Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Daily Encouragement: Future Teller


Today we're going to skip a couple of sections in Leviticus 19 (verses 19b-26 to be specific), and if you're curious, you can certainly go there and fill in the gaps, but we're going to focus in on the second half of verse 26 and all of verse 31.

"Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft.... Do not rely on mediums and psychics, for you will be defiled by them. I, the Lord, am your God."

To God, seeking out another person or thing to find out what you should do or what will happen in the future is on the same level as worshipping idols. He says "I, the Lord, am your God"-- not some other object or person.

Want to see how He really feels about it?

"And do not let your people practice fortune-telling or sorcery, or allow them to interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is an object of horror and disgust to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The people you are about to displace consult with sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things." (Deuteronomy 18:10b-14)

God sometimes reveals the future to people through dreams, visions, and prophecies, but it is not the person, it is God who knows the future. Even though we may receive a vision or dream from God, we do not see the full picture and do not know how things will all play out. When we turn elsewhere for help, for understanding, we are considered unfaithful.... much like an adulteress woman as she turns to other men for love and attention.

"If any among the people are unfaithful by consulting and following mediums or psychics, I will turn against them and cut them off from the community. So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I the Lord, am your God. Keep all my laws and obey them, for I am the Lord, who makes you holy." (Leviticus 20:6-8)

Instead, God wants us always to run to Him for answers, for insight, for wisdom, and for help:

"So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting mediums and psychics? Do not listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God?" (Isaiah 8:19)

For a long time when I was growing up, I used to love going through the section of the newspaper that had the crossword puzzles, "Dear Abby," and the horoscope. I'd check what it said under my "sign," just for fun of course, and then do the puzzle. I never knew there was anything wrong with that, but much later on I heard a discussion at church about consulting psychics and about astrology and horoscopes and found out that this is something that God wants us to stay away from. I didn't know where the scripture was, but because I heard I wasn't supposed to go to the horoscope, not even for fun, I stopped. Now, I see what it really means to Him when we do such things, and I want to encourage you today to consider how you or even your children might be seeking any outside person or thing for answers to questions about the future, for insight, or even for "fun" especially with regard to mediums, psychics, astrologists, tarot cards, horoscopes, or even Ouija boards and do away with them altogether. Remember, it's not about the LAW, it's about the HEART.

by Wendie Beddingfield

picture by stephan zabel

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