“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” – Exo 22:18
“When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken” - (Dt 18:9-16)

We have previously examined the sins in the Law that were worthy of capital punishment. This week we will take a closer look at one of them, that is a source of controversy even today. Part of the controversy has to do with the meanings that we have come to associate with words based on the translations from the Hebrew. The other element is our desire to know – Why? Why on earth would something like this even exist in our religious text, and what conceivable reason could our God have to forbid it?

Let us address the word/translation issue first. There are a lot of words in the texts above that refer to occult practices, the Hebrew words and meanings for them are:
- Witch : Kashaph :- whisper a spell, i.e. to inchant or practise magic:— sorcerer, (use) witch (-craft)
- Divination : Kawsam:- to distribute, i.e. determine by lot or magical scroll; by impl. to divine, a lot; or Kehsem - also divination (incl. its fee), oracle
- Observer of times: Anan:- to cover or cloud over;from Anan meaning cloud; figuratively. to act covertly, i.e. practise magic: bring, enchanter, Meonemin, observe (-r of) times, soothsayer, sorcerer.
- Enchanter : nâchash, naw-khash :- to hiss, i.e. whisper a (magic) spell; gen. to prognosticate:— × certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) enchantment, learn by experience, diligently observe [ ALSO the word used for the Serpent(!) – from the sense of hissing ]
- Charmer: Chabar :- to join (lit. or fig.); spec. (by means of spells) to fascinate: charm (-er), be compact, couple (together), have fellowship with, heap up, join (self, together), league.
- Consulter : shawal, shawale, shehale :- to inquire, ask counsel, consult
- Wizard : Yiddehonee :- (from Yada- Know) – knower, knowing one, conjurer, ghost
- Necromancer: Darash :- to tread or frequent; usually to follow (for pursuit or search); by impl. to seek or ask; spec. to worship,inquire, make inquisition, [necro-] mancer, question, require, search,

That is an impressive array of words and shades of meaning! They are however unified by a common theme – looking to get knowledge of things that are hidden, or using hidden knowledge to dupe/take advantage of people.

The English word for Witch seems to denote etymologically “one that knows.” it is historically both masculine and feminine; indeed the Anglo-Saxon form wicca, to which the English word is to be traced, is masculine alone. “Wizard” is given as masculine for witch, but it has in reality no connection with it. in 1Sa_15:23, “the sin of witchcraft” should be as in the Revised Version margin, “the sin of divination,” the latter representing the Hebrew word kehsem, generally translated “divination”. The verb “bewitch” occurs in Act_8:9, Act_8:11 the King James Version (of Simon Magus bewitching the people) and in Gal_3:1 (“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?”). In the first context the Greek verb is, exı́stēmi, which is properly rendered by the Revisers “amazed”; in Gal_3:13 the passive of the same verb is translated “he was amazed” (the King James Version “He wondered”). In Gal_3:1, the verb is baskaubaı́nō, which is used of a blinding effect of the evil eye and has perhaps an occult reference, but it has nothing whatever to do with “witch” or “witchcraft.” Similar references (e.g Pharmakeia.. should be understood as dealing with potions) to these arts all have the sense of people dabbling in arts or knowing more than their fellow humans. The Salem hysteria in Massachusetts was totally unfounded insofar as it accused young girls of selling their souls to the devil. That is not what witchcraft was as understood in the OT… it meant one who knew how to, and actually cast spells.

So what is our point? A Witchcraft is not what you think it may mean based upon your current context and understanding. B....

..is illustrated by the last sentence in our text this week. The People of Israel were not to go looking for knowledge or information from humans that knew or pretended to know more than their fellows by means of their arts, or companionship with spirits. They were to listen to the Law, and the Prophets that were properly authenticated by uttering prophecies that came true. Interestingly Deut 18:16 is the reference quoted by Muslims to say that their prophet was prophesied in the OT, and furthermore that he would come from Israels brethren – i.e. Ishmael , however it is properly understood as referring to Christ, God’s son, the very last Prophet (capital P) – as the book of Hebrews says –“ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” – Christ IS the final WORD.

This is the trap Adam and Eve fell into, when they listened to the hiss of the serpent telling them that God’s motives for denying them the forbidden fruit were to prevent them from acquiring divine knowledge. All they ended up doing was sinning and causing death to enter the world through sin. Now do you see it? Listening to voices other than the voice of God bring death, and hence death is the punishment for those who are the agents of those voices.
God gives us Knowledge and Truth in His Word. He tells us not to be afraid of spells or these diviners of false prophets because they have no power over us. His Spirit leads us into all truth and exposes the lies of the enemy. God has gifted us our capabilities to discover His Laws through science and the scientific method of establishing truth, and enabled us to see His created/reflected Glory with our own eyes. He has told us the paranormal exists, and has not hidden their agenda from us. Now its up to you… do you want your life to be guided by an astrology column, or a medium giving you messages from Aunt Agatha? Mediums are real, familiar spirits are real – but YOU ARE NOT TO LISTEN TO THEM OR BE AFRAID OF THEM!!!
This is a Law that humanity (and even the Jews) broke by seeking knowledge (Kabbalah etc.) that ultimately did not bring them peace or joy, just a temporary power over material things. Would you sell your immortal soul for such?