"Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord. Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord." (Exodus 28:29-30) This is the first time these objects have been mentioned in the word of God and it's interesting to note that the Lord doesn't provide any instructions regarding how to manufacture them. He has described in great detail how to make every part of the tabernacle and every part of the high priest's wardrobe but has not one word to say about obtaining or fashioning the Urim and Thummim.
This has caused many rabbis and scholars and theologians to come to the conclusion that the Israelites already possessed these objects long before the tabernacle was constructed and/or these objects didn't need to be manufactured. The most popular theory appears to be that the Urim and Thummim were two smooth stones, one white (the Urim) and one black (the Thummim). It's believed that after prayerfully consulting the Lord while wearing the breastpiece bearing the names of the tribes of Israel over his heart, the priest would shake or lift the breastpiece and whichever stone fell out---or fell out first---signified the Lord's answer. If the Urim fell out it was an affirmative answer and if the Thummim fell out it was a negative answer.
It is believed that the ancient Egyptian priests were in the habit of using similar methods of divination. Garments similar to the Israelite high priest's breastpiece have been found on the mummies of Egyptian priests and have been depicted in Egyptian artwork that shows scenes of priests going about their duties. It could be that the Israelites learned the practice while in Egypt. If that's the case then this may explain why we only find the Urim and Thummim being used during the first centuries after the exodus, during years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness and during the years in which they were taking over the promised land. As time went on and they became established in the promised land, they didn't need to ask the Lord nearly as often about when and where and how to engage the Canaanite tribes in battle. And as time went on a practice they may have picked up in Egypt, and adapted to fit within their own religion, was no longer used.
Also, as the era of the judges waned and Israel began to have kings, it's possible the high priest wasn't consulted as often. Some of Israel's kings forsook the Lord to live in blatant idolatry, so in those cases we wouldn't expect the kings to ask the high priest to discern the Lord's will. The idolatrous kings would have either made whatever decisions they pleased or else they would have sought answers from pagan gods in occult ceremonies. There will be times in the Old Testament where we'll see godly kings calling for a priest or prophet to "inquire of the Lord" for them, and this inquiry very well may have included the use of the Urim and Thummim even when these objects aren't specifically mentioned. But we could hardly expect a wicked, idolatrous king to call for the Urim and Thummim to be used, and after the Lord allows Jerusalem to fall to the Babylonians due to the continuing idolatry that's running rampant in the land, we won't see these objects mentioned ever again. I think it's likely they were taken by King Nebuchadnezzar along with the other articles and furnishings of the temple that he carried back to Babylon, but while living in exile in Babylon the Israelites had to depend upon individual prayer for making decisions, and in the long run that was a good thing.
You and I depend upon individual prayer, the solemn reading of Scripture, and the submission of our hearts to the Holy Spirit when making decisions. We are not ever to "roll the dice", so to speak, when making inquiries of God. Such a practice was permissible during the first several centuries after the Israelites came out of Egypt, but even then it wasn't a matter of rolling the dice. Only the high priest was to perform this ceremony and only in a prayerful attitude of submission in the Lord's house and only with his heart filled with love for the twelve tribes of Israel. The priest was seeking the Lord's will for the people---seeking the Lord's best for them, seeking His heart for them---and this was nothing like going to a fortune teller or looking into a crystal ball or reading a palm or reading cards. Whichever answer the priest received was an answer straight from God. But as the Scriptures began to be written, the people were to rely more and more on what the word of God said and to prayerfully mull the Lord's word over in their hearts and to be guided by the Lord's word in making decisions.
You and I are to make our decisions in this way, not by throwing stones or rolling dice or cavalierly flipping the Bible open, slapping our finger down randomly on a page and obeying whatever verse our finger landed on. There's a funny story, probably a made-up story used as an illustration, in which a man tried to use the Bible flipping method to divine the Lord's will. But his finger landed on the verse that says Judas "went and hanged himself". He knew the Lord would never tell anyone to commit suicide. He knew this wasn't the Lord's answer to his question and he realized he needed to develop a closer personal relationship with the Lord and spend more time in prayer and in the study of the Scriptures and to let the Holy Spirit guide his heart while he sought the Lord's guidance.
