#80 STAY AWAY FROM WITCHCRAFT 9-3-26
There are some doors that God never intended His people to open. One of those doors is the door of witchcraft. In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul had reached a terrible place in his rebellion against God. When the Lord would not answer him, Saul sought out a woman who practiced witchcraft. He knew better, yet desperation drove him toward something God had forbidden.
What makes this passage especially sobering is what happened when the woman was asked to bring up Samuel. When she saw what happened, she cried out with a loud voice and was greatly afraid (1 Samuel 28:12). Even she appears to have been shocked. Whatever she expected to happen, she did not seem to expect this. The text presents an extraordinary intervention of God in the situation. Saul had gone looking for the darkness, but God remained sovereign over what took place.
We need to understand something important. Witchcraft is real as a sinful practice, but we do not have to believe every claim made by people who practice it. Satan is a deceiver, and people can deceive themselves and others. Not every fortune teller knows the future. Not every medium actually communicates with the dead. Not every occult claim represents supernatural power. We should not become so radical in our opposition to witchcraft that we give the devil more power than the Bible gives him.
At the same time, we must never become so skeptical that we treat occult practices as harmless entertainment. God plainly commanded His people to stay away from them. He warned Israel against mediums, spiritists, divination, witchcraft, and attempts to communicate with the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). These things do not belong in the life of someone who trusts God.
The tragedy of Saul was not merely that he consulted a woman of witchcraft. The deeper tragedy was that he stopped trusting God when God did not give him the answer he wanted. When heaven seemed silent, Saul looked somewhere else. That is where many people get into trouble. When God does not answer quickly, we begin searching for another voice. When prayer seems unanswered, we become vulnerable to anything promising certainty.
But God’s silence is not an invitation to seek the devil. God’s silence is an invitation to wait, trust, pray, and obey.
We do not need tarot cards when we have the Word of God. We do not need mediums when we have access to the Father through Jesus Christ. We do not need horoscopes to tell us our future when our future rests in the hands of a sovereign God. We do not need to consult the darkness when we can walk in the light.
There is also a danger in becoming fascinated with the occult while claiming to oppose it. We do not need to spend our lives studying demons, devils, witches, and darkness. Our eyes need to be fixed on Jesus Christ. The best way to recognize darkness is to know the light. The best way to resist deception is to know the truth. The best way to avoid the counterfeit is to remain close to the genuine.
Saul’s story ends tragically because he chose another source when he should have returned to God. Let us learn from his mistake. Stay away from witchcraft. Stay away from the occult. Stay away from attempts to contact the dead and from practices God has forbidden. But do not live in irrational fear of people who claim supernatural powers. God is greater. Christ is Lord. Satan is not God’s equal.
Our confidence is not in our ability to understand every mystery. Our confidence is in the One who understands every mystery. We do not have to fear the darkness when we belong to the One who is the Light of the world.
BDD
