Fortune-Tellers and the Bible

Question:

I’m not sure where it states or how it’s interpreted, but I was wondering about a person getting advice or a telling of a future (event) from the likes of spiritual healers, shamans, or fortune-tellers. I know there is a section in the Bible where it explains this. Could you please let me know where it’s located and how it is interpreted? Thank you so much.

Comment:

As with so many issues, the Bible is not totally consistent about fortune-tellers. I’m not aware of a particular passage that definitively deals with the question. There are passages in early Hebrew Scriptures that clearly forbid any dealings with fortune-tellers: Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6, Deuteronomy 18:10-13, for example. At the same time, Rachel consults a soothsayer about the twins she is carrying, and there are other indications that such activity was a part of life. The consistent theme in the passages forbidding fortune-telling, I think, relates to the First Commandment. It is never spiritually wise to put anyone or anything ahead of God. Metaphysically, this means that we maintain focus on our own individual relationship to the Divine. To give our innate spiritual power away to anyone else will always delay our spiritual progress forward. 

You also mention spiritual healing, which I think is a very different thing. After all, Jesus was a spiritual healer, and many of his immediate followers were as well. As Jesus said, “What I have done, you will do.” So spiritual healing is not about a false belief that someone else has more power than we do. It’s about a willingness to know, claim, and express our own innate spiritual power.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed