As we have indicated before, the tribe of Levi had no inheritance in the land. The LORD was to be their inheritance. The Levites were the priests and other helpers, usually known simply as the Levites, had no allotted portion of the land but received their income from the other tribes by way of tithes. They also were allowed to eat a portion of the offerings made to The LORD (v1,2). In verses 3-5 they were given instructions as to which portions of the sacrifices they could eat, the firstfruits of the grain, new wine and the first fleece of the sheep given to them. Those Levites were chosen by The LORD to minister in His name.
There was to be no discrimination among the Levites (v6-8). If he comes from a different part of your land and his desire is to serve in the place The LORD chooses, he shall have equal portions to eat, even if he had an inheritance and sold it and lives on the proceeds.
When they were to enter the land promised to them, they were forbidden to learn the abominations of those nations (v9-11). They were not to practice their occult practices, witchcraft, soothsaying, spells or spiritism or allowing their children to pass through the fire (sacrificing children) in worship of a false god (probably Molech), neither were they to interpret omens, consult mediums or call up the dead (like partaking in seances) also known as necromancy.
Note that they not to learn to follow their abominations. Often, we are tempted to inquire into things and even urged to be broad-minded. The people of Israel were instructed not to do any of that. Many have become interested in the occult in the belief that such things are harmless fun. God makes it very clear that it is far from being harmless. Similarly with witchcraft, white or black, Satanism and any sort of worship of anything or anyone other than The LORD God Almighty.
There seems to have been a resurgence of these type of things, even calling it ‘white witchcraft’ to make it sound acceptable. Many are being led into pagan practices, what the Bible calls ‘worshiping creation rather than The Creator’ (as I said in chapter 12). There are Satanist groups meeting in many places, even calling themselves ‘churches’ and ‘Spiritualist gatherings’, even claiming to do good, most newspapers carry horoscope columns. It is quite clear that Satan is the source of all these occult practices, and they are dangerous in the extreme and we are well advised to steer clear of them, particularly if we seek to follow The Lord. Satan wants us to place our confidence in anything/anyone but God.
Sadly, many Christians have become careless, turning to yoga (even calling it Christian yoga) which is connected to Buddhism, and many other things that we dabble in, to our peril – mindfulness, meditation (connected to Hinduism), Taizé, drugs, alcohol, sex and sexual perversion, co-habitation, hypnosis and all kinds of worldliness.
Psalm 31 is a song for the stressed which tells us very clearly that the way to combat stress is God and God alone, not all these other things encouraged by the world.
I have mentioned elsewhere that I was asked by a young person at church many years ago whether a Christian should read or take notice of horoscopes. I said that I would think about it. I eventually looked in the Oxford Dictionary and found that ‘horoscope’ came from two Latin words – ‘hora’ ‘skopos’ which means ‘an observer of times’ – astrologer, one who seeks to interpret signs in the stars etc., interpret omens. There was my answer, and I informed the young person accordingly.
The same goes for crystal balls, tarot cards, tea leaf and palm readers, Ouija boards and any kind of fortune-telling, even illicit drugs. All these are frauds and satanic. Satan doesn’t know the future, but he can influence lives for worse and not better, even lead to deaths. Jesus and His apostles often were reported to cast out demons and evil spirits. In Acts 16 Paul and Silas were followed and accosted by a slave girl who practiced such things and they cast the demon out of her much to the annoyance of her owners who had been making lots of money out of her actions, and Paul and Silas finished up in prison for it in Philippi. Jesus encountered Legion (Mark 5), who could not be restrained or tamed by men, but he cast out the demons which he had, and he was found, sitting, clothed and in his right mind. I love that phrase ‘…. In his right mind’. It was evident that prior to this he was out of his mind, and that is what and where those who dabble in such things will end up.
The passage mentions mediums and spiritists. Mediums are still around today. I’ve even had a spam mail from one purporting to be such, needless to say I deleted it immediately.
One of the abominations was necromancy – consulting the dead. Do you know that there are so-called christian churches practising this today. Bethel church (USA) recommend grave soaking, which is going to graves of prominent deceased people and speaking to them and getting blessing from it. We need to consider these things and know for certain that God calls them abomination.
In 1 Samuel 28 we have the distressing account of King Saul. God’s man Samuel had put mediums and spiritists out of the land (v3-5) and now Saul was afraid of the Philistines army which had gathered against him. What made matters worse was that God refused to speak to Saul. He was all alone without God and His Prophet, Samuel who had died. God’s silence was as a result of Saul’s disobedience to God’s commands (v6). If we seek God’s guidance, we must obey His Word. There is no point us asking for guidance when we already have it in the Word of God, and we are not obeying it. Saul sought a medium (v7,8) and disguised himself and went to the medium in Endor. This was prohibited by God (as in Deuteronomy 18 above, also Leviticus 20).
Saul asked her to bring up Samuel which seemed a strange request and one which the woman was not very happy with as she reminded Saul (although she did not know it was Saul) that her life was at risk by calling up Samuel (v9,14). Amazingly Samuel did appear and when he did, she realised who Saul really was. Saul assured her not to be afraid although it was difficult to see what assurance that was. Maybe this was the first time a real person had appeared. Normally it would be an ‘appearance’ of a spirit of her own imagination, this was scary, she was not in control. God allowed this personal appearance of Samuel to teach them both a lesson. God can use many ways to speak to us.
