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Dutch Category 1: The Foundational Prohibitions
These verses establish God’s clear and unwavering command against engaging in occult practices, framing them as a violation of the sacred relationship with Him.
1. Exodus 22:18
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
Reflection: This stark command reveals the profound gravity with which God viewed the practice of witchcraft. It wasn’t merely a harmless superstition but a corrosive influence that threatened the very spiritual and moral fabric of the covenant community. The impulse behind such a severe law is the protection of the vulnerable from manipulation and the preservation of a society founded on trust in God, not on the power-brokering of dark arts that exploit fear and desperation.
2. Leviticus 19:31
“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.”
Reflection: The word “defiled” here is deeply significant. It speaks of a spiritual and psychological contamination. Turning to these sources isn’t a neutral act; it stains the soul and corrupts one’s inner world. It introduces a foreign, unholy element into a life meant for communion with a holy God. The verse ends with a powerful reminder of identity—”I am the LORD your God”—an appeal to remember who we belong to and where our true source of life and guidance is found.
3. Leviticus 20:6
“And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.”
Reflection: The language of “going a whoring” is intensely relational and emotional. It frames sorcery not as a simple mistake, but as an act of profound infidelity and spiritual adultery. It’s a betrayal of the intimate covenant relationship with God. The feeling of God “setting his face against” someone evokes a terrifying sense of divine abandonment, the natural and heartbreaking consequence of a soul choosing to seek intimacy in a place of darkness rather than in the light of its Creator.
4. Deuteronomy 18:10-11
“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, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”
Reflection: This comprehensive list exposes the many masks that the occult can wear. At its core, this prohibition is a guard against the human desperation for control and certainty. Each of these practices represents an attempt to bypass the vulnerable, trust-filled relationship with God in favor of a formula or secret knowledge that promises power. It is a turning away from the relational to the transactional, from faith to manipulation.
5. Deuteronomy 18:12
“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.”
Reflection: The word “abomination” signifies something that is utterly repulsive and incompatible with God’s holy character. It’s not just a disapproved behavior but something that creates a fundamental spiritual dissonance. The emotional weight here is one of revulsion. These practices are seen as so spiritually toxic that their presence pollutes the land and the community, necessitating a painful but purifying separation to protect the whole.
6. Malachi 3:5
“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.”
Reflection: Here, sorcery is listed alongside social injustices like exploitation and adultery. This is profoundly telling. It shows that God sees the practice not in isolation, but as part of a larger pattern of rebellion rooted in a “fear not me” attitude. It’s a symptom of a heart that has rejected divine authority, leading to both spiritual betrayal (sorcery) and relational cruelty (oppression). Both spring from the same broken inner core.
Category 2: The Heart of the Matter: Rebellion and Deception
These verses delve into the internal motivations and spiritual state associated with sorcery, revealing it as an act of rebellion and a source of deep deception.
7. 1 Samuel 15:23
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
Reflection: This verse draws a stunning parallel that cuts to the psychological core of the issue. The desire to control one’s destiny through witchcraft is equated with the raw pride of rebellion. Both stem from the same root: a refusal to submit to God’s authority and will. Stubbornly insisting on our own way is, in its essence, a form of self-deification, just as sorcery is an attempt to seize divine power for oneself.
8. 2 Kings 9:22
“And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?”
Reflection: Jehu’s response links a lack of peace directly to the prevalence of witchcraft. This reveals a deep truth: where occultism flourishes, true shalom—wholeness, well-being, and right relationships—cannot exist. Witchcraft, with its inherent manipulation and reliance on dark powers, creates an atmosphere of spiritual and social turmoil. It poisons the soil of community, ensuring that only strife and brokenness can grow.
9. Isaiah 8:19
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?”
Reflection: This verse poses a heartbreakingly logical question. Why would the living, who have access to the source of all Life, turn instead to the dead? This points to a profound spiritual confusion and a morbid fascination with darkness. It’s an inversion of all that is healthy and life-giving. The appeal to “wizards that peep and that mutter” highlights the deceptive and often nonsensical nature of these practices, which offer only murky whispers in place of the clear, life-affirming voice of God.
10. Isaiah 47:10
“For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness; thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.”
Reflection: Though not using the word “sorcery,” this verse, in context, describes the mindset of Babylon, a city steeped in occultism. It reveals the arrogance that underpins these practices: a trust in one’s own secret knowledge (“thy wisdom”) and a belief that one can act without consequence (“None seeth me”). This path inevitably leads to a delusion of self-deification (“I am, and none else beside me”), the ultimate and most tragic form of psychological and spiritual isolation.
11. Micah 5:12
“And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:”
Reflection: God’s declaration to “cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand” is an act of liberation. It is portrayed as a forceful, divine intervention to remove a tool of false security. Holding onto sorcery is like clinging to a crutch that is actually poisoning you. God’s action here is not just punitive; it’s restorative. He removes the counterfeit source of power to compel His people to find their strength and identity in Him alone, which is the only path to true emotional and spiritual freedom.
12. Nahum 3:4
“Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.”
Reflection: This powerful metaphor personifies Nineveh as a seductive “mistress of witchcrafts.” It captures the alluring and deceptive nature of the occult. It promises beauty, power, and favor (“wellfavoured harlot”), but its true business is enslavement. It “selleth nations” and “families,” breaking down the most fundamental structures of society and relationship through its toxic influence, leaving only bondage and ruin in its wake.
