We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall. [Proverbs 16:33 (NLT)]

Whenever we play Yahtzee, my younger grands blow on the dice to ensure their good luck. Like Yahtzee, life often seems a game of chance where sometimes we’re lucky and sometimes we’re not. Luck, however, has nothing to do with it. For example, King Ahab seemed to have incredibly bad luck when a soldier randomly shot an arrow and accidently hit him right between the joints of his armor. In spite of appearances, however, that wasn’t because of Ahab’s bad luck. Before going into battle, God had pronounced the evil king’s doom through His prophet Micaiah.

It wasn’t luck that caused the sleepless King Xerxes to read about Mordecai saving his life just moments before the evil Haman wanted a death sentence pronounced on the Jew. It was God’s hand that caused the king’s insomnia and turned his attention to that specific event in Babylon’s history. It wasn’t just a lucky break that, out of all the fields in Bethlehem, the widowed Ruth ended up gleaning in the fields of Boaz (who just happened to be Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer). Our sovereign God was firmly in control then and it was He who directed those seemingly chance events.

On the other hand, rather than cause something to happen, God sometimes allows them to happen. He allowed Satan to plague Job, David to take a lustful look at Bathsheba, and He’s allowed me to make a number of bad decisions. While I would prefer attributing their consequences to bad luck, I can’t. They simply were the result of my foolishness, pride, pigheadedness, or disobedience.

As the creator of the universe, God also set a certain number of “laws” in place that keep our lives somewhat predictable. Principles like the laws of gravity, motion, and conservation of energy determine how things will operate in our world. We have twenty-four hours in a day, the sun sets in the west, water flows from a higher to a lower elevation, and if a equals b then b equals a. There even are laws of probability!

These “laws,” however, can be broken by their creator. For example, it wasn’t luck that kept Joshua from running out of sunlight while battling the Amorites; God prolonged the day at his request. Although time may have stopped for Joshua, God made it move backwards for Hezekiah and Isaiah when the sundial’s shadow moved back ten steps. Natural laws were suspended when a three-day plague of darkness descended on the Egyptians (but not the Israelites) and when the Red Sea parted for the Israelites but consumed the Egyptians. Surely turning water into wine broke some laws of chemistry and Jesus and Peter walking on water broke the laws of flotation. None of these, however, were the result of luck.

While we see the practice of casting lots in the Scripture, nothing really is known about the lots themselves. The Israelites cast lots when dividing land among the tribes and when determining positions and duties in the Temple. After Achan wrongly took prohibited plunder from Jericho, it was by casting lots that he was singled out as the guilty party. In Jonah’s story, the sailors cast lots to determine who brought God’s wrath upon their ship and the eleven disciples cast lots to determine who would replace Judas. In those cases, there is no doubt that God stepped in and determined the outcome.

As for my grands and the dice—if He so wanted, God easily could have them throw five of a kind every time but that wouldn’t be luck; it would be God’s will. Nevertheless, I doubt God is going to interfere in a friendly game of Yahtzee. I suspect He’ll allow the dice to fall where they may according to His laws of probability—in which case the end result still will be according to God’s will!

Even though much of life seems random, we live by God’s sovereignty and not by luck. There is no force of good luck that can be coaxed into finding us a parking place, turn lights green, or roll a yahtzee nor is there a force of bad luck that we can blame when those parking places are filled, the lights are red, and we can’t even roll a pair. Whether God is actively causing something to happen or passively allowing it, nothing is a matter of luck. As for the favors and blessings of life—let’s always give credit where credit is due—not to our good luck but to the grace of God.

Nothing whatever, whether great or small, can happen to a believer, without God’s ordering and permission. There is no such thing as “chance,” “luck” or “accident” in the Christian’s journey through this world. All is arranged and appointed by God. And all things are “working together” for the believer’s good. [J.C. Ryle]

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. [Romans 8:28 (NLT)]

Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. [Isaiah 46:10 (NLT)]

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