Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 18:9-11 (New International Version)

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 his 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.

Moses is speaking to the people before they enter the promised land. He tells them:

There are people in the land who engage in the supernatural evil. Don’t do that.

In our (post)modern world, we laugh at the concept of witches. Witches are for The Wizard of Oz and Halloween. Palm Readers are cheap con artists who take a little money from the gullible. Speaking to the dead? Well, that is just plain silly and no one takes it seriously.

Take it all seriously.

The Bible tells us on several occasions that people work in the supernatural for evil. I believe that people can talk to the dead, cast evil spells on other people, and interpret omens just as I believe that people can be misguided enough to sacrifice their children in fire. We see people in our world abusing their children beyond belief. We don’t see people talking to the dead. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned by what we see and don’t see.

Regardless, both the Old and New Testaments speak of the supernatural evil, and I have not found where the Bible says that these will cease.

By the way, Wikipedia has an excellent article introducing the subject of witchcraft.