Well, this is going to be a strange devotional. I ran across an article that I couldn’t believe. The article said that the numbers of the American roulette wheel add up to 666. Since I don’t gamble and have never been in a casino, I didn’t even know what numbers were on a roulette wheel. Googling for a picture, there was an American roulette wheel pictured beside a European wheel. Guess what? They are different in that they have a different combination of numbers.
With calculator in hand, you can do exactly what I did and start punching in the numbers. I thought sure that the Pinocchio award was going to be given to the article. I was stunned, though, when the total on the calculator said exactly what the article had said: 666. Curiosity led me to do the math on the European wheel. Though the numbers on their wheel are different, they also added up to 666.
Coincidence? Not hardly.
Revelation 13:11-18 introduces us to this number. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (12) And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. (13) And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, (14) And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (15) And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (16) And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: (17) And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (18) Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
It’s tempting to go into a devotional on prophecy, but I want to focus on something else. The number 666 is called “the number of a man.” Man was created on the sixth day. Six is one number shy of God’s number of perfection, the number seven. Six never measures up to seven. Six does everything man’s way while seven is about doing things God’s way.
Gambling is man’s attempt to get what he wants from the world’s riches, even if it means getting rich from the failures of others. Gambling thinks only of self and never about the other person. Gambling has selfish motives that push a gambler to keep playing even though they are losing. It gives false hope that their “luck” might change.
Were the roulette wheel numbers purposefully assigned to add up to 666 or did the Lord simply allow it to happen as a subtle warning to the discerning to never engage in the unrighteous activity of gambling? How ever it may have happened, let’s not let the lesson be lost.
We would do well to heed Proverbs 28:22 which says, “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.”
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.