PSYCHIC NOT-LINE
I watched a crime show recently that featured a palm reader who was taking advantage of people and manipulating them out of their money. In one case she ended up getting over a million dollars from this elderly woman. It's sad. But unfortunately it's not uncommon for people to spend a lot of money on psychic hotlines, fortune tellers and things like that.
I'd say probably everyone has at least been curious about the future or the afterlife. And it's natural to miss our loved ones who have passed on and want to connect with them again. I think that's why things like fortune tellers, mediums and horoscopes are popular. There are even TV shows and events that focus on psychics and making contact with the spirit world.
What do we make of all this? Are things like horoscopes and astrology ok? Are things like Ouija boards and holding séances just harmless fun? What does God think about all this?
1) God calls it evil.
In Deut. 3 Moses explains to Joshua that he will not be going to the promised land. But he was to commission and encourage Joshua to lead the people. Much of what follows are instructions for the Israelites in preparation for when that time came. Some of that preparation came in warning them to avoid the evil practices that were going on there.
Deut. 18:9-15, "When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God."
The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him."
We see the word detestable multiple times here so God wanted this reality to be emphasized. Detestable means vile, disgusting, wicked, shameful; you get the picture.
Moses lists many practices here. What do they all mean? Medium: a person who works as a mediator between a person and a spirit. Spiritist: Hebrew-soothsayer. This would be a fortune teller. One who casts spells calls upon the power of spirits for evil purposes.
Divination: to find something out by interpreting signs and through astrology and even by examining animal organs. Sorcerer: someone who combines any of the other practices mentioned. Witchcraft: similar to a sorcerer. But in the Hebrew it describes it as "often with the associative meanings of rebellion and seduction into false religion". All of the things listed here are what the pagans would've cherished and held in high honor. But in reality they are evil.
And God is making his main point with the last verse. All the people in these lands are practicing these things because they don't have God with them. But you do. So there's no reason for you to do these detestable practices because I am speaking through Moses and I will be raising up prophets for you to listen to. So it's foolish, rebellious and evil if you turn to these worthless things instead of listening to me.
There's the crux of the matter. The reason all of these things are evil is because they draw us away from God. These practices rely on the power of evil to accomplish things, not God. If you want answers, don't go to God, go to the fortune teller. If a witch casts a spell on you you're doomed; not even God can help you. My horoscope will tell me what my future holds; I'll trust that, not God.
God knew the damage all this caused so he wanted his people to understand that they needed to take this very seriously. Exodus 22:18, "Do not allow a sorceress to live."
That's pretty cut and dry. You may think God is being too severe but he knows human nature. If someone who practiced this was allowed to continue it would be a yeast that would work its way through the rest of the dough. Lev. 19:31, "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God."
Notice it doesn't say, 'you might be defiled', it says 'will be defiled'. If we think we can go to fortune tellers or call psychic hotlines and not be affected we're wrong. If God says it will corrupt us then it will whether we think so or not. In Lev. 20:27 God commanded that mediums and spiritists be put to death.
God may not tell us to go and kill the palm readers but he does want us to remove these kinds of things from our lives. Col. 3:5 tells us to put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature. If it's serious to God then it should be serious to us.
2) If these things are evil why do they work?
Sometimes horoscopes are accurate. There are times when the fortune tellers say things that come true. We think, 'if God is against all this why doesn't he cause them to fail every time?' We know we live in a fallen world where sometimes, evil efforts are allowed to succeed. If God stopped every evil thing from taking place we would be living in a perfect world. That day will come but until then we have to continue to live in a fallen world.
The reality is Satan has power. However, his power is no match for God's.
Ex. 7:8-12, "The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded.
Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs."
I'm sure when Moses and Aaron saw Pharaoh's magicians do what Aaron did they were shocked. That is, until Aaron's snake ate up all of theirs. Then it was Pharaoh's turn to be shocked.
If you read on, he didn't get the message and continued to harden his heart. A big reason for that was because his magicians were able to repeat the first two plagues that God brought forth; which was pretty foolish. God brings a plague of blood and then frogs and Pharaoh's magicians thought they were showing God up by doing the same thing?
Hello? You're just helping God out by repeating these miracles. Now you have more blood and more frogs. How's that working for you? After Pharaoh's magicians did this, he asked Moses to pray to remove the frogs because they were everywhere.
Then, when the plague of gnats came, Pharaoh's magicians tried to repeat it but they couldn't. In 8:19 they said to Pharaoh, 'this is the finger of God'. It was sad that after the whole frog business the magicians didn't learn. But God showed mercy by not allowing them to repeat the miracle of gnats. Plus, it allowed them to see that God was more powerful. But Pharaoh's heart was still hard.
