Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Deuteronomy 18:11 forbids seeking hidden knowledge, supernatural guidance, and contact with the dead through charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers, including mediums, clairvoyants, and fortune-tellers. What is forbidden is holding intercourse with evil spirits, for the familiar spirits are spirits of devils, and entering into covenant with Satan by yielding to his control. The prohibition was given to deliver Israel from the abominations and corrupt divinations of the idolatrous nations around them, was counted an abomination punishable by death, and directed Israel to learn God's will through His appointed prophets instead of diviners. The same ban still binds today, for modern Spiritualism is that condemned witchcraft revived in a new disguise, covering seances and the disclosures of mediums as well as more pleasing forms such as Christian Science, Theosophy, and other Oriental mysticism. The deception succeeds because the belief that the dead are conscious with greater knowledge leads people to receive supposed messages from them as divine light, when in truth fallen angels doing Satan's bidding appear as messengers and work wonders through the medium. Even investigating such things from mere curiosity ventures onto dangerous forbidden ground into an enslaving power, and the only safety is trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of the Word of God.
Ancient Prohibition and Context
The verse forbids seeking hidden knowledge, supernatural guidance, and contact with the dead through charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers. That includes seeking messages from the dead or from spirits through mediums, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, and other occult agents who claim to communicate with spirits. What is forbidden is holding intercourse with evil spirits, for the familiar spirits are spirits of devils. The practice is covenant with Satan, yielding to his control to fulfill his purposes.
The prohibition was given under Israel's divine theocracy as part of God's purpose to deliver Israel from the abominations, corrupt customs, divinations, and superstitious practices of the idolatrous nations around them. Those practices had brought ruin on those nations and were a continual snare to Israel. Fellowship with wizards and communion with those who have familiar spirits is placed alongside sacrificing to Molech and making sons and daughters pass through the fire.
The practice is condemned as an abomination punishable by death. Saul fully knew its evil character and had enforced the law by commanding wizards and mediums to be put to death, yet in desperation he deliberately resorted to that condemned oracle for guidance. Sorcery was nevertheless secretly practiced at times by apostate Jews. Instead of seeking guidance from diviners or soothsayers, Israel was to have God's will made known through His appointed prophets. God's people were to sanctify themselves and be holy and keep His statutes, for He is the Lord who sanctifies them.
Modern Spiritualism and Safety
The prohibition is not limited to ancient Israel but still binds today and remains profitable, warning against spiritualism and calling God's people to avoid defiling communion with those who have familiar spirits and to sanctify themselves and be holy and keep His statutes, for He is the Lord who sanctifies them. Modern Spiritualism is that same condemned witchcraft revived in a new disguise, which is holding intercourse with evil spirits, even though the name of witchcraft is now held in contempt and the claim that men can hold intercourse with evil spirits is regarded as a fable. Its claimed communication with the dead through those who profess to communicate with spirits revives the old witchcraft, for the familiar spirits involved are spirits of devils and dealing with them is an abomination forbidden under penalty of death.
The ban covers secret associations and seances and the obscurities, wonders, and disclosures of spiritualistic mediums in the present day, even when they appear in forms different from ancient heathen worship. To refuse light from God's Word and through His Spirit and eagerly receive what mediums disclose is heathen worship and yielding to the deceiver's power and to Satan's arts under a different form. It includes more pleasing forms of spiritism that people accept while shrinking from consulting spirit mediums, including Christian Science and the mysticism of Theosophy and other Oriental religions. These practices are modern forms of the same idolatrous deception as consulting the oracle at Ekron or the medium at Endor, and their claims and disclosures about supernatural guidance from mediums, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, and other occult agents mislead people away from God and His Word. Some who claim to heal through electricity, magnetism, or sympathetic remedies are channels of Satanic power.
Calling on dead people to appear and believing that they return from their graves to speak is the necromancy forbidden here, identified with Spiritualism and heathen superstition. The deception works because the belief that the dead are conscious in the presence of God and holy angels with knowledge far greater than they had on earth leads people to expect them to return to enlighten and instruct the living and to receive their communications as sacred divine light. In truth fallen angels doing Satan's bidding appear as messengers from the spirit world professing to bring the living into communication with the dead, and the forbidden art is covenant with Satan, yielding to his control to fulfill his purposes, in return for which Satan works wonders through the medium and reveals secret things while exercising a bewitching influence upon minds. Consulting familiar spirits, wizards, charmers, and necromancers is forbidden and dangerous ground, and even investigating Spiritualism from mere curiosity without real faith or intent to become a medium ventures onto that forbidden ground into the toils of the deceiver, coming under an enslaving power from which nothing but the power of God can deliver. The only safety is trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of the Word of God, which alone charts the narrow path that shuns the pitfalls of destruction.