Samuel spoke to Saul (v15-18) and asked why he had been disturbed in being brought up from his place of peace. Saul said that he was distressed that The LORD did not answer him therefore he had called for Samuel to help and bring a word from The LORD. Samuel knew why and told him that his own disobedience led to The LORD not answering him. One commentator says that until the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, saints who died did not go heaven, but in a place of waiting, called Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16). Therefore, Samuel did not come from heaven, but it is clear that he knew about Saul’s plight and was able to give him God’s words and that God would deliver him into the hands of the Philistines (v19). Samuel had told him whilst he was still alive (1 Samuel 15:28,29), that God was handing his kingdom over to his enemy (David), although David wasn’t really an enemy at all, but one of his own makings, therefore, his message had not changed. The message was really disastrous, Samuel informed Saul that tomorrow, he and his sons would die.
We could say much more about this incident with Saul, but you can read it for yourself in 1 Samuel 28. I mention it purely as an example of the danger of consulting mediums etc. We can know God’s will simply by reading and studying His Word, the Bible. If God chooses not to reveal His Will to us, we must simply trust and obey Him. He will not let us down.
The people were told (v12-14) why they should reject these things – they are an abomination to The LORD and The LORD has not raised them up for people of Israel. The pagan inhabitants of Canaan had gone after those powers of darkness and God wanted Israel to drive them out of the land so that they would be blameless. God’s judgment was upon the nations of Canaan for dabbling in such practices.
Thus, it is clear that Israel and indeed, we should reject such things. Sadly, there is a growth of such dealings in our world today and we, as Christians, must reject it and have nothing to do with it. Our children and young people are being discouraged from believing in The Lord Jesus Christ and, all of us are being told that to follow and speak of Him, is against our culture, even more, becoming against our laws. We have so-called freedom of speech, but it is only freedom to say what certain people want us to say, and to do otherwise is even classed as ‘hate’ and ‘bigotry’.
In Acts 19 the Apostle Paul arrived at Ephesus and God gifted him to heal many people, including casting out evil spirits. There were Jewish exorcists, including seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest. They ‘took it upon themselves to call on the name of The Lord Jesus over evil spirits.’ They ought to have known better but we see how easy, and dangerous, it is to be caught up in the works of Satan. Their first mistake was to try to use the name of Jesus without knowing Him. “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Not who they preach (v13). In a way it is quite amusing if it were not so deadly serious. “And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” (v15,16)
News of this spread to all living at Ephesus and many came to believe on the name of The Lord Jesus. Many confessed their deeds and many who practiced magic brought their books and burned them. The value of which totalled 50,000 pieces of silver. That was a huge sum when you consider that Jesus was sold for 30. The result was that the word of Lord grew mightily and spread (v17-20). It is clear that when we are born again, we must ‘burn our bridges’ there is no going back. We become new creations, the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).
One thing is clear, that Satan cares nothing about any one of us. He doesn’t even care if we believe in him or not, just so long he uses you, once you’ve met with the danger, he will ‘drop you’. How unlike the loving Lord who cares intimately about us, wants the very best for us, and says He will never leave us, nor forsake us.
Next follows an amazing prophecy about none other than The Lord Jesus Christ (v15-19). Moses is inspired by The Holy Spirit as he speaks (and writes) these words. He would be an Israelite; He would represent God to the people and represent the people to God. They looked for a prophet and many thought that this was John the Baptist, and when he was asked if he was the promised one, he said “No” but One would come after him who’s shoe laces he wasn’t worthy to fasten, non-other than The Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, The Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. (John 1)
The chapter concludes with warnings against false prophets (v20-22). The person who speaks a word in The name of Almighty God, which He as not commanded him, or in the name of other gods, he shall die. True prophecy will come to pass. People often carelessly say, ‘The Lord has told me’, beware! All that we say must have the backing of God’s Word and even if we believe that God has told us something, wait, it may not be for everyone. Maybe Joseph was wrong in telling his brothers and parents of the dreams which he had, perhaps he should have waited God’s timing. It is a thought!
It can be difficult when one considers the prophecy of Isaiah about the coming Messiah (Isaiah 7,9) when it did not come to pass for around 700 years, or even the one in this chapter v15-19 which was even longer. It seems to me that we need to be very careful, convinced that it is God’s word to us, but sometimes we need to keep it to ourselves. After all, why would we tell it, maybe to make ourselves look good, rather we should wait for the glory of God to be revealed. Does it matter that we said it would?
Many church leaders are taking on the title ‘Prophet’ today and many followers are being let down after being told about future successes when they are dashed and come to nothing. Peter in his second letter to the young, growing church, said that there were false prophets in the past and now there would be false teachers, who would bring ‘seductive heresies, even denying The Lord who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.’ (2 Peter 2 :1-3) They would not throw out the truth but come alongside. For what it’s worth, my own view is that the gift of prophecy, in the Biblical sense, has ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8) in the sense of foretelling. The Bible is complete why do we need anything further? We don’t, in fact if we add anything to it, or take anything away from it, we are in grave danger. (Revelation 22:18,19)
The most important message for us and for the world is the Gospel of Saving Grace. This is the message people need to hear, that they can be saved from their sin and receive new life in Jesus Christ. The Bible contains sufficient warnings about rejecting this message, we don’t need to add any more.
The world needs to hear what The Bible says, not some tittle tattle about what we think might happen tomorrow or next year. The Lord Jesus will come again, that is absolutely certain, and human beings will be around when He comes. The earth will not be destroyed by us or anyone. This does not mean that we should be careless about our environment and our planet. But God will have the last word, and it will be destroyed by God in His own time, and He will make a new earth and heaven. We must be ready for His coming and we can only thus, by being ‘in Christ’.
