Deuteronomy 18:9 ¶ 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. 10 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,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with
familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 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. 14 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 Israelites are warned repeatedly about not following the
religions of Canaan. Sacrificing a child to a god by burnt offering was not
uncommon. Diviners and observers of times are basically fortune-tellers. Let me
review comments made in the study on Leviticus.
“Leviticus 18:19 ¶ Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to
uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. 20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy
neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her. 21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass
through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy
God: I am the LORD. 22 Thou shalt
not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to
defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie
down thereto: it is confusion. 24
Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the
nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit
the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes
and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither
any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have the men of
the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye
defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For whosoever shall commit any of these
abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from
among their people. 30 Therefore shall
ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these
abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not
yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
These are
pretty straightforward and don’t need a lot of interpretation. Verse 20 gives
us some understanding of what uncovering someone’s nakedness means in the
context of this entire passage.
Verse 21
refers to the heathen practice of sacrificing babies to the gods. Carthage in
North Africa was a colony of Phoenicia. The Roman historian Plutarch wrote
about their practices in his On
Superstition;
…with
full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children,
and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut
their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; Meanwhile the mother stood by without a
tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she
had to forfeit the money, and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the
whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums took
the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.[1]
Mourning the child was
supposed to nullify the effect of the sacrifice. Wikipedia quotes various
sources;
Cleitarchus, Diodorus Siculus
and Plutarch all mention burning of children as
an offering to Cronus or Saturn, that is to Bal Ammūn,
the chief god of Carthage. According to Justin, the Carthaginians
accepted the Persian Achaemenid Empire's instructions to stop sacrificing
children (and eating dogs). Some of these sources suggest that babies were
roasted to death on a heated bronze statue. According to Diodorus Siculus,
"There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands,
palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when
placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with
fire."They placed their children alive in the arms of a bronze statue of
the lady Tanit:
The hands of the statue
extended over a brazier into which the child fell once the flames had caused
the limbs to contract and its mouth to open... . The child was alive and
conscious when burned... Philo specified that the sacrificed child
was best-loved.
According to Stager and Wolff, there is a
consensus among scholars that Carthaginian children were sacrificed by their
parents, who would make a vow to kill the next child if the gods would grant
them a favor: for instance, their shipment of goods were to arrive safely in a
foreign port.[2]”
Divination was used to try to reach out to the spiritual world for
answers to questions, to justify intended actions, and to just feel confident
about one’s purposes. It is linked with vain visions, lying, and the total
emptiness and pointlessness of trying to consult with the unseen world for
answers.
Jeremiah 14:14 Then the
LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not,
neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you
a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their
heart.
Ezekiel 12:24 For there
shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of
Israel.
Ezekiel 13:6 They have seen
vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent
them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.
The Greeks had the Oracle at Delphi where an older woman in a
drug-induced trance would speak nonsense which was interpreted by a writer who
then gave the utterings in very ambiguous statements that could be used by the
client, sometimes a great general or politician, in any way he saw fit to
justify almost anything. Fortune-tellers cannot help you.
God condemned the use of people who think they can manipulate the
spiritual world like pagan priests in Egypt who thought they could command the
gods, threaten, or blackmail them, or even the paganized version of
Christianity today where a priest thinks he can call the God of glory to enter
a piece of bread.
Attempting to manipulate reality by consulting spiritual beings
other than God Himself whether they be gods, devils, or even the dead
themselves is a lie and a vanity. Even if the spiritual world is willing to
communicate it will be a lying spirit who mocks human beings by playing games
with them. You might even get a truthful answer but the lies you will get and
the stench in God’s nostrils you will make by consulting these things, even
though most of the so-called witches, enchanters, and wizards are outright
frauds and conmen and women, are not worth the effort. We acknowledge only
God’s authority, not even some Saint, capital S, who has gone on before in some
mythologized martyrdom, who supposedly has God’s ear. No, we are to acknowledge
only the God of the universe’s authority over all things.
Deuteronomy 18:15 ¶ 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; 16 According to all that thou desiredst of the
LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again
the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that
I die not. 17 And the LORD said unto me,
They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among
their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I
will require it of him. 20 But
the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even
that prophet shall die. 21 And if thou say
in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaketh in the name
of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the
thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously:
thou shalt not be afraid of him.
This Prophet, uppercase P, is mentioned again as Peter identifies
Him as Jesus Christ.
Acts 3:22 For Moses truly
said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of
your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he
shall say unto you. 23 And it shall come
to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed
from among the people.
Acts 7:37 This is that
Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Lest there be any confusion John the Baptist had denied that he
was that Prophet.
John 1:21 And they asked
him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet?
And he answered, No.
The Apostle John made it clear that this was a reference to Jesus
Christ.
John 6:14 Then those men,
when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that
prophet that should come into the world.
So, here we have yet another prophecy of Christ in the Law.
We are warned about false prophets, such as those who declare the
day when the Rapture will happen or the earth will be destroyed. The day comes
and it never happens like they said. They are false teachers, false prophets,
which you and I have studied before in Deuteronomy 13.
In fact, Jesus offers this proof of the truth of prophecy in the
gospel according to John.
John 13:19 Now I tell you
before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
Be wary of preachers who are date setters.
Acts 1:7 And he said unto
them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath
put in his own power.
[1]
Plutarch, On Superstition, Loeb
Classical Library Edition, Vol. II, 1928, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_superstitione*.html
(accessed 11.8.2019)
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Carthage
(accessed 11.8.2019)
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