And they prayed, and said, Thou Lord, knower of the hearts of all, shew which one of these two thou hast chosen,
The eleven need to fill a gap in their number. Two men both look qualified. Before casting lots, they stop and pray. The prayer is short and pointed: they do not tell the Lord whom to pick. They ask Him to show a choice He has already made.
The group faced a decision with obvious options open to them.
There appear to have been two immediate candidates, Joseph Barsabas Justus and Matthias (1:23). What should they do? How should they go about choosing? Should they vote? Should they hold a debate? The answer is simple and yet refreshing: "And they prayed" (v. 24). ... They realised the Lord had chosen already; they just needed Him to show them the outcome.
Most New Testament prayer goes to the Father. Here the disciples turn to the Lord, because the work in question is His.
Two men were then put forward: Joseph Barsabbas Justus and Matthias. As far as anyone could see, they were equally qualified. So they appealed to the Lord in prayer. It was His work that was in question and it is His to choose the workman. So, in Matt. 9:38, He told His disciples to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest... In other matters that concern the assembly of God, it is most fitting to turn to His God and Father. But in what concerns His service, and the workers He may choose for it, we turn to the Lord.
The same writer uses this prayer to defend praying to the Lord Jesus Himself.
Origen, like others in error after him, twisted the passage to deny that it is right to pray to our Lord. That contradicts the early disciples (Acts 1:24), Stephen (Acts 7:59), and the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12:8). In matters that concern His service and His Church, Scripture shows it is even more fitting to pray to Him than to the Father. We naturally turn to the Father for all that concerns the family of God in general.
The title they give Him matches the problem they cannot solve. On paper the two candidates looked the same.
On the outside those two men were just the same. They had been with the Lord. They knew all that He did, from the baptism of John right up to the time He ascended to glory... God knows our motives, our desires, and everything about us. He can look right into our hearts. He judges exactly why we say or do things, and why we pray about things. He weighs our actions.
People quote this passage to defend congregations choosing their own leaders. The wording says the opposite.
Even the eleven apostles could not elect a brother apostle, but had to commit it to higher authority. Their words are — "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen." This is very plain. They did not try to choose. God knew the heart. He had formed the vessel. He had put the treasure in it, and He alone could appoint it to its proper place.
Another writer answers those who call the scene an election.
You say, "The apostles made use of the form of election, they chose Matthias." Is this a proof that we can choose apostles? If this example were worth anything, it would authorise you to choose apostles; but that is not what happened. They did not dare to choose between the two, and they drew lots.
The Lord answered the prayer through a lot. That method fits where the disciples stood: after the resurrection, before the Spirit came.
The lot was a Jewish way of seeking divine direction, and it will be used that way again in the latter day... They did not yet enjoy the Spirit's presence, the new power in which Jews and Gentiles are alike unknown. So they looked to the Lord in this way. But no one cast lots after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.
Some have disputed what the disciples did here. One writer answers that Scripture itself had given them the method.
They had even the Scripture for this, that if "the lot is cast into the lap, its every decision is from the LORD" (Prov. 16:33)... They acted in obedience, not in self-confidence. We never find their act disputed afterwards, and we have no right to dispute it now. It would be quite a different thing to copy what they did, now that the Spirit of God has come.
- The gap — one place to fill, two men who looked equally qualified. No one in the room could see the difference.
- The confession — they call Him the One who knows the hearts of all. That admits they lack the one thing only He has.
- The refusal — they did not vote, debate, or decide. Even the eleven would not choose an apostle. They handed it to higher authority.
- The request — they asked Him to show a choice already made, not to approve one they had made themselves.
- The method — the lot suited the days before the Spirit came. No one used it again after Pentecost. The prayer carries over, not the procedure.
to receive the lot of this service and apostleship, from which Judas transgressing fell to go to his own place.
Peter is praying about the place Judas left empty. His words raise two questions. What did that "ministry and apostleship" include? And what does it mean that Judas went "to his own place"?
The verse does not describe a narrow office. One writer keeps the two words apart:
Peter does not mean apostolic ministry in Acts 1:25. He means service in general, and apostleship in particular. That is why he calls himself an "elder" as well as an "apostle."
Another writer dwells on how close that service was:
How lovely that is! Look at the beautiful closeness of Jesus with His own people. The words "went in and out among us" say a great deal to a loving heart.
Judas's collapse shocked the eleven, but it did not surprise God. One writer notes what that fact did for a shaken group of disciples. (Older translations read "by transgression fell" where the ESV has "turned aside.")
Was his fall unforeseen? The Eleven did not expect it, we know. But Scripture had pictured it in advance. Scripture also foretold that another man would take his place. Peter points this out at the time of their greatest weakness... What comfort they must have found, as they learnt and saw it clearly stated, that the heartless and selfish conduct of Judas was known to God beforehand!
Some have taken Judas's remorse as a sign that he might yet be saved. One writer answers them from this verse:
In modern times men have wrongly argued that his confession under remorse showed true repentance, and that there is hope of his salvation! But it is not so: he fell "to go to his own place." His case was a test of man in new conditions. He was a "close friend" (Ps. 41:9) of the Lord Jesus. He heard His gracious words and saw His miracles. He was probably even allowed to work miracles himself in His name. Yet, as in every other test of man, he fell.
That makes the verse a mirror for anyone whose religion is only a role:
Here was an apostle — a preacher of the gospel, a man who made a loud profession of faith. Yet under that cover lay "a heart trained in greed" — a heart with plenty of room for "thirty pieces of silver," but not a corner for Jesus... He preached the gospel, but he never knew it, never believed it, never felt it.
