Gambling is a game we all play. Even when we do not roll the dice, we are in the game. We are constantly living in risks or taking risks. Even when we gamble in good faith, our losses can be costly. It is within our nature to take chances with others and with ourselves. Others and we are the collateral. All profits and debts are charged to us, not to others. Laws that warn us of the danger become a challenge for us to outwit.
According to the Bible, we gamble way too much with our lives. The Bible does not use the word gambling; however, the Bible contains pages on people that dared and lost. The Bible does not hide human failure. Adam and Eve lost Paradise, Cain killed his brother, Abraham lied, Moses killed and ran for his life, David hid in caves, and even Elijah hid in a cave and with a widow. Conveniently, men assigned their failures to God. God does not gamble. Man does and so do we. The very chips are our lives and they are not our own. Our bodies belong to the ground and our spirits to the Creator. Jude 9 tells us that the devil disputed the ownership of Moses’ body, but not his spirit. Satan is a champion gambler. According to the story of Job, Satan can take everything from us, but not our lives. Satan even took the bodies of Job’s children, but not their souls.
Did God not gamble when He sent Jesus, His Son, to save humanity? No, because God sent the Savior to stop us from gambling away our souls. Jesus became our alternative for gambling. By trusting in Jesus the Christ, God’s only Son, we no longer need to risk our chances for eternity. In Christ, we have the way the truth and the life (John 14:6). Without Jesus, we merely continue to throw away our lives for uncertainties. The price tag for these uncertainties is much higher than what Jesus asks of us (Matthew 10:39; 16:26-27).
Stop and Think - Rev Dr. Daniel Kolke 