The ‘the Urim and the Thummim’ were two stones held in a pouch under the breastplate of the High Priest; Aaron was the first. As ordained of the Lord, when necessary to learn the will of Jehovah, ‘the Urim and the Thummim’ were taken out and used to determine the Lord’s will. These were two sardonyx stones. They were used perhaps as dice or something of the kind to “draw lots” or “cast lots” where the will of the Lord could be determined in the case of having to make a judgment for and upon the people of Israel in the name of the Lord.

You may recall that the Apostles ‘drew lots” (Acts 1:26) to choose Mathias as the replacement Apostle for Judas, who was the betrayer of the Lord. The tradition of casting lots appears in the Bible several times. They are thought to have been used in 1Samuel 14:40 - 42. In this case, however, it is not the lots but rather the Urim and Thummim used to render a decision. According to the first century Jewish historian Josephus, the Urim was composed of two sardonyx stones, each one within a pouch in the Breastplate worn by the High Priest. This breastplate is known as the breastplate of judgment. That said, the practice of lots was used frequently in ancient Israel. The primary reason for casting lots was to render an impartial, unbiased decision on important matters. Once they were cast, no one could argue that the decision was the result of human intervention like nepotism, politics, favoritism, and so on. This practice would be the same as throwing dice or flipping a coin we commonly use today. In ancient times, they used varying means to cast lots, depending on the place and local customs, such as coins, polished sticks, dice, and so on.

What is particularly significant is the fact that, in ancient Israel, the High Priest did use from time to time the tradition of casting lots for important, uncertain decisions. It amounted to consulting God for the answer, as Proverbs states "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33).

This impartial practice stops arguments and contentions between people (and no doubt could prevent them from occurring in the first place). The book of Proverbs states that "Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart." (Proverbs 18:18). The last written case in the Bible of its use is in Acts chapter 1, when the apostles asked for God's decision regarding the choice between two men to replace Judas.

This then is evidence that these High Priest in the Old Testament did NOT, and the 11 Apostles did not yet have the innate sense of the indwelling “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” as believers have within them today to guide, prompt, and restrain us. They at that time had no other means by which they could then know and render His will in making a judgment. Now, the deposit of Christ’s “life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45) has been available to permanently indwell every genuine believer. Thereby we have ‘Christ in us’ as our High Priest who guides us from within as we learn to sense His speaking into our heart, as it is confirmed by the written word of Paul's gospel of the grace of God. For Jesus said His "words are spirit and they are life."

Exodus 28:30 (KJV) And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.

Leviticus 8:8 (KJV) And he put the breastplate upon him (the High Priest): also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim.

Deuteronomy 33:8 (KJV) And of Levi (the Priestly Tribe) he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;

Ezra 2:63 (KJV) And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.

Nehemiah 7:65 (KJV) And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.

“The Tirshatha,” meaning ‘the Persian governor’ of Judea during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Zerubbabel was the governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia. The date is generally thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC. Zerubbabel also laid the foundation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem soon after.