Thursday, February 7, 2008
In today's reading it talked about David using the Ephod to ask God if he should leave or stay. I am very confused about this. I know the Ephod had the Urim and the Thummim in it. Were these stones that he would use to hear God through or were they like dice, or was one a certain color or word meaning "no" and one meaning "yes"? Exactly how were they used or were they even just one item? I have been looking it up on the internet but I don't really trust what I read. Have any of you studied this and have the Biblical answer?
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My bible says that an ephod was a long, sleeveless plain linen vest worn by all priests. The High Priest's ephod was brightly colored and had a breastplate with 12 gemstones representing each tribe. The Urim and Thummim were kept in a pouch of the High Priest's ephod. The Urim and Thummim were small objects used to determine God's will in certain matters.
My bible also says that there is little known about the Urim and Thummim. Some scholars think the Urim may have been the "no" answer and the Thummim the "yes" answer. The priest would shake one of the stones out of the pouch and God would cause the proper one to fall out. Another view is that they were small flat objects, each with a "yes" side and a "no" side. The priest would spill both from his pouch. If both landed on their "yes" side, God's answer was positive. Two "no" sides were negative. A "yes" and a "no" meant no reply.
Read Exodus 28, and 39, these chapters explain a little further. Hope this helps.
I wonder what ever happened to the stones, with so many priests having them you would think they would still be around in a jewish museum or somewhere. It seems like so little is talked about this way of communicating with God back then. I am so glad we have the completed Bible and the HOly Spirit to lead us now. Thank you for your info Rhonda, I was beginning to think I had gotten into something that everyone else knew about and I had just overlooked it all my life.
Hey Malinda,
We have a set of Bible encyclopedias. They say pretty much what Rhonda's Bible commentary said. Urim and Thummim means light and perfection. It says the Urim and Thummim were so taken for granted by the Israelites that no description of them is given anywhere in Scripture and scholars have made various attempts to guess what they may have been like. It mentions the possibility of small stones of differing marks or colors tht stood for opposite sides. They definately must have been small since they could fit into the breastplate and would be cast as lots.On the topic of why are none found in Jewish history, etc.: By the time of the return to Jerusalem after the period of the Babylonian Captivity, the ancient custom could no longer hold its own against the advances in spirituality and sophistication of worship that the exile had forced upon the religion of Judaism. When a group of Priests whose genealogies had been lost applied to Nehemiah for renistatement, he "said unto them, that they shoudl not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim" Ezra 2:63, Neh 7:65 None could, and the unpedigreed priests were lost to history along with the memory of the sacred lots.
Thank you all for you your info. I find this so interesting. I have been studying it and it is really something. There are so many differing opinions on how the Urim and Thummin worked, some very elaborate and some as simple as dice. I was surprised to read in Judges 8:25-27 that Gideon made an Ephod out of 70 lbs of his enemies golden earrings! That kind of through me off track. I know the first mention of the Urim and Thummim was with Moses giving it to Arron, but where had it came from before that? And where is it now? I know it was lost, but surely it is somewhere unless God destroyed it since we know longer need it?
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