Fortune Tellers as Agents of the Spirit World
Isaiah 8:19-20 (The Message Bible) warns, “When people tell you, ‘Try out the fortune tellers. Consult the spiritualists. Why not tap into the spirit-world, get in touch with the dead?’ Tell them, ‘No, we’re going to study the Scriptures.’ People who try other ways and attempt to find answers in life by accepting direction from unknown spirit beings place themselves in a very dangerous position and get nowhere—a dead end!”
While evil spirits might tell of things past and present, these evil intelligences are unable to do more than guess at the future. Yet these guesses are often so skillfully stated as to appear to be true even if the result is opposite of the expectation. We find a famous example in history.
The historian Herodotus makes several references to Croesus, King of Lydia in Asia Minor, who sought guidance from the Oracle at Delphi. Croesus asks Apollo’s priestess a key question: should he launch a pre-emptive strike against the Persians (who, under Cyrus, were just emerging as a rival power)? The oracle’s response is rightly famous: Herodotus reports that the priestess replied, should Croesus attack the Persians, a mighty empire would fall. Gleefully, Croesus launched his attack. Sadly, he didn’t realize that it would be his own empire that fell. Trusting the vague predictions of demons is dangerous and unreliable.
Scriptural Warnings against Fortune Tellers
“Fortune tellers” is a broad category that includes mediums, psychics, astrologers, channelers and tarot card readers. Speaking to Israel through Moses, God instructed the people in the following verses.
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (ESV) warns, “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination [witchcraft] or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD...”
A medium communicates with demons or fallen angels (also called spirit guides). Necromancy is the practice of communicating with the supposed dead, especially in order to discover what will happen in the future. Modern day channeling is the practice of entering a meditative or trancelike state in order to receive and convey messages from a spirit. Divination is the use of an object or objects to ascertain answers to questions or to see an event or events, which are not otherwise perceptible to the average person. A modern example of divination is tarot cards which are associated with unlocking the secrets of the future by supernatural means. As per Cognitive Market Research's latest published report for May 17, 2023, the Global Tarot Cards market size will be $93.80 Million by 2027.
Astrology is another danger God’s people are warned against in Isaiah 47:13-15 (NIV), “…Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you…They cannot even save themselves...Each of them goes on in his error; there is not one that can save you.”
Deuteronomy 18:12-14 (ESV) instructs, “…And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners (witches). But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.”
After all God’s warnings, Israel succumbed to fortune tellers, witchcraft and demons, masquerading as gods. 2 Kings 17:13-17 (KJV) records, “the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets…Notwithstanding they would not hear…And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God…and made a grove, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”
