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From touchandchange.com Bible Studies An Odd Way To Look At Odds (This is the second part of the RISK Series : Risk Takers Defy the Odds !) These are a summary of the notes that Jeff Dixon used in the Celebration Worship event by the same title. This study is a part of the RISK series. These might be useful for your own personal study or as a resource to print out and follow along with as you watch or download the audio of the study itself.
Lets take a moment to Rewind and Reconnect to 2 Samuel 23:20-21 Here are the verses that we have built the series on...
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty men. He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.
I’m not sure what kind of line the Jerusalem oddsmakers would have given the three incidents mentioned in these verses, but I do know this..Benaiah WAS NOT the odds on favorite! He must have been a two to one underdog against the warriors of Moab. This was not a tag team wrestling match it was a double team
The Egyptian giant had to be at least a 10 to 1 favorite. Benaiah had a club and the Egyptian a spear. The tale of the tape puts the Egyptian at 7’6’’…the tale of the tape goes to the Egyptian. And then of course there was the lion… This was hand to paw…maybe he had a spear…we don’t know
A lion has jaws that can crush skull bones Teeth designed to rip through animal hide In a pit, in the dark, a lion can see five times better than a human with 20/20 vision A sure footed cat has the best chance in slippery snowy conditions…
Benaiah had to be a long shot Maybe even a 100 to 1…
However, he defied the odds He didn’t make excuses, he didn’t try to avoid situations where the odds were against him.
Risk takers know that God is bigger and more powerful than any problem they face in the world…and when risk takers are following God…then the odds become a non-factor….
Now lets think about it.... There is a pattern that shows up from time to time in Scripture I don’t understand it, but it is repeated…. God doesn’t intervene until something is humanely impossible
And…He usually shows up at 11:59pm…just in the nick of time I think there is something worth noticing about that as you get to know God, it is a part of His personality, God likes the impossible odds
I think that as we follow God We are asked or called to defy the impossible odds
Perhaps God allows the odds to be stacked against us so that He can reveal more of His glory
Judges 6:11b-16 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
"But Lord , " Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."
Gideon’s army of 32,000 men is vastly outnumbered by the Midianites They are outnumbered, when the Lord says… “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands”
WHAT? Too many? Don’t you mean too few? (Can't you hear Gideon having these thoughts?)
God tells Gideon to lose any that are afraid…
We read that in Judges 7:2-3 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
Now he is down to 10, 000 men Then the Lord says, “There are still too many men!”
v.4a But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men.
The we move on into v.4b-6 God devises a test…they get them men to go and get a drink of water Then the men who drink like dawgs are dismissed
Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
That leaves 300 men The odds are overwhelmingly against Gideon and his army…but then it gets better
God tells them to attack with trumpets and jars You have got to be kidding!
v.16-18 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
"Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.' "
And then here is the kicker: Israel wins!
So why does God do it that way? He tells us… In Judges 7:2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her
Here are some Lessons for RISK Takers….when you are trying to keep overwhelming odds in the right perspective.
Remember How God Views The Odds
Carol S. Lacey writes:
My foursome teed off on the long, regulation course. The greens, hardened by an extremely dry spring, had been cut extra short; I three-putted the first and four-putted the second! This wasn't my day.
A verse from Psalm 91, which I had read that morning for devotions, kept coming back to me. Personalizing it, I repeated it to myself. "And Carol shall call on me and I will answer her and keep her from trouble. I will deliver her and honor her." "Lord," I prayed, "I'm miserable and sore, but it's opening day and I had to show up. Will you please help me get through the round?" Then I added, "and Lord, let me give you glory today—somehow."
As I lined up on the fourth hole, a 116-yard, par 3, the sand traps appeared to mushroom, reducing the already narrow opening to the green. I tried to stay down and pull through, determined to avoid them. The shot felt good and went straight. "Oh, be long enough," I muttered. "Oh—it's going to make it—it's heading for the pin. It's in!" I screamed.
My partner, Ginny, and our opponents, Mary and Babe, shouted while I jumped for joy.
My first hole in one! I never imagined I would ever do that. I had always been satisfied to simply stay on the green!
It was difficult to concentrate. By the seventh hole I'd calmed down. I might salvage a decent score, I thought. At the turn, we learned that my news had preceded us into the clubhouse.
With my mind reeling, we started down the tenth hole, where I scored a 10! Again I struggled to calm down. At the thirteenth hole, our 83-yard water hole, I reached for my nine iron. The ball flew off the tee, hit the left side of the green and rolled to the right, curving toward the pin.
The ball rolled to the other side of the green and disappeared. Because of the heavy shade and undulating surface, the entire green was difficult to see from the ladies' tee. At barely five feet tall, I lost sight of it. "It'll be nestled in one of the valleys," I assured my teammates.
My partner was just as sure it had dropped in the hole. "I've got to see," Ginny said, running ahead. "Carol," she shrieked, "it's in the hole!" I fell to my knees on the damp grass. "Lord, what are you doing to me?" I moaned. It didn't occur to me that the verses and my morning prayer had anything to do with what was happening….it was about God rescuing my bad day, during my worst round of golf ever...with an amazing couple of moments.
I was only the second woman in history to shoot two holes-in-one in a single round. I had beaten 67 million- to-one odds!
7:2
If Gideon had attacked with 32,000 and won…they probably would have thanked God for lending them a HAND and God would have gotten partial credit…maybe…we tend to give partial credit sometimes when it really is all His
But their victory defied all odds God…doesn’t view the odds at all, His focus is on you and how you relate and live with Him…
I have told you before, He doesn’t ask you to do more…He asks you to be more with Him!
Remix Your Prayers Around the Odds Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives We want everything in our favor
Perhaps faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds Maybe the impossible situation our opportunities to discover new dimensions of God’s glory…
The answers to our prayers might be NO, or incredibly frustrating to us, because we are asking the wrong thing….
Redo Your View of the Odds
We think of God in the wrong terms We make Him smaller than He is…
Have you ever wondered how God can keep track of six billion people all at the same time? I do...but since He does, I am forced to redo my view of things
Most of our problems are circumstantial Most of problems are perceptual
Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small
In fact most of us reduce God to the size of our biggest problem
Now we come back to the same thing we talk about over and over again… Learning to be Visible, Vibrant, and Vital…unleashed and untamed…
The more we grow the bigger God seems to us…and the bigger God gets, the odds matter less and less
One of the highest risk adventure ever attempted was the first manned space flight to the moon….
The odds against success were huge…
Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic statement as he stepped onto the moon's surface: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." But few know about the first meal eaten there.
Buzz Aldrin had brought aboard the spacecraft a tiny Communion kit provided by his church. Aldrin sent a radio broadcast to Earth asking listeners to contemplate the events of that day and give thanks.
Then, in radio blackout for privacy … [Aldrin] read, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit."
Silently, he gave thanks and partook. God was always bigger than whatever he would face…and that gave him the confidence to face whatever odds were in front of him…
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