in the Bible?”  She shook her head.  “Have you heard of casting lots?”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “They did that a lot in the Old Testament.  It’s even in Levitical Law.”

“Yes,” I replied, “In Leviticus 16.  They were to take two goats.  They would cast lots.  The goat that was selected to be offered as a sacrifice would become a burnt offering, but the other goat was to be sent into the wilderness, a scapegoat for any sins not covered elsewhere of all the people.  Throwing dice or casting lots was used in most cases when there were two equal decisions to make.  Since they had no control over how the dice would land, they were leaving the decision up to God.  That is, for the Israelites.  Joshua used casting of lots to decide who got which piece of land when the Promised Land was divided among the tribes.  When King David gathered the musicians together to provide music for worship once the temple was built, the musicians cast lots as to who did what.  They would cast lots to see who was to be the gate keeper at one gate or another.  There are twenty mentions of casting lots in the Old Testament, but only five in the New Testament.  Can you mention those?”

Babs scrunched her nose again.  “When Jesus died on the cross, the guards cast lots for his clothing.”

I nodded, “Yes, that is four of the five mentions of casting lots.  That act of dividing His clothing was to fulfill the prophecy from Psalm 22:18.  But there was one more.  Where was it?”

Babs giggled, “1. 2. 3.”  Then we sang, “I don’t know.”

I snickered, “I think you do, but I will tell you.  After all, I am teaching this lesson.  Jesus spent about forty days before He ascended into Heaven.  He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit to come.  They went back to Jerusalem and Peter mentioned scripture where it said they should choose one to replace the one that was gone.  That meant, Judas Iscariot had hung himself and they needed to have twelve Apostles.  So, choosing someone was something they could do while they waited.  They had several criteria.  They wanted someone that had been around from the beginning.  Two people were the best candidates: Barsabbas and Matthias.  Through this entire time, they had been praying.  They wanted God to decide, not them.  So, they cast lots and Matthias became the twelfth Apostle.”

Babs smiled, “That’s nice.  But why did casting lots not ever come up again in the Bible?”

I smiled, “It’s what happened next that made casting lots a thing of the past.  The Holy Spirit came upon them on Pentecost Sunday.  With the Holy Spirit within each believer, we only need to pray and trust and the Holy Spirit will guide us.  We may not do it right all the time, but the Holy Spirit is there to guide us.  We can talk directly to God.  We do not have to ask God to make sure the roll of the dice is what He wanted.”

After we dined, I made sure that I held her hand all the way out of the casino.  As we turned toward our hotel, she pulled a chip out of her pocket.

She said, “The nice man gave me this plastic coin.  He said it would bring me good luck, but like you have said, God gives us all that we need.  What should I do with it?”

I shrugged, “Give it to a passerby.  They will probably lose it in a slot machine within a minute or two.”

She skipped the next six people, and she gave it to a man who was very sad.

The man said, “But I’ve given up…”

Then she said, “I know.  God has heard your prayers, and He will bless you.”

The man walked into the casino.  Within a minute, alarms were going off and fireworks were shooting out some pipes above the entrance way.

I asked what that was all about and Babs just shrugged.  Then I asked, “Why did you choose that man?  Did you roll the dice?”

Babs giggled, “You know I didn’t roll the dice.  The man had lost his last dollar.  He was on a business trip and he had used his business card to gamble.  His wife would leave him, taking the children.”

That’s when I interrupted with, “That’s where the alimony comes in.”

“Oh!” She exclaimed.  “But the man told God He would never gamble his money away if he could find a way to pay back the company and keep his job.”

I shrugged, “I don’t know how you do that.  You tell me what was making the other driver distracted every time I get cut off in traffic.  I become sorry for the guy instead of angry.  If this guy was down to his last dollar, I trust you, Babs.”

Babs insisted that we stop near the hotel entrance at a table.  The air was crisp, not bitterly cold, and the warm sun felt good.

In about fifteen minutes, the man came out of the casino and spotted us.  He told Babs, “I should give you half.  It was your chip.”

Babs giggled, “No, God told me to give it to you.  Remember your promise.”

He said, “I didn’t think I was praying out loud, but yes.  I will never gamble again.  I will pay off all our debts, and I hope my wife will forgive me when I tell her that God sent an angel from Heaven to bring me back from the edge of disaster, but really, hitting the big one-armed bandit at the casino entrance, I have enough for…  I don’t know.”

Babs said, “Your wife is expecting.  Maybe you can buy a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood.”

He turned to me.  “Your daughter has blessed me.  I can never repay you.  How can I ever thank you?”

I told him the thank God and give God any share that he wanted to give us.

As he left, I told Babs, “People usually think you are my younger wife.  You being my daughter makes me feel old.”

Babs leaned in close, “But what else would he think when you teach me so many things from the Bible.  And where are we going next, Daddy?”

“Please, Babs, it’s Harold.  I am not your Daddy.”

She simply giggled.

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

My wife and I drove around Lake Tahoe once.  We stopped in none of the casinos.  When we moved to Washington state, many years before, she had a few dollars in nickels.  We stopped in a Las Vegas casino for dinner, and she played the nickel slot machine.  She had doubled her money in a few pulls of the one-armed bandit.  A gambler walked by and told her to let her winnings ride and the odds would increase tremendously.  She punched the button to do that, pulled the arm and lost everything she had gained, including the nickels she came in with.  She then agreed with me, and she never gambled again.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.