The Urim & the Thummin were the used for "Divination" in the Bible...?

Question

They were the 'Lots' that were cast to divine an answer from God. So, in your opinion is divination wrong? Was it of God or of something evil?

Answer 1

actually, the jewish tradition teaches that the stones on the urim v'tumin would light up, and each stone represented certain letters (much like a telephone key-pad). That was how it was used for answers.
Also, the bible doesn't condemn all sorts "magic" and diviniation etc... only certain types, which is likely how the idea of "*black* magic", as opposed to regular magic, came to be.

Answer 2

Use of the Urim and Thummin was divinely inspired.

A number of Bible commentators believe that the Urim and the Thummim were lots. They are called "the sacred lots" in James Moffatt's translation of Exodus 28:30. Some suppose that they consisted of three pieces, one inscribed with the word "yes," one with "no," and the other blank. These would be drawn, giving the answer to the question propounded, unless the blank piece was drawn, in which case no answer was forthcoming. Others think that they may have been two flat stones, white on one side and black on the other. When thrown down, two white sides up would mean "yes," two black sides "no," and a black and a white would mean no answer. On one occasion, when Saul had inquired through the priest as to whether to resume an attack on the Philistines, he received no answer. Feeling that someone among his men had sinned, he petitioned: "O God of Israel, do give Thummim!" Saul and Jonathan were taken from among those present; after that, lots were cast to decide between the two. In this account the appeal, "Do give Thummim," seems to be separate from the lot casting, though it may give indication that there was some connection between the two.-1Sa 14:36-42.

Served to Link Kingdom With Priesthood. The Aaronic priesthood is referred to at Deuteronomy 33:8-10, which says: "Your Thummim and your Urim belong to the man loyal to you." The reference to these as belonging "to the man loyal to you [Jehovah]" perhaps alludes to the loyalty of the tribe of Levi (from which the Aaronic priesthood came) that was demonstrated in connection with the incident of the golden calf.-Ex 32:25-29.

Jehovah wisely provided the Urim and the Thummim and placed them in the hands of the high priest. This made the king dependent to a great extent on the priesthood, avoiding the concentration of too much power in the hands of the king. It brought about the necessity of cooperation between the kingship and the priesthood. (Nu 27:18-21) Jehovah made known his will to Israel by his written Word, also by prophets and by dreams. But it seems that prophets and dreams were used for special occasions, whereas the high priest with the Urim and the Thummim was always present with the people.

Use Ceased in 607 B.C.E. According to Jewish tradition, use of the Urim and the Thummim ceased when Jerusalem was desolated and her temple destroyed in 607 B.C.E. by the Babylonian armies under King Nebuchadnezzar. (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 48b) This view is supported by what we read regarding these objects in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. There, certain men who were claimants to priestly descent, but who could not find their names in the public register, were told that they could not eat from the most holy things provided for the priesthood until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim. But there is no record of their use at that time, and thereafter the Bible makes no further reference to these sacred objects.-Ezr 2:61-63; Ne 7:63-65.

Answer 3

The Urim & the Thummin was nothing more than a collection of stones one standing for each of the tribes of Israel. Lots were used to identify a thief and again to devide the promised land. The only time the dead were summend was by a witch and witchcraft is condemed in the scripture...Jim

Answer 4

The urim and Thummin were used for picking a king or someone who broke a covenant. In the last days it's use includes translating ancient text.

Answer 5

Urim and Thurim are the Biblical version of flipping a coin.

Answer 6

Moses duplicated what he saw on the mount , can't be wrong when a high Priest Ordained of G-D does it

Answer 7

Seven Ways to Hear God Prophetically

Way 1: The Urim and Thummum
Lecture By: Apostle Les D. Crause

In the Old Testament, God spoke to people through various means, the most common, and the most powerful, being the prophets. In the New Testament God still fulfils a large role in the prophet. The prophet still hears the voice of God and speaks it forth. How does a prophet hear from God? Are there specific ways that God speaks? Can a prophet develop a greater capacity to hear the voice of God?

In this lesson I want to deal with prophetic listening to the voice of God; how the prophet hears the voice of God, how God speaks and how it is possible for us to hear and to take heed and receive from Him, especially as the prophets of God, that we may speak forth His words into the earth. We first have to hear, and before we can hear we have to learn how to listen.

I am going to look at seven ways that God speaks; seven ways that a person can hear; seven ways that the prophet can hear the voice of God and know what it is that God is saying, and receive instructions from the Holy Spirit. Seven is the number of perfection or completion. I did not plan it that way, but as I waited on the Lord He gave me seven different ways of hearing from Him. It is so vitally important that we learn to hear well.

1. The Spiritual Urim and Thummim
The first method that God used to speak in the Old Testament was the method called the Urim and the Thummim. In that first verse that we looked at it said that, "God did not answer Saul by Urim..." Urim was one of the ways that Saul tried to hear from God. The Scripture says that God did not answer him by Urim. So we need to understand what the Urim is, and we need to go back into the Old Testament and look at a few Scriptures.

These are very vague items and they are not very well described. The Scriptures do not tell us in absolute detail what they were, but the general consensus amongst those who have studied this, is that the Urim and the Thummim were two stones. These stones were either the stones that were embedded in the breastplate of the ephod worn by the priest, or they were two stones that were contained in a pouch that was on the side of the ephod where he could place his hand. Somehow these two stones would give a person direction from God. It was not the kind of direction that says, "What must I do? Where must I go?" but the kind of direction that says, "Should I do this or should I not do that?" And the answer would come either as a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.

So when they used the Urim and the Thummim to obtain direction from God in those times, they would know which direction they were planning to go. What they would do is to present to the Lord a question. "Lord, shall I do this?" And God would answer back by Urim or Thummim, yes or no. It seems that if you had a Urim the answer was yes, and if you had a Thummim the answer was no.

