A. G. Campbell.
LOT. — The suddenness of the Divine Parousia and the unpreparedness and want of expectation on the part of the world, find illustration from ' the days of Lot' (Lk 17-^), Avhen the people of Sodom continued their social and commercial activity until ' the day that Lot Avent out' (v. 2^).
Lot's wife — to Avhoni in JeAvish tradition the name nnj; Edith is given — is recorded in Gn 19 to have been turned into a jjillar of salt as a result of her looking back upon Sodom Avhile escaping to the mountain. Her fate, as one failing to escape imminent and foretold destruction, is referred to in Lk 17^^, though AA'ithout specific mention of the form in which destruction overtook lier.
Our Lord's Avord 'Remember' neither confirms nor rejects the tradition. It is Avith the spiritual fact and its lesson, not Avith the memorial, that He is concerned. The folly of unreadiness, of the long- ing for things left behind, of the desire to retain a transient little in the face of impending judgment and at the cost of a greater and eternal loss, is the lesson He Avould teach in connexion Avith His Parousia, from the remembrance of Lot's Avife.
Literature. — Hastings' DB, Smith's DB, Encyc. Bibl., Kitto's Encyc, Jewish Encyc. k.v. ; G. A. Smith, HGHL p. 505 ; Jos. Ant. i. xi. 4 ; Jon. Edwards, Works [ed. 1840], ii. 64; Comm., esp. Driver on Genesis; and the following ex- pository sermons, J. A. Alexander, Gospel of Jestis Christ, 88 ; H. "E. Manning, Teaching of Christ, 38 ; F. Temple, Rngby iiennons, ii. 312 ; S. Cox, Expositions, iv. 280 ; B. Herford, Courane and Cheer, 79 ; G. Matheson, Representative Men of the Bible, ii. 22 ; A. Whyte, Bible Characters, i. 129.
J. T. L. Maggs.
LOTS (Casting of) (Xa7xa»'w, KKripov ^dWeip). — Among the Jews the lot was in frequent use (see Hastings' DB, art. ' Lots '). It was the recog- nized method by which the order of service and most of tlie individual duties of the priesthood were determined. The order of the 24 'courses' or priestly families was arranged by lot. The 'course' to which Zacharias (Lk P'**) belonged was that of Abijah, which stood eighth on the list (1 Ch 24'"'"). Each family or 'course' was on duty for a week, from one Sabbath to another, twice a j^ear (2 K 11''). The priests from whom the officiating ministers for the service of the day (€<pr)fj.€pLa) were to be cliosen, ha . to present them- selves 'washed' (Ex 40^'^"'^) before the officer who had special charge of the lots. The lots were cast in the 'Hall of Hewn Polished Stones' in the Temple. The distribution of duties for a day among the pr-ests required that the lot should be cast four times. The priest who had to offer incense was chosen by the third lot. This duty was regarded as one of special honour, and the lot by which it was assigned was cast after prayer and confession. The decision Avas accepted as indicat- ing the man whom God liad chosen to offer the jnayers of the people. The third of April or the Hrst week of October is by some reckoned as the time when Zacharias was appointed to offer incense (Lk F). It may have been at the morning or the evening service.
At the Crucifixion tlie soldiers cast lots for the clothes of Jesus. As they were divided into ' four parts, to every soldier a part' (Jn 19^^), it was evi- dently a quaternion of soldiers that was on duty. The Synoptists simply record the parting of the garments by lot (Mt 2V^, Mk IS^-*, Lk 23^-^). In Ju. special reference is made to His 'coat.' It is impossible to say whetlier the ' coat ' was added to one of the ionr parts, or if a separate lot was cast for it. The precision and detail of the narrative in Jn. have been 3-egarded as proofs that the Fourth Evangelist was an eye-witness of the things which he records. In the casting of the lot for the ' coat ' he saw the fulfilment of one of the predicted Avoes of the Messiah (Ps 22^^). The quotation is in the exact Avords of the LXX. Critical editions of the NT omit the quotation in MattheAv.
There is no indication as to tlie particular method by Avliich the lot Avas cast in the tAvo incidents in Avhich it is employed in the Gospels.
It may be noted under this heading that the idea of the lot as giving expression to the Divine Avill runs tlirough all the Avoids Avhich relate to inheritance {KX-qpovo/j-eu, -op-ia, -ov6p.os). With this fundamental significance all sucli Avords become part of the language of grace. The right of in- heritance in the Kingdom of God, or to eternal life, does not spring from legal enactment or personal merit, but from the Avill of God.
LiTERATfRE. — Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, i. 133-187, ii. 592 f. ; Jos. Ant. xu. xiv. 7; Godet on Luke, vol. i. 71 ; Muirhead, Times of Christ, p. 79; Godet on John, vol. iii. 266. See also art. Chance.
John Reid. LOVE. — In the Avord ' love ' is concentrated, Ave may say, the essence of the Christian religion. It IS love that is the outstanding feature in the revelation Christ has given us of the nature of God, love that is the controlling poAver in the life of the Son Avho claimed that he that had seen Him