Student Life - January 2025
In my article for this month, I wanted to talk about numbers, probability, prophecy, and silver dollar coins. While this does seem random and strange, I really hope this article encourages you as I have been encouraged. What I want to talk about involves prophecies in the Old Testament that explain what would happen when the Messiah arrives. As we all know, there is a lot that goes on in the Old Testament. From stories in Genesis talking about a garden called Eden, to psalms that David would write explaining how he had messed up before the Lord. But while we read about these stories in the Old Testament, every once in a while, we find a prophecy that God sprinkles in. Sometimes, these prophecies do not elaborate on much. But there is one fact about them: they are specific. And there is one key item we must remember about prophecies: they are claims at knowing the future.
Prophecies come from the Lord, at least the true ones do. Deuteronomy 13 explains this to us. It explains that if someone claims to have a prophecy from the Lord, it must follow two rules. First, the prophecy must not direct people to worship other gods. Second, whatever the prophecy says will happen in the future must come to pass. In the Old and New Testament, if this criteria is followed, then God’s people can know that the prophecy was true and that it was the word of God. With this in mind, I want us to consider 8 prophecies in the Old Testament. These 8 prophecies point straight to the Messiah that is to come.
The first prophecy explains that Christ would be born in Bethlehem. The second explains that there will be one who will be a forerunner for the Messiah, announcing His coming. The third says that the Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The fourth explains that the Christ will be betrayed by a friend. The fifth explains that this betrayal will cost 30 pieces of silver. The sixth explains that the silver pieces would be rejected, thrown, and used to buy a potter’s field. The seventh explains that the Messiah will remain quiet while on trial. Finally, the eighth prophecy explains that Messiah will be crucified.
Now, what is so special about these prophecies is not just that they were fulfilled, but that they were fulfilled by ONE Man. Anyone fulfilling any of these prophecies is pretty unlikely, but one Man fulfilling all 8 is INCREDIBLY unlikely. Here is where the numbers and probability come in. Smarter people than me have done the math already and the probability of one Man fulfilling these 8 prophecies is 1 in 1017, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That is an unimaginable number and probability. To try and explain the odds of this in more simpler terms, I’ll show you an equivalent. Consider the state of Texas and how large it is. Remember, to drive north to south in a straight line, it would take you about 16 hours to do. With the size of Texas in mind, now consider a silver dollar coin. The size of a silver dollar coin is 1.5 inches in diameter, about half an inch bigger than a quarter. With that size in mind, lets take enough silver dollar coins to cover the face of Texas completely. With that finished, I go ahead and color one of the coins in with a marker, so that the coin is different from the rest. Then I shuffle the coins, so that my marked coin is randomly placed in Texas. Now, I ask you, dear reader, to put on a blindfold and fly to wherever you want in Texas. Your task is to guess and pick the silver dollar coin I marked from the trillions that I spread out in Texas. The odds of you picking the one I marked are the same odds of Jesus fulfilling the 8 prophecies I mentioned earlier. 1 in 1017. What incredible odds against our Savior.
Yet, we know that He did fulfill these 8 prophecies. And again, this is just 8 prophecies! He fulfilled more than just simply 8! So, I write to you to share this extraordinary news with you. God the Father and Jesus our Messiah went to GREAT lengths to build a relationship with you. All of this was not just for God to flex on His creation showing how cool He is. He prepared, predestined, and planned all of this so that we could know who He is and who the Messiah is. This is such an amazing gift for us to have and share with others. Because this is not just some cool facts, this is tangible evidence for us to show others about our God. This is the effort our God made to prove who He is. That is the difference when someone asks us what makes our God different. The God of the Bible used prophecy, which was fulfilled, to prove that He is in control. Praise God for that faithfulness!