There shall not be found among you he that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, that useth divination, that useth auguries, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,
Moses is preparing Israel to enter Canaan. Before he speaks of the Prophet God will raise up, he lists what the people of that land already did: burning their children, and hunting the future by every kind of magic. Why does God treat this as grounds for driving out whole nations, and what does He give His people instead?
The list is not random. It names the evils that had brought God's judgment on Canaan.
In the land of Canaan the evil of the nations had risen to a level God would not bear. Their sin had reached its full measure, so God was judging them before Israel. And God warns Israel not to take up any of the evil practices that brought His judgment.
The judgment does not stop at the practice.
The LORD declares plainly that everyone who does these things is an abomination to Him — not just the practices, but the people who practise them. Christianity has not changed this, and dressing these things up under respectable names cannot hold off God's judgment.
The ESV says the child was burned "as an offering." Older translations read "pass through the fire," and some have leaned on that older wording. One writer will not allow it:
Some have argued from the words "passing through the fire," here and elsewhere, that the children were not really burned. But that looks like a kind-hearted attempt to soften how evil this was. It was the worst, though not the only, way of dishonouring the name of Israel's God. The LORD accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller offering; Satan, under the names of these idols, demanded their sons.
What horrifies most is that people did this as worship. One writer passes on an old description of the idol:
Molech was a hollow brass body shaped like a man, with an ox's head and hands stretched out to receive. When it had been heated right through, the priests put the baby into its hands, while drums beat to drown the infant's cries, so that the parents would not relent. It seems hard to understand how religious zeal could excuse such wickedness, yet that is how satanic power seduces people.
Moses gathers up every word his language had for prying into hidden things. One writer numbers seven of them and explains each:
1. Observer of times: one who predicts good or bad by watching the heavens and events. 2. Enchanter. The Hebrew word is menachesh, linked to nachash, the Hebrew word for serpent. It means one who mutters spells. 3. Witch. 4. Charmer. 5. One who consults familiar spirits. 6. A wizard, who has access to a forbidden wisdom. 7. The necromancer, who questions the dead.
Another writer explains what lay behind several of them:
Witchcraft and fortune-telling were also firmly forbidden. So was the claim to read omens — that is, anything unusual that superstition might load with a hidden meaning. Anyone who claimed the insight to read such signs was the victim of satanic deceit. Sorcery, also forbidden, is the practice of digging into spiritism by using drugs.
The ban is not fear of the strange. One writer names the power behind these arts.
In His word — above all in Deuteronomy 18:9-14 — God condemns this evil in every form, without softening it. It is apostasy: a turning away from God and the truth He has revealed. It is dealing with demons, and it ruins everyone who practises it.
The chapter does not only forbid. God fills the gap Himself.
If the people who claim God's name turn to such things, it is not because God has refused them the joy and blessing of hearing His mind directly. It is because they have turned their back on Him. He would not even wait for the people to call on Him. He would come near to them Himself in the Prophet He would raise up like Moses, and they were to listen to that Prophet.
One writer reads the whole section as God foreseeing that faith would fail:
These rules foresee that the people would lack the faith needed to walk simply with the Lord. Christ is the true and only answer.
One writer applies this to anyone who consults the dead:
We are fully persuaded of this. When people give themselves to the dreadful business of calling up the spirits of the dead, in any way at all, they are putting themselves into the devil's hands, and he will deceive and fool them with his lies. What do people who hold a perfect revelation from God in their hands want with séances and spirit messages?
- Full — Canaan's sin had reached its full measure. These practices are why God removed the nations, and He told Israel not to copy them.
- Fire — The Molech rite was child sacrifice dressed as worship. God asked for a sheep; Satan demanded their sons.
- Fortune — The seven terms all chase one thing: hidden knowledge. Reading the sky, muttering spells, charms, familiar spirits, forbidden wisdom, questioning the dead.
