Minority Report

Wednesday, 15th August 2007

Just the other day, a dear brother, while trying to convince me that a Christian can lose his salvation, said "the majority of us hold this view", giving the impression that just because a majority of people embrace the same line of thinking, therefore that makes it correct.

Sorry, but I beg to differ on this.

Let's look at a case in point as recorded in Numbers 13.

12 men, one from each tribe, were sent to spy out the promised land of Canaan.
- Joshua from Ephraim
- Caleb from Judah
- Shammua from Reuben
- Shaphat from Simeon
- Igal from Issachar
- Palti from Benjamin
- Gaddiel from Zebulun
- Gaddi from Manasseh
- Ammiel from Dan
- Sethur from Asher
- Nahbi from Naphthali
- Geuel from Gad

Let's read the report the 12 spies came back with...

Majority Report
27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.
28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Minority Report
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." (Although not mentioned here, we know that Joshua held this view too, because later on we read that out of the 12 spies, only Caleb and Joshua entered the Promised Land).

To cut a long story short, 2 of the 12 spies gave a good report. 10 of the 12 gave a bad report.

In the end, the majority won...

...the right of wandering in the wilderness for another 40 years.

Yes, there is such thing as collective wisdom, but at times, there should also be room to consider the merits of the minority report. Amen?