I'll close with a personal story about a decision I had to make last year. It's one of many stories I could tell that illustrate how the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. I started having problems with my throat after going through a really stressful start to my year. Sometimes my throat just felt tight and uncomfortable for hours or days at a time. Other times it was quite painful because it felt like the muscles would suddenly spasm up. My doctor suspected a condition known as "silent reflux" where the sufferer doesn't necessarily feel any typical heartburn symptoms but the throat muscles tighten and spasm in response to acid or acid vapors coming up the esophagus. This is the throat's attempt to try to prevent erosive damage to the tissues. To get a definitive diagnosis I'd have to be put under general anesthesia so the doctor could run a camera scope down my throat. I'd never had general anesthesia and was terrified of being put to sleep. The doctor was booked up a month ahead on this type of procedure so I had a month to deal with my fears. I kept having panic attacks because I was afraid I wasn't going to wake up from anesthesia. I had almost made up my mind to back out but when I got just a few days away from my appointment I very seriously got into prayer with the Lord and asked Him to clearly show me what I should do. While reading my Bible after talking with Him, the Holy Spirit took a verse from my reading and pointed it so strongly at my heart that I knew what the Lord was telling me to do. The verse was, "I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me." (Psalm 3:5) Of course I'd seen this verse before. But I couldn't have told you which psalm it was in and I wasn't looking for this verse and it hadn't even entered my mind. It's not an especially popular verse, as far as I know, since I've ever heard anyone preach a sermon or teach a devotion on Psalm 3:5. But I'd seen it before and hadn't thought much about it because at those prior times it didn't apply to the situation at hand. But now it did and in that moment I knew just as well as I know what day of the week it is right now that the Lord was assuring me He would bring me through my procedure just fine.
So I went ahead fearlessly without any further doubts, right? Wrong! The next morning I was filled with anxiety again and was struggling with the decision to go through with it even though the night before I'd been sure the Lord said all would be well. So I had to get down on my knees and admit I needed a little extra help. I was sorry for needing extra help, but I also knew the story of Gideon. Gideon is a man you'll find in the book of Judges. He's a man who received instructions from the Lord but who needed the Lord to give him a sign (several times over!) that he'd actually understood the Lord correctly. Gideon simply could not move forward without these extra assurances. He was too plagued by doubts and anxieties to be sure he'd heard the Lord correctly until the Lord provided further proof. The Lord didn't rebuke Gideon for needing extra help and the Lord didn't rebuke me either. I told the Lord I'd need Him to send me Psalm 3:5 again, in a way I didn't have any control over, so I'd be sure the message to go ahead with the procedure was actually coming from Him. About an hour later I opened Facebook on my phone and guess what appeared at the top of my newsfeed? A friend had posted, "I will lie down and sleep; I awake again, because the Lord sustains me."
Did I have any control over my friend choosing to post this Bible verse? No. This friend knew nothing about my health issue or my upcoming procedure or that this verse meant anything at all to me. Did I have any control over when I spotted this verse in my newsfeed? No, because I could see from the date on the post that it had been posted the day before, only for some reason it didn't show up in my newsfeed until the day after the Holy Spirit had already used the verse to speak to my heart. If I'd seen the post the day before, I might not have thought much of it. It wouldn't have served as the second piece of proof I needed, because if I'd seen it in my newsfeed first and then happened upon Psalm 3:5 in my Bible reading that night, I'd have been able to convince myself I orchestrated coming across Psalm 3:5 because whenever I struggle with doubts and fears I turn to the psalms. But the Lord set this situation up in such a way that I'd come across the verse in my reading first and then come across it in my newsfeed second, in a way I had no control over.
What happened then? I said, "Okay, Lord. I hear You. I'll do what You say." I was still apprehensive about the procedure but at the same time I knew it was the Lord's will for me to have it. Everything went fine and after a couple of months on medication the doctor said to try weaning off it and I did and haven't had any problems since. I hope this little story can serve as a good example of the way the Lord intends us to go about making our decisions. I'm not holding myself up as an example of the faith. I struggled with doubts and fears. I'll struggle with doubts and fears many more times in my life. I'm not telling my story to try to make myself into someone others can follow; I wasn't very courageous at all. But I shared this personal experience with you because I want to make sure no one uses procedures that amount to "rolling the dice" when making decisions. There is nothing Biblical about that and the Bible doesn't support it, not even here in Exodus 28 when the high priest uses the Urim and Thummim. This was not a casual ceremony. This wasn't a game of chance. During a specific period of time for a specific group of people the Lord allowed the spiritual leader of the nation to use a specific method to obtain guidance for major national decisions. As time went on, the Israelites no longer used this method. We aren't told to use a method like this either. We have the holy Scriptures to consult, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. These are to be our guides when making decisions.
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