- Filth — The verdict falls on the people, not only the acts. This is turning away from God and dealing with demons.
- Fulfilment — God did not leave His people in the dark. He gave a Prophet like Moses, and writers see Christ as the true and only answer, whose word leaves nothing worth seeking from the dead.
or a charmer, or one that inquireth of a spirit of Python, or a soothsayer, or one that consulteth the dead.
Moses closes his list of Canaan's forbidden practices with four more names. Each one names a way of getting information from the unseen world without God. Together they raise one question: why would people who have God's word want any other voice?
Older Bibles translate two of the terms here as "wizard" and "necromancer." The Hebrew roots say plainly what each practice was.
Wizard, from yiddeoni, "a knowing, wise one." The only thing Scripture says about such people is that they "chirp and mutter" (Isaiah 8:19). This was no doubt part of their spells, used to confuse those who came for advice. Necromancer, from darash methim, "to consult the dead." This word occurs only in Deuteronomy 18:11. Isaiah 8:19 implies the same thing: "Should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?" And in Psalm 106:28 we read of some who "ate sacrifices offered to the dead," which may have been a step towards consulting them.
The word behind "medium" describes the person, not the spirit. The best-known case is the woman Saul visited at Endor.
The word is ob, which means "a leather bottle or skin." It suggests that these people claimed to be filled and swollen with a spirit not their own... Apparently it was her profession to call up departed spirits. But on this occasion she recognised the work of a superior power. When she saw Samuel she cried out with a loud voice.
The charmer sounds harmless next to the medium. His Hebrew name explains why he is not.
Charmer, from chabar, "to join together, to fascinate." It goes with another word, lachash, "to speak in a soft gentle manner." The word is then used for the charming of snakes (Psalm 58:5). In the same way a man is deceived. He loses his dislike of contact with evil spirits until he finds himself under their power.
One writer holds that the person who "inquires of the dead" never reaches them at all. Endor is the one case where God stepped in.
One who calls up the dead claims to bring a dead person into contact with a living person. This is deception. A familiar spirit is really impersonating the dead person. King Saul asked the witch of Endor to bring up Samuel (1 Samuel 28:11). When the woman saw Samuel she was terrified (v.12), because she was used to the deceit of a familiar spirit. But God intervened in this one case to make a striking exception.
Are these people just frauds? One writer answers no, and points to what happens when such a person turns to Christ.
Is it not clear that divination should not be confused with mere trickery? However much of that may go with it, the real power of Satan is behind it. In modern times sorcerers in various parts of the earth have been converted. They confessed that a power beyond their own controlled them. They also confessed that it stopped completely when they believed and confessed Christ.
Why does God treat these practices so severely? One writer answers by pointing at Canaan itself.
It is apostasy — a turning away from God and His revealed truth. It is contact with demons, and it ruins all who practise it. The land of Canaan was full of this when the armies of Israel marched in, and God charged them to wipe it out. This evil was so widespread that it became one of the main reasons the holy and righteous God could tolerate the seven Canaanite nations no longer.
The chapter does not stop at the ban. Right after this list comes a promise: God would raise up a Prophet for His people to hear.
Here is the divine resource of the Lord's people, at all times and in all places... He shows them very clearly that they had no need to turn to familiar spirits, enchanters, wizards, or witches, all of which were an abomination to the Lord. "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen."
The same writer presses this on readers today, who hold a completed Bible:
What do people who hold a perfect revelation from God in their hands want with séances and spirit messages? Nothing at all. And suppose they are not content with that precious word. Suppose they turn to the spirits of departed friends or others. What can they expect? God will act as their judge and hand them over to wicked spirits, to be blinded and deceived. Those spirits come up, impersonate the departed, and tell all kinds of lies.
- Consulting — the word "necromancer" means "to consult the dead." It is used only here in the whole Bible.
- Charmed — the charmer works by fascination. He softens a person's dislike of evil spirits until that person is under their power.
