Association With The Occult Is Banned (Deuteronomy 18:9-14).
The nations in the land into which they were about to enter practised all kinds of abominations, things that were hateful to Yahweh. These occult practises are outlined here with a warning that they must be blotted out from the land. Israel are not allowed by Him to take any part in such things.
Analysis using the words of Moses.
a When you are come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations (Deuteronomy 18:9).
b There shall not be found with you any one who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practises augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).
c For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh (Deuteronomy 18:12 a).
c And because of these abominations Yahweh your God drives them out from before you (Deuteronomy 18:12 b).
b You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God (Deuteronomy 18:13).
a For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practise augury, and to diviners, but as for you, Yahweh your God has not given you permission so to do (Deuteronomy 18:14).
In ‘a' they are not to learn to do all the abominations of the nations who live there, when they enter the land, and in the parallel the abominations of those nations are described. In ‘b' are listed all who seek to influence the spiritual world and the future who are ‘imperfect' for they do it in the wrong way, and seek to many influences. in contrast are to be Israel who are ‘perfect' with Yahweh their God. They seek Him only and have nothing to do with other influences. In ‘c' the doing of what is described previously is and abomination to Yahweh, and therefore in the parallel because of these abominations Yahweh their God will drive out those nations before them.
‘ When you are come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.'
Again the stress is on the fact that this land is being given to them by Yahweh. To practise the abominations described would be an insult to Him. Those abominations were to have no part to play in His land. They must learn to do what Yahweh has commanded (Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 5:1) not do according to the abominations of these nations. They had His words. They did not need to look to the occult. And it was His land.
“Those nations.” We must immediately ask, which nations? The answer is given in Deuteronomy 17:14. It is those nations whom they wish to ape by having a king like them. But they are not nations that they should wish to ape, for they commit abominations, and their kings likewise. Thus though they may in some fashion have a king like them, in reality, as he has already demonstrated, it must be a king who was not really like theirs at all. And in the same way they were not to desire their abominations either, abominations which he now describes.
‘ There shall not be found with you any one who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practises augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.'
While we may not know the exact technical meaning of all the words used here, being not familiar with all the occult practises of the ancients, the general idea is clear, they are attempts to get in touch with and manoeuvre the ‘spirit world' in one way or another. Kings would use them when seeking guidance or considering battle. Men and women would use them for guidance in the activities of life, in business, in farming, in love. Both would seek to affect them through the methods used by soothsayers, magicians, sorcerers, wizards and necromancers. And they would assiduously follow them, sometimes to disaster. But the lesson for Israel was equally clear, none must be found among them who did these things. They must avoid all contact with the occult, with what was hidden in darkness. They must avoid all attempts to contact the dead.
We do not know precisely what the ‘passing through the fire' represented (compare 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 21:6), but we know that children were passed through the fire to Molech (Leviticus 18:21; 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 32:35) and that that was almost certainly a child sacrifice (Leviticus 20:2-5). It is mentioned here because of its hoped for magical effects, with the hope being that of determining or discerning the future. The king of Moab used it in desperation when he wanted to turn the course of battle (2 Kings 3:26-27). Compare both Leviticus 20:6 and 2 Kings 21:6 where it was again connected with the occult activities. It was clearly seen as powerfully effective.
For the use of divination (qosem qesemim - to divine divination) compare Numbers 23:23; Joshua 13:22 - of Balaam; Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 27:9; Jeremiah 29:8; Ezekiel 13:6; Ezekiel 21:21; Zechariah 10:2. It was used in order to discover the minds of the gods. Sometimes the verb has a good meaning without magical means, referring to divining through the Spirit. But there were various occult methods. One method described in Ezekiel 21:21 was to shake arrows in a quiver and discover the message from the one that was first ejected. Others included discerning the patterns of birds as they flew, the arrangement of the organs of an animal offered as a sacrifice, or the relationship of the planets to one another. ‘Augury (‘onen - Leviticus 19:26).' The word may signify reading clouds or muttering incantations.
The ‘enchanter' (nachesh) may use a cup for divination by watching the reflections in the water, or the configurations of drops of oil on water, or by watching natural events (compare Genesis 44:5; Genesis 44:15; Leviticus 19:26; Numbers 23:23; Numbers 24:1). A sorcerer (cesheph - Exodus 7:11; Exo 22:18; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Malachi 3:5) is ‘one who cuts up', and may indicate the cutting up of herbs for charms and spells to produce magical effects. A charmer (chober cheber- Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12), ‘a knotter of knots', is one who binds another by magic spells. A consulter of spirits (1 Chronicles 10:13), is a medium or consulter with a spirit of the dead. A wizard (yidde‘oni - Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27; 1 Samuel 28:3; 1Sa 28:9; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Kings 23:24; Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 19:3) is ‘one in the know', or ‘one who knows a (familiar) spirit', from an occult point of view. Possibly one who consults an astral spirit. A necromancer is an enquirer of the dead. Taken together the words indicate the wide varieties of supposed magical influences and fortune telling and attempts to breach the barriers into the spirit world and to contact the dead. All were seen by the ancients as affecting events, but to the people of Yahweh all were forbidden. They were an abomination to Yahweh. It is probable that this passage influenced 2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6.
‘ For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh, and because of these abominations Yahweh your God drives them out from before you.'
The one who practised any of these things was an ‘abomination', something hated, to Yahweh. It is for this abominable behaviour that the nations would be driven out before them. The strength of feeling against them indicates that some of their powers were seen to originate from evil sources.
‘ You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God.'
But His people on the contrary were to walk rightly. They were perfectly to obey the covenant avoiding all such nefarious activities. They were to be free of all such traits. They were to avoid all spiritual influence but Yahweh. They were to be constantly with God, seeking Yahweh's means of understanding through prophets, through the word, and through the Urim and Thummim. They were to be free from the taint of the occult.
‘ For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practise augury, and to diviners, but as for you, Yahweh your God has not given you permission so to do.'
On the other hand the nations that they will dispossess listened to all these things. What use it would be to them is revealed by the fact that it could not prevent them from being driven out by Yahweh. But Yahweh has not given His people permission to listen to them, for He knows what foolishness they are and what harm they can cause to mankind.