N23-6: Why Did God Permit Israel To Use A Divining Tool Like The Urim and Thummim?

In my last post, I said “for those who trust God, His true prophets represent the end of magical omens and divination“.

This brings to mind something in Torah that may seem to contradict this statement.

Do you remember that Israel was permitted to use a divining tool for a period of time?

I’m talking about the Urim and Thummim.

These were two little stones that resembled dice and were kept in the High Priest’s EPHOD (pouch).

However, understand that these stones were never used to determine truth.

They were only used as a tool to determine God’s Will in a particular situation like whether Israel should go to war with a certain nation or not.

All sorts of imaginative theories about how exactly these two stones were used have been put forward.

Some propose there were secret words engraved on the stones.

Others say one of the stones may have glowed to indicate God’s Will in a certain matter.

However, the truth is nobody really knows how these stones worked and there is much debate among the great Rabbis regarding how exactly Urim and Thummim were used.

It appears that the Urim and Thummim faded from use during the early days of Israel’s Monarchy and are only referred to once after the Babylonian exile.

Here’s one interesting verse we find in 1 Samuel:

 ^“But when he consulted Adonai,
Adonai didn’t answer him
— not by dreams,
not by urim
and not by prophets.”
-1 Samuel 28:6

So it seems like a definite answer was not always obtainable through the Urim and Thummin.

We know that Moses never used them.

They were only given to the High Priest who would use them to aid those who could not find God’s guidance in any other way.

Now why would God permit the use of such a divining tool like the Urim and Thummim, a tool that seemed very much like something the heathen would use?

My answer?

I DON’T KNOW.

And neither do you.

However, I highly suspect that Israel would have been totally confused if God had required His People, who were still fresh out of Egypt, to unlearn every custom and cultural aspect they had absorbed from the known world at the time.

So yes, I believe that God, in His Divine Wisdom, sometimes uses things from our pagan past as a way to bridge the gap between our world and His World.