Reflection: Stones of Divine Guidance 

If ever stones could speak it would be these. Stones that were God’s means of giving decision-making clarity to the high priest. Stones pocketed, according to God’s specific instructions, as closely to the priest’s heart as was possible. Stones used only in God’s tabernacle/temple-presence, that vouched for his preeminent leadership. If stones could speak! And yet…the Urim and Thummim remain thoroughly mystifying. We don’t know what they were or how they were used. Even the literal meaning of the words is debated. Light and perfection? Guilty and innocent? Revelation and injunction? 

 Wouldn’t it be a dream to pocket decision-making-and-the-will-of-God. But even the Urim and Thummim weren’t necessarily as gratifying as that. ‘[Samuel] inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets’ (1 Samuel 28:6).  

Dreams, stones and prophets. Those were the channels of gaining divine direction then. In fact, as prophets came on the scene, references to Urim and Thummim petered out.  

The cultural milieu surrounding God’s people was (and still is) heady with divination and the occult. Dabbling in mysticism is alluring and these days as avowed as ever. Not cool. It’s a stench. ‘Just don’t! Because I am the Lord your God’ (Deuteronomy 18:9-15). Whatever these mysterious stones of divine guidance were, they were not that. But they are a testament to God mercifully and convincingly revealing himself and his will in the world. 

Prayer: 

I look at you, Jesus, and see God who could not be seen. In you I know your kingdom mysteries made plain. And staggeringly you see and know (in the best possible sense of the word) little me (Colossians 1). Keep revealing yourself to me, that I’d live wisely and with purpose. Keep revealing yourself to nations, that the world might worship you, the one true God.