The Voice of the People and the Voice
of God
What about those cases when the "voice of the people" is
directly opposed to the "voice of God?"
Those of us with
the fortune (and concomitant responsibilities) of living in a democracy can
fall into the temptation of placing too much faith in majority decisions, for
even when most of the people endorse a certain choice, that alone does not make
it the right choice! There's a Latin phrase that expresses that mistaken
mindset: Vox populi, vox Dei - the voice of the people is equivalent to the
voice of God!
Without a doubt,
the clear opinion of the majority on any issue needs to be taken into
consideration, but what about those cases when the "voice of the
people" is directly opposed to the "voice of God?" Chapters 13
and 14 of Numbers recounts one of the many times when a clear majority reached
a conclusion which conflicted with Divine Revelation. A minority report,
submitted by Caleb and Joshua, advocated trust in God, who had led the
Israelites out of Egypt with the specific intention of bringing them to the
Promised Land. But the majority of the Israelite spies refused to believe God
would give them the necessary help to overcome the expected resistance from the
Canaanites, and therefore they despaired of ever possessing the Promised Land,
and they even marshaled a majority of the people to take their side.
The consequences
were tragic - by following the voice of the majority, instead of the clear
voice of God, the Israelites doomed themselves to the frustration of forty
years of pointless wandering in the wilderness, when they could have enjoyed
the fruits of the Promised Land in their own lifetimes, if only they had
listened to God, and the minority which took His side. In our own day too,
there are always tragic consequences whenever immorality is justified on the
basis of majority opinion, for the voice of the people never can carry the same
authority as the voice of God....