How did the answer come? That depends on exactly what the Urim and Thummim were. One of the thoughts was, the Urim and Thummim being two stones in the breastplate, and when the person prayed, one of those stones would light up and glow. If it was the Urim that glowed, God was saying, "Yes," but if it was the Thummim that glowed, God was saying, "No." If neither of them glowed, God was saying, "None of your business. I am not talking to you." That is what happened to Saul. God would not answer him.

I want to show you a Scripture that indicates how David used it. In 1 Samuel 23:9 it says:

"When David knew Saul had secretly planned evil against him he said to Abiathar the priest, ‘Bring the ephod here.’ Then David said, ‘O Lord God of Israel, Your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city because of me. Will the man of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beg of you, tell Your servant.’ And the Lord said, ‘He will come down.’ "

God answered him with a Urim. And so in the Old Testament there was this means of hearing from God, a means of receiving a yes or no answer from God.

You say, "Well we do not have that anymore in the New Testament. We do not have the priesthood, we do not have the priestly garments, we do not have the temple and all of those old things."

Yes, but all of those things have become spiritual in the New Covenant and we still have a Urim and a Thummim.

You might ask, "Where is it then?"

It is in your heart, in your soul, in your spirit. It is within you.

God has placed within you a spiritual Urim and Thummim. He has placed within you a sign, a revelation that will cause you to receive a yes answer or a no answer. You can come to God in prayer still with that kind of question. "Lord, must I do this?" And the answer will come up from within your spirit as a, 'yes, yes,' or a 'uh uh, no way.' You will sense it in your spirit. You will feel it. You will feel it as a surge which says, "Yes, it is good, do it." Or you will feel a check in your spirit. It is a gut feel, an inner thing. It is a very deep thing, and what is actually taking place is that God is speaking to you out of your spirit.

Receiving Out of Your Spirit
In a lot of the teaching that we have presented we have been sharing on the spirit and soul and body. God has made man so that He imparts things into his spirit, and God is speaking in your spirit all the time. The Spirit of God and your spirit are in communication. They are in touch all the time. In order for you to receive what God is saying to your spirit, that revelation, that word from God, has to be communicated outwards from your spirit. As it is communicated outwards it comes out via the soul and the body.

Effects in the Soul
So what comes out of your spirit has to rise up, and the first thing that it is going to be affected is your soul. We all know that the soul contains the mind, emotions and will. That means the influence from your spirit has to create an effect, an influence, on your mind, your emotions and your will. The Urim and the Thummim that I am speaking about causes this influence from the Spirit within you to affect your emotions. It is primarily a feeling.

Going by Feelings
You say, "Well, brother, we do not go by our feelings." Yes you do. You do all the time. Every decision you make in life you make by your feelings. In fact, most of the time you do what you feel like doing. Of course your feelings are involved. Of course your emotions are involved. But if you will learn to submit your soul to your spirit, and submit your emotions to your spirit, then your emotions will come under the influence and be affected by your spirit within.

When that happens and the influence of the spirit begins to rise up, it causes either a positive or a negative emotion, and that is your Urim and Thummim. A positive emotion that creates a surge, an excitement, a yes, is your Urim. An emotion that comes negative, fearful, check, care, concern, watch out for it, it is a Thummim. Your spirit is saying, "No, not a good idea, do not go that way." All you need to do is to submit to the spirit within and hear in your emotions. Some people call it ‘The Peace of God’. Some have called it ‘The Umpire of God’. It is an effect deep within you, a deep feeling in your spirit, in your soul. It goes deeper even than your emotions because it is coming down deep within your spirit and coming out from your innermost being out of your belly somewhere. It comes with this feeling from within.

Using the Urim in Prayer
Sometimes you feel the Urim and the Thummim when you are praying as a prophet. If someone gives you a request, "Please can you pray for so and so, they are sick, they need healing," and you open your mouth and you begin to pray and you say, "Father, in the Name of Jesus I ask you to reach out and..." but you feel like there is something in your mouth. It does not want to come out. You are stumbling over the words and you feel like you are chewing on cotton wool. Something inside of you says, "Uh oh, no, you are praying wrong." That is your Thummim. It is saying, "No, just hold it. You just wait, it is not time yet, you are praying wrong." Stop it right there!

At other times you think of a person and you begin to pray and you say, "Oh Father, I am just thinking about so and so. I pray that you will bless them..." and suddenly something bursts out and it starts to pour out of you. It is your Urim saying, "Go get ‘em! Yes pray, pour it out, send forth the Word into the earth. You are doing it right, you have it." Do you know what I am talking about? If you are a prophet you know what I am talking about. Your spiritual Urim and Thummim is the ability to hear from the spirit within whether you are flowing in the right direction or not.

Receiving in the Mind
We come then to the effects that are created from the spirit within that come to the mind. The problem with the mind is that it is being filled all the time by what you are doing, by the circumstances that you are in, by the environment and the surroundings and activities that you are involved in. All the time while you are conscious and awake your body is pushing input in. It is sending it inwards into the soul and into the spirit. Influences are coming from your five senses, your seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, feeling.

Those senses are picking up impulses in the world around you all the time while you are awake. Then the impulses are fed inwards from the body into the soul and they occupy your mind, so that it is filled with what you are see and hear. If you are sitting at the dinner table it is filled with what you smell and taste and feel. All of these things affect us all the time. But you will find that your mind is a one-way street. You cannot feed inwards and outwards at the same time. It just does not happen. It cannot work. It is a one-way flow. You have to change the direction, and the only way that you can do that is to stop the flow in one direction before the flow can take place in the other direction.