UNFATHOMABLE ODDS

Some math people enjoying calculating odds, like the
chances of "fours" on a dice coming up in successive tosses.
Such games can't compare with the unbelievable odds of
 fulfilled Bible prophecies about God's greatest gift, Jesus.
.

Last year, Americans spent an estimated $1.1 trillion on Christmas shopping. That works out to about $942 per family unit. While I find that mind-boggling, I've come across some statistics that top that.

Since childhood I've known the phase in the Apostle's Creed that declares that Jesus was “born of the virgin Mary.” That's the fulfillment of a prophecy by Isaiah 7:14, some seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus in a filthy barn a long ways from His mother's hometown. What are the odds of that? Recently, going through papers on my desk, I ran across these sermon notes about prophecies Jesus fulfilled. They predicted the Messiah would:

*Come from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10) 

*Come from the line of David (2 Samuel 7:16)

*Be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) *Heal the blind, deaf and mute (Isaiah 35:1-6)

*Be rejected (Isaiah 53:3) *Be killed by piercing (Isaiah 53:5, Zachariah 21:10)

*Be executed with criminals (Isaiah 53:9) *Be buried with the wealthy (Isaiah 53:9)

*Die for our sins (Isaiah 53:4-6) *Rise from the dead (Isaiah 53:11, Mark 9:31)

Or how about Jesus' prediction that “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days, He will rise” (Mark 9:31).

My sermon notes said the odds of eight of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person were ONE IN A HUNDRED QUADRILLION (that's one followed by 17 zeroes).

The odds of all sixty major Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled in one person? One in ten to the 157^th power!

In 1957, J.B. Phillips, who prepared a Bible translation in modern language, wrote a little story titled “The Visited Planet.” In it, an imaginary seasoned angel is showing a new angel around the universe. He points out a dirty little tennis ball called “earth.” An intense light flashes at one point of “earth” and the seasoned angel explains that's God's Son visiting the tired, weary planet. When that one light ends, little lights begin to flicker across the surface of the globe. The newer angel asks about the Father's plan for this little globe floating in the universe, whether someday it will be all light, like Heaven. The seasoned angel replies: He has visited it; He is working out His Plan upon it." (1)

(1) The whole story is here: https://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/NoteVisitedPlanet.htm