The Urim and the Thummim

Clearly, the breastpiece of judgment that the high priest of ancient Israel wore was meant to stress that he represented Israel before the Lord when he ministered in the tabernacle and then later the temple. After all, the precious stones on the breastpiece were engraved with the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, the founding fathers of the nation of Israel (Ex. 28:15–28; see Ex. 1:1–7). Today’s passage indicates that the breastpiece served a practical purpose as well. It stored “the Urim and the Thummim” (Ex. 28:30).

The Urim and the Thummim were a means that the high priest used to discern the will of God in ancient Israel. We do not know, however, exactly how the process worked. The names “Urim” and “Thummim” mean “lights” and “darks,” respectively, which indicates that they were probably different colored stones that the high priest carried in the breastpiece. One commentator suggests three strong possibilities for what the use of the Urim and Thummim entailed. It may be that several stones of two different colors were in the breastpiece and that, after a prayer offered in faith, the priest would ask the Lord a yes or no question and then insert his hand into the breastpiece and pull out a stone, the color indicating a yes or no answer depending on which color meant yes and which one meant no. There would be several stones because the priest might ask a series of questions. Each time a stone was removed, it would be kept out of the breastpiece for the next question, necessitating that several stones of each color be in the breastpiece. A second possibility is that there were only two stones used, one for each color, and the stone pulled to answer a question was returned to the breastpiece before asking the next one. Third, it may be that the Urim and Thummim were something like dice that had engravings on them. These were then pulled from the breastpiece and thrown. The answer was discerned from the engravings that were visible once the Urim and Thummim came to a standstill.

We should note that the Urim and Thummim were not used to make ordinary decisions but were reserved for matters of great national importance. Perhaps they were used only when several plausible options were before the people and there was no good way to choose the best one. The Urim and Thummim were instituted temporarily for old covenant Israel, and there is no directive that the new covenant church should use a similar method to make decisions.