A friend invites you to a tarot card reading – promising it will be “fun” to learn about your future.
Or perhaps you’ve wondered if numerology, astrology, or other forms of divination are real or “that bad.”
Before you flirt with darkness – it’s crucial you understand God’s clear warning to all who dabble in any form of the occult – and the dangers that are sure to come.
Moses issued a stern warning against participating in any form of the occult – proclaiming it an abomination to the Lord.
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.
And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.”
Deuteronomy 18:9–12
Did you catch that?
Not only did Moses tell the people not to perform such actions – but he warned them not even to learn about them.
As Christians, while we say we “trust God” and His timing … the truth is – we always want to know what the future holds.
Essentially, without realizing it, we are somehow doubting God’s sovereignty, thinking we need to take matters into our own hands.
As John Piper wrote in Desiring God:
“Consulting mediums, tea leaves, fortune cookies, horoscopes, crystal balls, palmists, or any other oracles beyond God’s Word is wrong because it belittles God as an inadequate revealer of mysteries.
It says that God is either unable or unwilling to tell me all that is good for me to know.
Therefore, he lacks the power or the goodness to help me, and so I will take matters into my own hands. Therefore, people who really love God and trust his goodness and depend on his sovereign power, shun all practices of the occult.”
And while you might think horoscopes or tea leaf readings are harmless or even “fun” – God is clear in His word that we are to avoid divination.
Although Jesus is stronger, there is power in darkness.
Those who practice occult methods are putting their faith in powers that are not of God.
And every time we turn our minds over to darkness and ignore the warnings God has issued – disaster is sure to follow.
The occult is real, and participating in any portion of it will warp the mind of the participant and give the enemy a foothold.
Piper continues:
“No matter how innocent the practices of the occult seem at first, they are all dimensions of the one rebellion that has been underway since the Garden of Eden: the aim to avoid at all costs childlike submission to the limitations and provisions of a sovereign God, and to get instead a power which can be called great. Man in the occult is man in rebellion.”
Those who partake in the practices of the occult do so in many ways.
Some are obvious like flat-out satan worshipers or self-proclaimed witches.
Others believe the “universe” can heal all wounds, and think they have the power to be “self-healers.”
There is also a more subtle type – like the grieving widow who wants to “talk” to her dead husband through a medium.
Or the confused teen who thinks that tarot cards or horoscopes will help direct her future.
Regardless the level of involvement or intensity – let us take heed to God’s warning and avoid the occult and all its practices.
Instead, let us seek wisdom and knowledge from God, trusting He’ll give us the next “piece” of the puzzle for our lives in His perfect timing.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” – John 3:16-17
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