Nevertheless, this showed that although Satan has power and can work through people like mediums and palm readers and such, his power is never any match for God's.
Acts 8 starts out by telling us a great persecution broke out against the church and all except the Apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Philip went to Samaria and began proclaiming the gospel and performing miracles. That's where we meet Simon the Sorcerer.
Acts 8:9-13, "Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the Great Power.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.
But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw."
Simon had quite the reputation. To be known as the Great Power was no small thing. So it's obvious that his sorcery was powerful. But then Philip came to town the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowed the power of Satan. So much so that not only did the people believe and get baptized, Simon himself was won over.
The one who amazed all the people became amazed by what he saw Philip do. He may have been known as the divine power, but he couldn't do what the real divine power could. No matter what can be accomplished through sorcery or witchcraft; it's nothing compared to what God can do!
3) What about King Saul and the witch of Endor?
1st Sam. 28:4-19, "The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all the Israelites and set up camp at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.
Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.” “There is one in Endor, ” they said. So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”
But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?” Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As surely as the LORD lives, you will not be punished for this.”
Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” “Bring up Samuel,” he said. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”
The woman said, “I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.” “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has turned away from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”
Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy? The LORD has done what he predicted through me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David.
Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the LORD has done this to you today. The LORD will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines.”
Since the Lord didn't tell Saul what he wanted to know, he resorted to something he knew was wrong in God's eyes. He panicked and became worried about facing the Philistines. He was afraid of them before when Goliath was taunting the troops. Then David comes along and defeats the giant. Unfortunately Saul didn't learn enough from that experience and so here he is being afraid all over again.
Sometimes when we inquire of the Lord he doesn't answer as soon as we'd like him to. What will we do? Will we panic and resort to something we know the Lord doesn't approve of instead of being patient and trusting? Satan is always happy to oblige those who turn away from God and seek something else for answers.
God had ways he spoke to the people. Whether it was through the prophets, dreams, Urim and Thummim; two objects found on the breastplate of the High Priest. They represented light and perfection or revelation and truth. In the NT you find the practice of casting lots. This was similar to rolling dice except it wasn't a game of chance. The Apostles cast lots to see who would replace Judas.
So if God allowed casting lots to reveal things what's wrong with fortune tellers, Ouija boards and horoscopes? God determines how he chooses to speak and anything else is calling on an evil power to speak. Aside from that, the practice of casting lots went away when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. You don't see any mention of the practice after that.
We have the Holy Spirit; that's how God communicates to us. He can still use dreams or other means but we're to rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us, not horoscopes, Ouija boards or palm readers.
Saul wanted answers from God but he wasn't getting any. So how can Saul be in the wrong? He tried going to God but it didn't work. God's silence does not justify our sin. If God isn't answering me there's a good reason. Either something's in the way, like sin or it's something we're not supposed to know; at least at that time.
But if God is against mediums and witchcraft why did he allow the witch to bring Samuel up? God used it to expose Saul's hypocrisy, not to condone witchcraft. God revealed to the witch who the mystery guest was. Then God allowed Samuel to manifest to chastise Saul and reveal why God was silent.
God's judgment came against Saul because he did what he thought was good enough. In 1 Sam. 15 God told him to completely get rid of the Amalekites and even the animals but Saul decided to save the best of the animals to sacrifice to God. Sounds good, right? God should be happy with Saul's thoughtfulness. He wasn't. And Samuel told him so.
When God gives specific instructions we think we can compromise and God will be okay with it. "I know you didn't want me to call the psychic hotline but I only stayed on for 15 minutes this time. At least I went to church the next day." No matter how much we rationalize our sin, it's still sin; we're still being unfaithful.
1st Chron. 10:13-14, "Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse."
God used the story of Saul and the witch of Endor not to communicate that witchcraft is okay but to expose Saul's hypocrisy and to reveal his judgment. This is a lesson for us. We don't look to mediums, psychics, fortunes tellers, palm readers, Ouija boards, horoscopes or any of that. We inquire of the Lord. And even though Saul did that he didn't stay faithful to continue to do that; he resorted to something God didn't approve of.
There's no need to look anywhere else because God knows all and sees all and he will never mislead us, unlike the example in my introduction where the palm reader took advantage of people.
Fortune tellers, psychics, palm readers, it's all a lucrative business largely built on deception. They will tell you what you want to hear. And if you go back and say it didn't work, they put it back on you, saying you must've did something wrong or come up with some other excuse to hide their falsehood.
But God will never tell us what we want to hear. God is not after our money. We can trust him to give us all the answers we need, all the insight we need and all the help we need to face whatever comes our way.
Don't settle for inferior power. God loves us; he doesn't want us to deprive ourselves by settling for all the substandard worldly ways. Psychic hotline? More like psychic not-line.
