Day 88 or March 29. Majorities can be wrong. Our thoughts today are rooted in 2 Samuel
chapter 19 verse 43. Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, We have ten shares
in the king, so we have a greater claim on David than you have.
And now the big picture surrounding this verse. When David lost his favourite son, Absalom,
he was in danger of slipping into a desperate state from which he might never recover. With
the help of his army general, Joab, David gets his priorities back in balance. It's
ironic that the man who killed Absalom was the man who helped David get over his bereavement.
David now turns his attention to reconciling the north and south of his kingdom. The north-south
divide was to prove a problem for many centuries and was even a big issue in the days of Jesus.
And now our action step for today. Many think, incorrectly, that majorities are always right.
The bigger your vote or support, the more correct you are. Living in a democratic society
can lead you to believe this. In reality, a democracy is a place where whatever the
majority wants is declared legal. Groups of Christians or even individual believers should
not think democratically but theocratically. Speaking personally as a Baptist or free churchman,
we have church meetings to decide the road ahead. But I never cease to be surprised that
folk think if a motion has a majority, then it's okay. I'd been involved in too many
church meeting decisions to know that this is far from true. The tribes of Israel thought
they were right 10 to 2, which was ironically the same statistic as when the spies explored
the promised land, and they got it wrong big time. When you have a decision to make, don't
think in terms of how much support you have. It's only God's opinion that counts. Voting
is meant to show how you think God would vote. It's not meant to give us a chance to get
our own way, if only we can get enough finance or enthusiastic supporters.