Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		June 16, 2012
Divination

Introduction

Divination is seeking knowledge by supernatural means¹. Usually the knowledge that people seek is about the future so that they can make good decisions. The Bible tells us that divination is wrong and some of the kinds of divination it proscribes are still present in society. But our society has developed new and sometimes more subtle methods of divination. We will look at these in this lesson.

Also the Bible allows some kinds of divination such as casting lots, which we see the apostles using after Judas' death to pick a replacement apostle². Also, the Old Testament priests used two stones called the Urim and Thummin to divine God's will. This lesson will also look at why these are acceptable to God and other methods are not.

Lesson

In Deuteronomy, Moses is giving the last instructions to the Israelites before the go into the promised land. He reminds them of the things that have happened during their 40 years in the desert and of the things that God has told them. In chapter 29 he says to the Israelites,

²⁹The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

This tells us much. There are many things that God knows that no one else knows. If he chooses he can reveal such hidden things as he chooses to reveal. Remember what Daniel said about God in Daniel 2 after God had revealed to him Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its meaning.

²²He reveals deep and hidden things […]

But the other side of the verse from Deuteronomy is that some hidden things are not revealed and that leaves room for others to pretend they can reveal them. Divination is an attempt to reveal these hidden things.

The longest list of methods of divination that God proscribes comes from Deuteronomy 18, where Moses is giving the Israelites instructions prior to entering the promised land.

⁹ When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. ¹³ You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

As you can see this lists some practices that are still in use today. There is a problem in the translation though. No one fully understands the Hebrew words that describe these practices. Some of the words are lost in time and some describe practices that we do not have today so there is no word to translate to. Therefore if you compare different translations of these verses you will see completely different lists.

That means we really don't know what most of the practices are. We understand the practices that are described in words, sacrificing children in fire and, consulting with familiar spirits, and consulting the dead, but the others are not clear. If we look at the Hebrew it lists "divination" as a noun and follows that with a bunch of verbs. The intent appears to be that the verbs are examples of practices that are divination. Therefore understanding the specific practices is less important than understanding divination. The practices change over time.

How do we know which modern practices are wrong and which are acceptable? What makes casting lots, as mentioned above, acceptable but Tarot cards not? What is the underlying principle that we can apply to everything in our lives? The answer is somewhat hidden in the verses that continue on from the ones above.

¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.

A note on the context of the verses above from Deuteronomy is important here. Verse 14 says do not listen to these diviners. The following verses, which we covered in the lesson A Prophet Like Me, talk about a coming prophet and the message is that the people should listen to him. As we saw in that lesson that prophet was to be the Messiah. However the people of Israel listened to the ones they shouldn't and killed the one they refused to listen to.

Also note this from verse 14 "The nations you will dispossess listen to those who …". God is kicking those nations out of their land (dispossess) because they have chosen to listen to diviners and mediums instead of him. This should be a warning to us as well.

Now look at this verse from 1 Samuel 15, where Samuel is telling Saul what he has done wrong.

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination, …

Saul was given explicit instructions by God through Samuel but he didn't follow them exactly. Instead he did some things that he probably thought would be even more pleasing to God. He was rebelling by not following God's instructions. But how is this like divination? Saul didn't use any divination techniques like reading bones or consulting spirits. The answer, which leads us to the underlying principle, is that Saul had consulted himself to determine what actions he should take.

So the answer is that it is less about the methods than about who you are consulting. What makes any method acceptable is that you are seeking hidden knowledge from God. Therefore what makes any method wrong is seeking hidden knowledge from anyone or anything else, whether it be from the dead, or from a living interpreter of something. God should be the one that we go to for answers; anything else is a false god.

In Isaiah 8, Isaiah makes this point that it matters who you consult.

¹⁹ When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

Hosea says something similar.

