Or a charmer , or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer .
This verse is one item in a longer list of occult practices God explicitly forbade for ancient Israel as they prepared to enter Canaan — a land where these practices were considered normal tools for navigating life. Consulting mediums or spiritists meant attempting to communicate with the dead or with spirits to gain hidden knowledge or guidance about the future. God's prohibition was stark and specific: don't do this. He positioned Himself as Israel's one legitimate source of guidance and wisdom, and turning to the spirit world for answers was a fundamental act of distrust — going around God to someone else for what only He should provide.
God, I confess how quickly I run to every other voice when I'm afraid of what's coming. Teach me to trust You as my source — not because You always answer fast, but because You are faithful and You actually know what lies ahead. Pull me back when I wander toward the shortcuts. Amen.
The desire to know what's coming is one of the most human things there is. We check horoscopes, ask psychics, obsessively Google symptoms at midnight, run every 'what if' scenario through our heads until 2 AM — because uncertainty is uncomfortable and we want something, anything, to give us a handle on the future. The ancient Israelites weren't so different. The nations around them had built whole systems to peer behind the curtain: mediums, spiritists, people who claimed to speak with the dead. It was the search engine of its day — a way to feel less lost in an unpredictable world. God's prohibition here isn't the decree of a jealous deity who wants to hoard secrets. It's the warning of a Father who knows that the shortcuts we reach for when we're anxious don't actually calm our anxiety — they deepen it. Every time you consult something other than God to ease your fear of the unknown, you're slowly training yourself to trust the wrong voice. That doesn't mean God always answers quickly or clearly. But the practice of turning to Him — even in the silence, even when it's uncomfortable and the answer doesn't come — is the only thing that actually reorients a restless soul. What are you consulting when you're afraid?
In the context of ancient Israel entering a new land full of uncertainty, why do you think God was so serious about these specific practices — what was being threatened beyond just a religious rule?
What are the modern equivalents you tend to reach for when you want certainty or guidance about the future — and how much weight do you actually give them?
Here's a harder question: Is there a meaningful spiritual difference between consulting a medium and compulsively seeking reassurance from people, the internet, or self-help books instead of God — or is the dynamic essentially the same?
How does your pattern of seeking guidance — whether from God or from other sources — affect the people around you, particularly in how you make decisions that impact them?
What is one specific area of your life where you've been seeking answers from every available source except God — and what would it look like to bring that particular thing to Him this week and wait?
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Exodus 22:18
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
Isaiah 8:19
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
1 Samuel 15:23
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:31
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
Acts 16:16
or one who casts a charm or spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or a necromancer [who seeks the dead].
AMP
or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,
ESV
or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
NASB
or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
NIV
or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
NKJV
or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.
NLT
casting spells, holding s-ances, or channeling with the dead.
MSG