Recently, I was sitting in the doctor's office waiting for my wife, and an older couple was sitting facing me. The man had brought a devotional book with him, and as he was sitting there reading, I noticed that it was the same book that I had used that morning in my devotions. What a coincidence, you might say. But the coincidence becomes even more eerie. As I was conversing with them, I mentioned that I had lived in Anderson, Indiana and that my father worked at the Delco Remy plant. To my astonishment the wife announced that she was born in Anderson, and her husband worked at Delco Remy. The realization is mind boggling that, out of all the doctor's patients I would be talking to people from my home town who had worked where my dad worked. The chances of this happening are practically zero. It's like the odds of winning the lottery.
Hundreds of years ago mathematicians started measuring uncertainty, especially in games of chance, which resulted in the mathematics of probability. Probability is widely used today in genetics, business, and the insurance industry. If a coin is tossed once, there are two possible outcomes, heads or tails. Probability is the ratio of one outcome to the total possible. Thus, the probability of turning up a head is 1:2 or 1/2. If a single die is cast, there are six possible outcomes, so the probability of a certain number being face up is 1/6. If two dice are rolled, there are 36 possible outcomes. Since there are five ways of rolling a sum of eight, then the probability of an eight is 5/36. Similarly, there are six ways of rolling a seven, so the probability of a seven is 6/36 or 1/6. The probability of an impossible event is zero, and the probability of a certain event is one.
The odds have always been against God's people. Noah's family of eight persons survived out of an estimated population of five billion. 8/5,000,000,000 are pretty low odds. When Elijah thought that he was the only faithful one left, he was informed that there were 7,000 who had not bended their knees to Baal. But even 7,000 was a small number out of a nation that had once been a part of God's chosen people. We are told that not one in twenty in the church is ready for God's kingdom (1T, pp 496, 498, 510, 532). This means that, statistically speaking, in a church of one hundred members not even five would be ready for Jesus to come. That is a probability of less than 5/100. In horse racing we would call this a "long shot." Jesus said that few people will follow the upward trail that leads to life. Even though there is a great multitude of saved standing on the Sea of Glass, a much greater multitude is lost. Even though the odds are against us, through the counsel of God's Word, the example of Jesus, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we can win the prize "against all odds."
