Playing Lotto

"Four weeks later on April 2, three-and-a-half years to the day since playing my first Lotto ticket, God prompted me to buy a ticket for the following Wednesday’s draw on April 5. April 2 happened to be Palm Sunday – the day that Christians mark the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.

This was the seventh time in a row that God had prompted me to buy a ticket for a Wednesday draw, ignoring those that fell on a Saturday.
The first ticket was purchased for the Wednesday, January 4, 2023 draw, with subsequent tickets on January 11, January 18, February 15, March 8 and March 15 – all on a Wednesday!

April 5 was an interesting date in more ways than one. Not only was it the 7th ticket in a row to fall on a Wednesday, but it was also day 777 since my first proposed baptism on February 18, 2021! (I only discovered this fact on January 4, 2023 – the first of the seven draws to fall on a Wednesday. God prompted me to buy the first of these seven tickets one day earlier on January 3).

It was also religiously significant as well. April 5 is the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, biblically known as Passover – the day that many people believe Christ was crucified on. The draw itself would take place in the evening of April 5 which is the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th of Nisan – also a day that some people believe Christ was crucified on.

And finally, some people also believe that Christ was crucified on April 3, making April 5 the date of His resurrection!
In a way, this story touches on all the key elements of Christ’s ministry: Baptism, his three-and-a-half-year ministry, the triumphal entry in Jerusalem where he presented himself as the Messiah and King of the Jews, His crucifixion and resurrection. So it would appear to me that this was by design rather than chance for all these things to fall on this day."
 
Update: April 15, 2023:
 
"Eight days later on April 13, just before midnight, it came to mind that in my 7th tranche of tickets, only one out of the 12 tickets that were purchased fell on the Wednesday draw (the 11th ticket). All the rest fell on a Saturday – the 7th day of the week. I found that a little unusual at the time, given that all the rest of them were inspired for the Saturday draw, so I decided to see how long it was between this one draw that fell on a Wednesday, and the start of the seven draws in a row that also fell on a Wednesday. It turns out that it was exactly 8 months and 8 days (April 27, 2022 – January 4, 2023). Remarkably, it was also the 11th ticket in the 9th tranche of tickets which began the seven draws in a row on Wednesday!

Given that the number 888 is often associated with Jesus Christ, I decided to see if there was another ‘number 8’ associated with this story. It turns out that there were several! Because it was well after nightfall when I discovered this, it was the beginning of the eighth day of the Omer in Judaism! (The 50-day count between the Feast of First Fruits and the Feast of Weeks/Shavuot). The eighth day of the Omer ran from nightfall on April 13 through to nightfall on April 14. So there was my third ‘number 8’ in this story!

However, the association with the number 8 didn’t end there! The weekly Torah portion for the week ending Saturday, April 15, was Parashat Shemini, meaning “eighth”! (Leviticus 9:1–11:47). Its name is derived from the first significant word in the portion." 

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