What are the Odds?

What are the odds? That’s a common question when we see something that just doesn’t happen a lot, if at all. Life is full of a lot of long odds isn’t it? Let me offer you some examples.

According to stacker.com, the U.S. Weather Service says a person’s odds of being struck by lightning in a given year is one in 1,222,000 people, based on population. As the population grows, those odds get longer.

The odds these would be fulfilled by one man are astronomical

How about the Olympics? The 2018 Winter Olympics divvied up 487 medals among just shy of 3,000 athletes, roughly about 16.5 percent of competitors. A shrinking number of events in the Summer Olympics has made winning medals much harder than it used to be, and it was never an easy thing, to begin with. For the everyday person with eyes on the gold, your odds are a minute one in 662,000.

How about being killed in a plane crash? More and more people are flying again after COVID-19. Stacker says your chances of getting killed in an airplane crash, based on the population size and average rate of flying, is only one in 11 million.

And my “piece de resistance?” Your chances of winning the jackpot in Powerball? The answer is one in 292.2 million. Your chances are even worse for winning the Mega Millions Jackpot: one in 302.6 million.

The point is that we human beings are used to long odds. So, why is it so hard to accept the long odds that Jesus is the Messiah? Do you know how many prophecies in the Old Testament Jesus fulfilled? What makes it so amazing is some of those OT predictions got written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus.

Professor Pete Stoner of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, did extensive research on the mathematical probabilities (odds) of Old Testament prophecies applying to Jesus as the Messiah? Seeker.org says over 300 prophecies in Scripture concerning the Messiah have come to pass.

Determining odds on more than 300 prophecies would require an astronomical amount of math. So, he looked into the odds that Jesus fulfilled eight OT prophecies, and what he found was mind-blowing. He determined that the odds of any one man fulfilling eight of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies was one chance in 10,000,000,000,000,000). That’s just for eight prophecies!

If we upped that to just 48 prophecies (still far short of the number Jesus fulfilled), the odds jump to an unbelievable one in ten to the 157th power. That’s one, followed by 157 zeroes.

Micah predicted Jesus' birthplace hundreds of years before it took place

Want a few specific examples? Micah 5:2 says, “Bethlehem, you are small among the clans of Judah; One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me.” The Holman Christian Standard Bible says most of Micah’s ministry took place between 750 and 725 BC. Over 700 years went by between Micah’s prophecy and the birth of Jesus.

What are the odds that Micah would predict the exact place that the Messiah would be born? Professor Stoner, who I mentioned above, and his students determined the average population of Bethlehem from the time of Micah to the present; then, they divided it by the average population of the Earth during the same period. They concluded that the chance of one man being born in Bethlehem was one in 300,000.

The Book of Isaiah (7:14) predicted the Messiah would be called Immanuel. Gotquestions.org says the book was written between 739 and 681 BC. Again, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. In Matthew 1, remember the angel telling Joseph not to divorce Mary? The angel said, “See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is God with us.” God had now come to Earth to save us from our sins.

This was all part of a divine plan

Psalms (2:7) predicted that the Messiah would be declared the Son of God. Gotquestions.org says the last chapters of Psalm likely got written around 538 BC.

Are you understanding where I’m going with this? The odds that these predictions throughout hundreds and thousands of years are astronomical. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that it takes more faith to deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, than the faith it takes to believe and declare Him to be our Messiah, our Savior.

I look at this, and I see a Plan. A very Divine Plan, indeed.