The phrase is not only about Judas. It states a rule that reaches every person:
Everyone must spend his eternity in the place for which he is fitted. He could not be in any other place, for God must have order in His own creation... In the end everyone will find his own proper place. Each will know that it is the only place where he could rightly be, because it is the only place he morally fits. Not only Judas (Acts 1:25) but every other must go to his own place.
One writer sets Judas beside the thief who repented:
Judas went to his own place. The Lord was in Paradise, and the penitent thief with Him. Separation for ever took place between the Lord and Judas. Fellowship with the Lord for ever was to be the portion of that thief.
Some have said the eleven acted too soon and picked the wrong man. William Kelly answers that charge:
The rest could not decide between the two men, so they laid the matter before the Lord, who must choose His own apostle... Scripture gives no reason to believe that Peter and the others acted in haste, or were mistaken. In this very book the Spirit of God approves the choice they made that day, and never speaks of Paul as the twelfth apostle who was needed... Paul was not one of the twelve. It matters greatly that the man with a special work should keep a special place.
- Place given. Judas held a real share in service and apostleship, in the daily company of Jesus.
- Place forfeited. He turned aside from it. The eleven never expected that fall, but Scripture had already foretold it and provided for it.
- Place unprotected. Remorse is not repentance. Hearing Christ, and even working in His name, saved no one whose heart had room for silver but not for Jesus.
- Place deserved. "His own place" is the place each person morally fits. Judas went to his; the repentant thief went with the Lord to Paradise.
- Place filled. Men named two candidates. The Lord chose the apostle, and Scripture stands by that choice — leaving Paul his own distinct calling and work.
And they gave lots on them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Two men were ready to take the place Judas left, and the disciples would not choose between them. They cast lots instead. That looks strange today, so two questions come up: was this God's choice or a guess, and does it show how leaders should be picked now?
Casting lots was not gambling. In Israel it was an accepted way of handing a decision back to God.
The lot was the familiar appeal of the people to God, settling all controversy. "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD." (Prov. 16:33) The last mention of the lot in Scripture is in connection with the appointment of Matthias to fill Judas' place in the apostolic band (Acts 1:26). The Scriptures are now complete, and the Holy Spirit lives personally in the Church on earth. So the lot no longer has any place in the ways of God.
The word translated "numbered" does not turn this into a vote by the crowd.
The last word here, translated 'numbered' (v. 26), does not support the idea of popular election either. Scripture never uses that principle for choosing servants in the word. The lot was, as it will be in the latter day, a distinctly Jewish way of seeking divine direction, and so, in the choice of the twelfth apostle (Matt. 19:28), it was fittingly used here. They did not yet have the Spirit's presence — the new power, in which Jew and Gentile are alike unknown. So they looked to the Lord in this way. But no one cast lots after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.
Human judgment could go no further. Both men matched the requirements, so the disciples handed the choice to the One whose work it was.
They then put forward two men, Joseph Barsabbas Justus and Matthias, who, as far as man could see, had equal qualifications. So they appealed to the Lord in prayer. It was His work that was in question, and it is His to choose the workman.
Some argue the eleven acted too soon, and that Paul was really meant to be the twelfth apostle. One writer answers this directly.
The action of Peter in proposing to place another in Judas' place was not a mistake, as some claim. Peter acted upon the Scriptures and was guided by the Lord. Some hold that Paul was meant to be the twelfth apostle. This is incorrect. Paul's apostleship was of an entirely different nature than that of the twelve... There is positive proof that the Holy Spirit sanctioned this action of the disciples. See 1 Corinthians 15:5-8. Furthermore, twelve apostles were needed as a body of witnesses to the entire nation. Think how strange it would have been if Peter and the ten had stood up on the day of Pentecost to witness to Christ before the crowd — eleven men in all, instead of twelve.
Another writer adds that God confirmed the outcome by treating Matthias exactly like the rest.
The Lord seems at once to undertake what His servants commit to Him, for He honours the lot (the Jewish form of discovering the divine will in such matters, Joshua 19:10; 1 Chron. 24:5; Num. 26:55), and Matthias is numbered with the eleven apostles; and the Holy Spirit in the next chapter seems to adopt Matthias in his new office, by falling upon him equally with the rest without any rebuke.
The number was not random, and the choice was never the disciples' to make.
Man never chooses an apostle; apostles did not, could not, elect an apostle: the Lord alone chose. And so they gave forth their lots after a Jewish fashion. As I see it, the twelve apostles clearly answer to the twelve tribes of Israel... God sanctioned this in the Old Testament, when Israel stood before Him. He will sanction it again when Israel returns on the scene in the latter day. No doubt, once the assembly of God was in being, the lot disappears; but the assembly of God was not yet formed... A little later, before Paul appears, we find that "the twelve" are recognised. So says the Spirit of God.
Many read this event as a precedent for congregations electing their preachers. One writer answers that the timing rules this out.
Perhaps no act has been so seriously misunderstood as this... People overlook the fact that this happened before Christianity started at all. Christianity dates not from the birth of Christ, but from the coming of the Holy Spirit... When the distribution of money was in question, the whole body of believers had the right to choose the men who handed out the money (Acts 6:3; 2 Cor. 8:19); when the ministry of the Word was in view, they had no voice whatever. Why this difference? Because the money was their gift, while the ministry of the Word of God is the gift of the Lord alone.
- Scripture first. Peter did not improvise. He acted on the Scriptures, and the Lord guided him.
- Prayer next. Human judgment narrowed the field to two equals, then stopped. The work was the Lord's, so the choice was His.
- The lot last. It was Israel's way of handing a decision to God. The disciples used it here because the Spirit had not yet come, and never again after Pentecost.
- God owned it. The Holy Spirit sanctioned what the disciples did, and the record afterwards still speaks of "the twelve."
- Not a template. The Spirit has come, so believers no longer cast lots. The ministry of the Word stays the Lord's gift to give, not the congregation's to elect.