God’s odds

When a job is too big or too risky or too dangerous, the worker bees lose heart and start looking for the exits. An NFL team that lost 14 games in a season should not be telling the press that they will be in the Super Bowl next year. The odds are massively against them.

But when God gets involved in a project that matters to him, the odds change. The Israelite nation was encamped on the east bank of the Jordan River. On the other side were entrenched Canaanite nations, busily preparing a nasty welcome for the Israelites: “When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you . . .”(Deuteronomy 7:1). But Moses urged on the Israelite armies in spite of how outnumbered and out-weaponed they were because they had God’s odds on their side. Israel prevailed against them all.

When Jesus commissioned his disciples to make disciples of all nations, one or more of them may have thought it an absurd challenge, absolutely out of the realm of possibilities. But they tackled it anyway, and just during their lifetimes the number of believers exploded exponentially. Over the centuries the church has been planted in every country on earth. And with the technology of today, a truly worldwide reach of the gospel is doable.

God’s odds indeed.