“…and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven.”

Whenever there is a discussion about the right number for a group of decision makers, like a corporate Board, or a committee, we will end up on the best practice being an odd number.  Why is this?  Well, because if a decision does come down to vote, we wouldn’t want to have a tie.  I wrote earlier this week about why voting can be a good decision-making tool, when needed.  So, in many ways we use the odd number of people in a group to protect ourselves from getting hung up if we can’t come to a majority decision.  But, notice that a jury in the court of law in the United States is 12 members.  Could it be that it’s more important in finding the real truth to know that a group has to hash it through until they come to something unanimously, or a verdict/decision just doesn’t happen.  The “it doesn’t happen” is the part that leads us to the odd numbers for a vote, but does the odd number decision truly lead to the best decision?

When the Apostles were replacing Judas, they had one spot open.  Jesus decided on 12 as the number He wanted to have in His closest circle of teaching and ministry.  Maybe there is nothing special in 12, but I do wonder if He chose 12 as an even number because if they ever did disagree, it couldn’t be only the power of men that a decision would be made.  He might have chosen 12 so that after He was gone they would have to lean on the Holy Spirit in order to make sure that they were in complete unanimity, or close to it, before they preceded.  This might also be a good test for us as we consider the decisions that we make in our work and life.  Of course, invite God into the decision first and then find an even number of advisers and don’t come to a decision until they all agree that there is a right decision to pursue.

Reference:  Acts 1:26 (New Living Translation)