VOX POPULI, VOX DEI?

“And Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” – I Kings 22:14

This popular Latin maxim, ‘Vox Populi, Vox Dei’, simply means, “The voice of the people is the voice of God”. Better still, it means, ‘the majority carries the vote.’ But is that really so? Is the voice of the populace the voice of God? If many people share the same opinion about a matter, does it mean that is God’s opinion too?

King Ahab intended to go to war and he decided to seek God’s face. He got 400 prophets to tell him what God was saying about the military expedition he wanted to embark on. Why 400 prophets? If Ahab’s heart was truly yielded to the Lord, he did not need 400 prophets to inquire from the Lord. Abiathar the priest (alone) was enough for David at Ziklag, when he needed to enquire about pursuing the Amalekites (I Samuel 30:7-8). It appears that Ahab sensed that God did not approve of the conquest he was about to pursue. He therefore proposed to silence God’s opinion with 400 ‘paid mouths’ saying the same thing, thinking that ‘if many prophets say it, then it must be what God is saying’. “Who has spoken and it comes to pass when the Lord has not spoken?” With God, majority does not always carry the vote, and the voice of the Lord does not necessarily agree with prevailing popular opinion.

We often behave like Ahab, when we know what God’s Word says about something, but we seek to justify our actions by popular opinion or behavior. We quickly seek out people (especially television personalities) who agree with us, glamorize or sanction our position, even when we know we are acting contrary to His Word. We say things like, “Well, everybody is doing it – God must be OK with it,” but like we saw in our text, 400 (false) prophets were lying through their teeth. Micaiah was a lone, different and unpopular voice, but he was the voice speaking for God. Sometimes, that godly, lone voice is our conscience, a parent, a spouse, a God honoring Pastor, a devoted friend, etc., and ultimately, the Word of God. Unfortunately, we often ignore these voices (of revelation) and we go with the voices of ‘reason.’

I pray that you will tune your ears to hear God’s voice amidst the ramblings of many ‘prophetic’ and ‘professional’ voices of our times in Jesus’ name. Let God be true and every man a liar.

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