My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner's rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. (Hosea 4:12)

Don't think that I am saying the methods used for divination don't matter. The methods that God has despised should never be used even if you believe you are seeking knowledge from God. Therefore you should never go to a medium to ask for God's guidance. You should go to God with your question.

That doesn't mean God will give you an answer or that he will give that answer in the time that you want it. God withholds those things he wishes to withhold. We should take that as an excuse to consult some other source and do an end-run around God.

Now that we have the underlying principle we can understand why it was acceptable for the apostles to cast lots to determine Judas' replacement. In fact, the verses from Acts 1 spell it out clearly.

²³ So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. ²⁴ Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." ²⁶ Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

This principle also explains why the priests' Urim and Thummin stones were acceptable. They are mentioned so rarely that we don't know much about them or how they were used. But doubtlessly they were consecrated to God and as we saw with the apostles above, the priest would have prayed for God to show his will before using the stones.

So now that we have the underlying principle lets apply it to some techniques for divination in our society.

We can summarize these practices this way.

• Pray about everything, always. Turn every decision over to him

You may ask, if I turn every decision over to God, haven't I just become a mindless robot for God? When do I get to make decisions? But the truth is that with every decision you make you choose between God's way and some other way. God's way will always be the best way because he is God Omniscient; we are only children. Perhaps as we mature we will know him so well that we will automatically make the decision he would want us to make. But living in these bodies and in this world, we are easily deceived.

Decisions About the Future For Christians

Ideally every Christian would know the Holy Spirit's leading and make the right decision. But we know this doesn't always happen and our evidence often comes when we see a group of Christians who can't agree on a decision. On a personal level we are sometimes too emotionally involved, or politically involved or some other factor has swayed us. In short, sometimes we are hearing what we want, not what God wants.

We saw exactly this with the Apostles choosing a replacement for Judas by casting lots. But remember, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given to them. I'm told that the term "casting lots" appears 7 times in the New Testament, though I could only find 6. All of them appear before the Holy Spirit is given.

I take this as an indication that "casting lots" should not be our normal method of making decisions. God would much rather that we follow his leading. We can do this best by making sure that our relationship with God is solid and that there are no issues outstanding between us and God. We also need to clear out any conflicts we have, any things of the world that want to affect the decision. Then prayer is required, possibly prayer over many days. Then we need to make the decision and move forward in faith. Gods knows the decisions we face and will guide us if we will trust in him.

I'm sure many books have been written on this topic and I can't do it justice here.

But as mentioned above there are times when a group of Christians cannot agree. Or sometimes the decision is so critical or other factors are affecting you so strongly that you just don't trust yourself to make the decision. In times like these I think it is reasonable to pray that God will show his will by affecting the outcome of some "random" event, such as drawing a card from a deck, picking a name from a hat, or throwing a coin, or die.

I think these methods are better than voting, which we in democratic countries often turn to. When you have a group of Christians that can't agree you know already that you have a conflicted group and other factors are at play. So leaving the decision to a vote is really consulting a conflicted group of people, instead of God.

The Other Side of Divination

Divination isn't only trying to get information without consulting God. The other side is sorcery, where a person tries to exercise control without consulting God. Both are a rejection of God's authority, attempts to circumvent it. Therefore they fall under the 1^st of the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lord your God."

There are lots of techniques for this including magic spells, voodoo, and so on. As with trying to get information, the problem isn't so much the method as the heart that wants to do it.

The point is also not whether there are techniques for both that work. Again, it's the heart.

Conclusion

We would all like to know the future. That would give us some comfort but it isn't the Christian life. God wants us instead to walk in faith.

• Stay away from the kinds of divination that do not have God at their center. Don't even involve yourself in them for amusement. The fact that you would give some of your time to them indicates that you put some credence in them.
• God will reveal to you what you need to know
• Take every decision to God
• Prefer relying on the Holy Spirit for guidance over mechanical methods. This is Christian growth

¹ Encarta Dictionary - Microsoft Word

² Acts 1:26