Category 3: Encounters and Consequences in the Narrative
These passages show sorcery in action, illustrating its real-world effects on individuals and the decisive response it provokes from God’s messengers.
13. 1 Samuel 28:7
“Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.”
Reflection: This is a portrait of a man at the end of his rope. Saul, who had previously obeyed God by banning mediums, now seeks one out in his terror and desperation. His actions demonstrate how fear can erode faith and lead a person to violate their own deeply held convictions. It is a tragic picture of someone so alienated from God that he is willing to seek comfort and guidance in the very darkness he once condemned.
14. 2 Chronicles 33:6
“And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”
Reflection: King Manasseh’s reign illustrates the depths of depravity that state-sanctioned occultism can lead to. This is not a private sin but a public institution of evil that corrupts the entire nation, even involving the sacrifice of his own children. It shows a complete and utter spiritual inversion, where a leader, meant to guide his people toward God, instead actively “wrought much evil” and provoked divine anger, causing immense communal trauma and brokenness.
15. Acts 8:9
“But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:”
Reflection: Simon’s story reveals the ego-driven nature of sorcery. His power was used to create a persona, to make people believe he was “some great one.” This is the core appeal for many who delve into such practices: it offers a sense of significance and power over others. It is fundamentally about self-exaltation, a stark contrast to the humility and service that characterize the work of God’s Spirit.
16. Acts 8:11
“And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.”
Reflection: This verse is a sober warning about the power of long-term deception. The people of Samaria had become accustomed to Simon’s sorcery; it had become a part of their reality. This illustrates how prolonged exposure to spiritual counterfeits can numb the soul’s ability to recognize the truth. It creates a bondage of familiarity, making the genuine power of the Gospel seem foreign and even unbelievable at first.
17. Acts 13:8
“But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.”
Reflection: Elymas represents the active, hostile opposition of the occult to the truth of the Gospel. His goal was to “turn away the deputy from the faith.” This is not a passive or neutral spirituality; it is an antagonistic force. It recognizes the Gospel as a threat to its own influence and power. The confrontation shows that light and darkness are mutually exclusive; where one seeks to enlighten and free, the other will actively seek to confuse and enslave.
18. Acts 13:10
“And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?”
Reflection: Paul’s rebuke of Elymas is blistering and direct, stripping away any pretense of legitimacy. He identifies the sorcerer’s work not as an alternative path to wisdom, but as “subtilty,” “mischief,” and a perversion of what is right. It is “enemy of all righteousness.” This addresses the moral and psychological core of the practice: it is deceptive by nature and stands in direct opposition to moral clarity, truth, and the divinely established order of reality.
Category 4: New Covenant Repentance and Final Judgment
These New Testament verses clarify sorcery’s place as a work of the fallen human nature and warn of its ultimate, eternal consequences.
19. Acts 19:19
“Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
Reflection: This is a powerful and beautiful image of true repentance. The burning of the magic books was not done in secret shame but “before all men,” a public renunciation of a former way of life. The immense financial value of the books highlights the depth of their sacrifice. This act signifies a profound internal shift: a complete transfer of trust from the “curious arts” to Christ. It is a costly, joyful, and liberating severing of ties with a past built on deception.
20. Galatians 5:19-21
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Reflection: Here, “witchcraft” is listed among a catalogue of behaviors that stem from our fallen, unredeemed human nature—the “flesh.” It’s placed alongside relational sins like hatred and envy, and physical sins like adultery. This grouping is instructive. It shows that sorcery is not some exotic, special category of sin, but another manifestation of the heart’s selfish refusal to live by the Spirit of God. The consequences are ultimate: exclusion from the relational reality of God’s kingdom.
21. Revelation 9:21
“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
Reflection: This verse is a sorrowful commentary on the hardening of the human heart. Even in the face of devastating judgments, humanity’s impulse is not to repent but to cling to its broken coping mechanisms: violence (murders), control (sorceries), illicit pleasure (fornication), and greed (thefts). Sorcery here is depicted as a default sin, a go-to response for a heart that refuses to turn to God for help, choosing instead the familiar, destructive comfort of its own power.
22. Revelation 18:23
“And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.”
Reflection: In this lament over the fall of “Babylon the great,” sorcery is identified as the primary tool of its global deception. The imagery is of a system that promises light, intimacy, and prosperity but is, in reality, a grand illusion. Sorcery here represents the entire seductive apparatus of a godless world-system that deceives nations into spiritual and economic bondage. Its ultimate end is the complete absence of light and joyous relationship.
23. Revelation 21:8
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Reflection: This is a sobering and final list of those who remain outside the New Jerusalem. Sorcerers are grouped with the “fearful” and “unbelieving,” suggesting their practice is a twisted response to fear and a fundamental rejection of faith. They are also grouped with “all liars,” highlighting that sorcery is, at its essence, participation in a profound lie about the nature of power and reality. The “second death” is the ultimate, tragic outcome of a life spent choosing the illusion of control over the reality of God.
24. Revelation 22:15
“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
Reflection: This final verse describes those who are “without”—outside the gates of the Holy City, excluded from the eternal presence of God. The inclusion of “sorcerers” here serves as a final, definitive statement. The core of their identity is tied to the previous description: “whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” To practice sorcery is not merely to be mistaken; it is to actively love and create a reality contrary to the God of Truth. It is a choice of identity that is fundamentally incompatible with a city whose light is the Lamb.
