1:20
Peter quotes two verses of Scripture, the first being from Ps 69:25, and the second from Ps 109:8. His purpose is first to show that the presence of a traitor had not been a threat to God’s plan, but was part of the plan. The second is to justify the appointment of a replacement for Judas.
1:21-26
We now come to the choosing of the replacement. First we get the appointment criteria, which were that the person must have been with them from the beginning, and that they had been a direct witness to the resurrection. This demonstrates the absolute centrality of the resurrection to the gospel. Two men were found that met the criteria. Lots were then used to choose the appointee. Proverbs 16:33 says “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord”, so they were not “trusting to luck”, but were putting the decision in God’s hands. Matthias was chosen. This is the last record of lots being used in the Bible, but perhaps that is reading too much into it. It is also noteworthy that Matthias is never mentioned again. It could be that they needn’t have bothered choosing a twelfth apostle. We do know that later on Paul was appointed an apostle, and he receives quite a few mentions! The principle could be that it is God who chooses apostles, not man, even if we try to follow godly criteria.
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