God Doesn’t Care About The Odds”

Has anyone noticed the number of sports betting ads on TV lately? If you haven’t noticed, you must not have a TV. And these ads are not the occasional sleazy commercial you’d expect to be aired on some Los Vegas hotel channel. These are professional ads pushed by famous celebrities. Sports betting is portrayed as a “harmless, fun experience… exciting…everyone does it, you can’t lose”. To show they have your best interest at hand, they add a warning about problem gambling…. a “public-service announcement….. “Stick to your game plan.” “Know when to quit.” “Bet with your head, not over it.” Hmmmmm, I guess they really care about you and me.  I read that “Americans wagered a record $31.11 billion on sports in Q1 2023.” And guess what….. almost everyone eventually loses. 

If “Jimmy the Greek” and his buddies had been in Israel some 3,000 years ago they would have probably laid down a wager on the upcoming battle of the shepherd David and the giant Goliath. I would guess that Jimmy would be putting the odds at about 1,000 to 1 in favor of the big guy. We read about this battle in 1 Sam. 17:32-51 today.  Let’s be honest, David didn’t have a chance….. on his own strength, not a chance. But God’s actions are not based on the odds coming out of Vegas. 

• I love this passage as the giant taunts his “next victim”. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?” Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods and said to him, “Come here to me, and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.”  At this point the odds just went from “1,000 to 1” to “8 billion to 1”; Israel is packing their bags and heading for the hills. But David answered him: “You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted. Today the Lord shall deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will leave your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; thus the whole land saves. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he shall deliver you into our hands.” You know the rest of the story…. David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone, hurled it with the sling, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone embedded itself in his brow, and he fell prostrate on the ground. …..then David ran and stood over him; with the Philistine’s own sword which he drew from its sheath he dispatched him and cut off his head.” (1Sam. 17: 32-51) 

God doesn’t care about the odds. What were the odds of Moses outrunning Pharaoh and his chariots, of Joseph becoming the 2^nd most powerful man in Egypt, of David slaying Goliath, or of a simple fisherman rising from the dead and saving the entire world. If we just look at the circumstances and calculate the odds, we are going to often find ourselves on the opposite side of God. God doesn’t care about the odds. Only God’s will matters !!!

So when we look at the situation of the world today and all the lies and chaos and sin… and we see our nation and our church looking pretty weak, let’s not start calculating the odds from Vegas. Let’s look at the odds from the throne of heaven where the odds are “80 kazillion plus infinity to one” in favor of the will of God. God always has the last word, and that’s very good news.