The method was by lot (PP 494), a device frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. Caution, however, needs to be exercised in the use of this means of ascertaining the will of God. The course is safe only when God, through inspiration, indicates that He wishes this method to be employed. If God is not in the procedure, it becomes nothing more than a chance method like the flipping of a coin or the dropping of a card. There are times when in a crisis God may answer by an audible voice or by direct signs (see Judges 6:34-40). Such, however, are not His usual means of communicating His will. God has endowed men with intelligence, and He expects them to develop the faculty of making decisions for themselves. If, in every decision of life, men could determine by a sign the divine will, they would become mentally impotent and fail of the necessary development of mind and character. Those who consistently follow chance methods will weaken their entire religious life. In the beginnings of religious life and occasionally since, God may have honored our developing faith by giving us remarkable answers by such means, but this does not imply that He wants us consistently to depend upon this method. The ideal of Christian attainment is to have the mind so imbued with divine knowledge, and the faculties so trained, that in following our own impulses we will but be doing the will of God (DA 668).

 As is evident from the records in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and others, the Israelites preserved genealogical records with the greatest of care. Thus Achan’s name is found faithfully chronicled in the genealogy of Judah (1 Chron. 2:7).