Deuteronomy 18:11 forbids seeking hidden knowledge, supernatural guidance, and contact with the dead through charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers, including mediums, clairvoyants, and fortune-tellers. What is forbidden is holding intercourse with evil spirits, for the familiar spirits are spirits of devils, and entering into covenant with Satan by yielding to his control. The prohibition was given to deliver Israel from the abominations and corrupt divinations of the idolatrous nations around them, was counted an abomination punishable by death, and directed Israel to learn God's will through His appointed prophets instead of diviners. The same ban still binds today, for modern Spiritualism is that condemned witchcraft revived in a new disguise, covering seances and the disclosures of mediums as well as more pleasing forms such as Christian Science, Theosophy, and other Oriental mysticism. The deception succeeds because the belief that the dead are conscious with greater knowledge leads people to receive supposed messages from them as divine light, when in truth fallen angels doing Satan's bidding appear as messengers and work wonders through the medium. Even investigating such things from mere curiosity ventures onto dangerous forbidden ground into an enslaving power, and the only safety is trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of the Word of God.
Ancient Prohibition and Context
The verse forbids seeking hidden knowledge, supernatural guidance, and contact with the dead through charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers. That includes seeking messages from the dead or from spirits through mediums, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, and other occult agents who claim to communicate with spirits. What is forbidden is holding intercourse with evil spirits, for the familiar spirits are spirits of devils. The practice is covenant with Satan, yielding to his control to fulfill his purposes.
The prohibition was given under Israel's divine theocracy as part of God's purpose to deliver Israel from the abominations, corrupt customs, divinations, and superstitious practices of the idolatrous nations around them. Those practices had brought ruin on those nations and were a continual snare to Israel. Fellowship with wizards and communion with those who have familiar spirits is placed alongside sacrificing to Molech and making sons and daughters pass through the fire.
The practice is condemned as an abomination punishable by death. Saul fully knew its evil character and had enforced the law by commanding wizards and mediums to be put to death, yet in desperation he deliberately resorted to that condemned oracle for guidance. Sorcery was nevertheless secretly practiced at times by apostate Jews. Instead of seeking guidance from diviners or soothsayers, Israel was to have God's will made known through His appointed prophets. God's people were to sanctify themselves and be holy and keep His statutes, for He is the Lord who sanctifies them.
Modern Spiritualism and Safety
The prohibition is not limited to ancient Israel but still binds today and remains profitable, warning against spiritualism and calling God's people to avoid defiling communion with those who have familiar spirits and to sanctify themselves and be holy and keep His statutes, for He is the Lord who sanctifies them. Modern Spiritualism is that same condemned witchcraft revived in a new disguise, which is holding intercourse with evil spirits, even though the name of witchcraft is now held in contempt and the claim that men can hold intercourse with evil spirits is regarded as a fable. Its claimed communication with the dead through those who profess to communicate with spirits revives the old witchcraft, for the familiar spirits involved are spirits of devils and dealing with them is an abomination forbidden under penalty of death.
The ban covers secret associations and seances and the obscurities, wonders, and disclosures of spiritualistic mediums in the present day, even when they appear in forms different from ancient heathen worship. To refuse light from God's Word and through His Spirit and eagerly receive what mediums disclose is heathen worship and yielding to the deceiver's power and to Satan's arts under a different form. It includes more pleasing forms of spiritism that people accept while shrinking from consulting spirit mediums, including Christian Science and the mysticism of Theosophy and other Oriental religions. These practices are modern forms of the same idolatrous deception as consulting the oracle at Ekron or the medium at Endor, and their claims and disclosures about supernatural guidance from mediums, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, and other occult agents mislead people away from God and His Word. Some who claim to heal through electricity, magnetism, or sympathetic remedies are channels of Satanic power.
Calling on dead people to appear and believing that they return from their graves to speak is the necromancy forbidden here, identified with Spiritualism and heathen superstition. The deception works because the belief that the dead are conscious in the presence of God and holy angels with knowledge far greater than they had on earth leads people to expect them to return to enlighten and instruct the living and to receive their communications as sacred divine light. In truth fallen angels doing Satan's bidding appear as messengers from the spirit world professing to bring the living into communication with the dead, and the forbidden art is covenant with Satan, yielding to his control to fulfill his purposes, in return for which Satan works wonders through the medium and reveals secret things while exercising a bewitching influence upon minds. Consulting familiar spirits, wizards, charmers, and necromancers is forbidden and dangerous ground, and even investigating Spiritualism from mere curiosity without real faith or intent to become a medium ventures onto that forbidden ground into the toils of the deceiver, coming under an enslaving power from which nothing but the power of God can deliver. The only safety is trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of the Word of God, which alone charts the narrow path that shuns the pitfalls of destruction.