Ezekiel 24—26, 1 Peter 2 • Key Verse: Ezekiel 26:3
Lottery tickets are sold in grocery stores, convenience food marts and gas stations. People buy
the tickets even though the chances of them winning are infinitesimally small. The odds are
against them, just as with all forms of organized gambling. If the odds were not in favor of the
“house,” the casinos and lotteries would all go out of business. Still, with just a slight possibility
of winning, people will gamble away their money.
Consider these odds: 1 in 400 million. Doesn’t sound very favorable, does it? Yet in Ezekiel 26
there is a situation that would occur against similar odds. In verses 3-6 there are seven
prophecies: many nations will come against the city of Tyre; its walls will be destroyed, and its
towers pulled down; the rubble will be scraped away, leaving a bare rock; the place will be used
to spread fishnets; it will become plunder for the nations; and the settlements On the mainland
will be ravaged by the sword. Someone has calculated that the possibility of all of that
happening as prophesied was 1 in 400 million.
The betting person would not like those odds, but this is not about gambling. Instead, this
prophecy draws our attention to the certainty of the Word of God. God’s prophets could say
something that looked impossible but in reality was more than possible. It was a sure thing
because God said it.
Ezekiel 26 is just one of many examples of fulfilled prophecy. The complete accuracy of the Bible
in regard to the prophecies it contains as well as its accuracy regarding events of the ancient
world are added evidence to the truthfulness of God’s Word.
Actually, the odds were not 1 in 400 million. Since God said it, the odds were 1 in 1. What God
says is a sure thing. Never doubt the Word of God.
Woodrow Kroll & Tony beckett
www.backtothebible.in