- Counterfeit — those who claim to call up the dead never reach them. A familiar spirit impersonates the departed. That is why the woman at Endor was terrified when the real Samuel appeared.
- Condemned — this is not harmless trickery. Real satanic power stands behind it, and it was a main reason God emptied Canaan of its nations.
- Christ — the answer stands in the same chapter. God raised up a Prophet to be heard, so His people never need another voice.
For every one that doeth these things is an abomination to Jehovah, and because of these abominations Jehovah thy God doth dispossess them from before thee.
Just before this verse, Moses lists the practices Israel would meet in Canaan: spells, mediums, calling up the dead. Here God gives His verdict on all of them at once. It also says why the nations already in the land were losing it. The cause was their own corruption, not anything good in Israel.
God told Israel why the land was changing hands. The reason left no room for pride.
God clearly told Israel why these nations were judged: "Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you" (Deut. 9:5; Deut. 18:12). Leviticus 18 puts this truth in the strongest possible way, warning Israel not to fall into the same abominations: "And the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants."
That judgment came slowly, and one writer pictures God's right in it in everyday terms.
Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had also damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer put up with them. He had borne with the wickedness of the seven nations until it became unbearable. The land itself could not bear it. Any more patience would have meant approving the most terrible abominations.
One writer explains what each of these practices is, and what happened the one time God made an exception.
Verse 11 adds the evil of casting spells, that is, hypnotism. It adds the wickedness of acting as a medium. A medium is a go-between, bringing messages from an evil spirit to another person. A spiritist is similar, that is, one who has contact with evil spirits. One who calls up the dead claims to bring a dead person into contact with a living person. This is deception, for it is really a familiar spirit impersonating the dead person. King Saul asked the medium at Endor to bring up Samuel (1 Sam. 28:11), but when she saw Samuel she was terrified (v. 12), because she was used to the trickery of a familiar spirit. God stepped in on this one occasion to make a striking exception.
The verse calls the person who does these things an abomination, not just the practice itself. One writer names what stands behind them.
God in His word — especially in Deut. 18:9-14 — condemns this evil without mercy in all its forms. It is apostasy — a turning away from God and His revealed truth. It is contact with demons, ruinous to all who practise it. The land of Canaan was full of this when the armies of Israel marched in. That was one of the main reasons the holy and righteous God could put up with the seven Canaanite nations no longer.
The ban is not God keeping His people in the dark.
If people who claim God's name turn to such things, it is not because God has refused them the joy and blessing of hearing His mind directly. It is because they have turned their back on Him. He would not even wait for the people to call on Him. He would come near to them Himself in the Prophet He would raise up like Moses, and they were to listen to Him.
One writer warns where the real danger sits: in who owns your will.
I warn every soul, and the young most of all, against a light craving for what they do not understand. Above all, I warn them against giving up their will to anyone but the Lord Jesus. This is the essential point of danger. I have no doubt at all that there are powers in the natural world that men cannot explain. Let us not presume that we can account for everything. But even in our ignorance, the least of God's children ought to have this much wisdom. They know whom they have believed. They have His word and His Spirit. They can count on infinite love and power, and wisdom too, working for them.
What can the dead tell someone who already holds God's word? One writer answers bluntly.
The great point to keep always before our hearts is this: God's revelation is enough by itself. What do we want with departed spirits? ... "And when they say to you, 'Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,' should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn." (Isaiah 8:19-20.)
- Cause — The nations lost Canaan for their own wickedness, not for Israel's righteousness. God bore with them until the land itself could bear no more.
- Content — God names the practices: spells, mediums, spiritists, callers-up of the dead. Behind the dead person there is a familiar spirit playing a part.
- Contact — This is turning away from God and dealing with demons, ruinous to everyone who practises it.
- Communication — God did not leave His people in the dark. He came near Himself in the Prophet He promised, and they were to listen to Him.
- Command — Give your will to no one but the Lord Jesus, and rest in His word as enough.