What Does the Bible Say About Psychics?

Everybody wishes that they knew the future. Although we like to imagine ourselves as facing the future, that’s not the way life feels most of the time. In some cultures, people think of the future as behind them, which is a more accurate metaphor.¹ The future is the great unknown we’re constantly walking backwards into, and all we can see for sure is what’s in the past.

Even people who are extremely successful in life often wish they could get an inside scoop on what comes next. In her song “The Prophecy,” Taylor Swift wrote about fate and fortune telling: “[I’m] spending my last coin so someone will tell me it’ll be okay.”

The “it” she was talking about there was her love life, which at that point, had perhaps gone less smoothly than her wildly successful career. But whatever our personal worries might be in a world of uncertainty, the possibility of a glimpse into the future is very alluring.

That’s presumably why various forms of fortune telling have become so popular recently. Religion News Service reported on a recent survey of the divination practices of young people. ² In that report, they’ve cited that more than half of all teens and young adults use tarot cards, psychics, or some other kind of divination. Roughly 42% said they do that weekly or daily.

That’s a big shift in cultural acceptance and popularity from even 20 years ago. And young Jewish people are included in that trend as well. The same study found that 62% of young Jewish people practice some form of divination. That’s a huge number of Jews, especially given that the Torah—the bedrock of Jewish tradition—frowns on the practice.

Actually, “frowns” is putting it mildly. The Torah explicitly forbids all forms of divination (Deuteronomy 18:10–11, 14–15). But what’s the big deal about people wanting to know the future? God often sent prophets to tell us about the future. So, why would fortune telling be a problem?

Does Fortune Telling Actually Work?

There’s a somewhat well-known story in the Bible, in the book of First Samuel. There, King Saul finds himself threatened by the Philistine army, which has gathered at the city of Shunem. Fearful for his future and the future of Israel, he seeks out a medium in the city of En-dor.

Saul asks the medium to “bring up” the prophet Samuel. He was obviously hoping to ask Samuel for advice or for a glimpse into the future.

To paraphrase 1 Samuel 28, the shade of Samuel essentially said,

Why are you bothering me? God has already said what’s going to happen because you didn’t obey him. Now you are going to die along with your sons, and the Philistines will defeat your army. God already told you that!

Aside from being a good story (you should read it in its entirety), it suggests that you won’t learn anything from mediums. Of course, no store-front psychic today could bring up a prophet of God to tell you how your life will go. But even if they could, this story shows that it would not give you what you’re looking for!

Instead, the story shows us that we should listen to what God says.

God chose Israel to be his people, and he will send them his words directly.

That’s the basic point of the Deuteronomy passage cited above. Israel’s pagan neighbors had to consult fortune tellers, mediums, and psychics because their gods were believed to be generally far away and uncaring. But God chose Israel to be his people, and he will send them his words directly (Deuteronomy 18:15).

It’s About Whom You Trust

The point above shows us why turning to a fortune teller or medium was serious business for God’s people. Seeking a psychic is like casting a vote of no confidence in God.

You only need a psychic if you don’t trust that God is looking out for you. If ancient Israel had embraced fortune telling widely, it would be equivalent to a wholesale return to pagan idolatry.

That’s why the consequences are rather severe:

If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:6)

When the Torah says, “whoring after them,” that sounds harsh! By seeking guidance from alternative spiritual sources, God said that his people were essentially stepping out on their relationship with him.

It’s like the Elton John song “I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That”:

I’ve always said that one’s enough to love
Now I hear you’re braggin’ one is not enough
Well, somethin’ tells me you’re not satisfied
You got plans to make me one of four or five

I guess this kind of thing’s just in your blood
But you won’t catch me carvin’ up my love
I ain’t no puzzle piece that needs to fit
If it takes more than me, let’s call it quits

Whether it’s the Torah or Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, love involves loyalty. After all, the Shema—the cardinal affirmation of Judaism—tells us:

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

And seeking guidance from a medium—or the I Ching, or Tarot, or fortune tellers—is fundamentally an act of disloyalty to God.

Maybe that’s not so obvious to us now in the 21^st century. Why would God still care?

What God Cares About Is You

The thing that mainly drives people to seek fortune tellers is fear—fear of the future, fear of uncertainty, fear of losing control. But God doesn’t want us to fear those things. He wants us to trust in his blessings and not give in to worries and anxieties that drive us to look for help elsewhere.

He says that explicitly in Isaiah 44:

Fear not, O Jacob my servant …

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
They shall spring up among the grass
like willows by flowing streams.
This one will say, “I am the LORD’s,”
another will call on the name of Jacob …

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god…

Fear not, nor be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
And you are my witnesses!”

(Isaiah 44:2–8 excerpted)

In other words, God says, “I’ve already told you what the future holds—my blessings! And you ought to know because you were there when I told you!”

What God wants is your love. So, he refuses to sugar coat anything.

Many today see the Bible as harsh and judgmental compared to the vibe of an online astrology community. Many are drawn to psychics and Tarot readers because they are perceived as “safe spaces.”

It’s easy for psychics to seem nonjudgmental because what they really want is your money, your attention, or your admiration. And they’ll tell you whatever you want to hear to get it.

What God really wants is your love. And so, he flatly refuses to sugar coat anything. He’ll only tell us the truth about ourselves and the blessing he wants to give us.

The trouble is that it’s hard to remember God’s promise of blessing in the face of all our anxieties.

What Jesus Said About Anxiety

While Jesus never directly spoke about psychics or astrologers, he did address the fear and anxiety that make people turn to them.

Jesus wants to give us peace:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

And he doesn’t want us to be anxious about anything:

Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field … will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore, do not be anxious… For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:25–34)

And for those afraid that Jesus is “judgey,” his real attitude—especially toward his own Jewish people—is reflected in this:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Luke 13:34)

The picture of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings is one of comfort and protection. The Psalms convey the same image:

For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. (Psalm 63:7)

There’s no need for astrologers or psychics. God has already addressed the factors that lead us to pursue them—fear of the future, fear of judgmentalism, anxiety about life.

For those who choose to love and follow God, the future is indeed one of hope rather than fear—even in the midst of adversity and hard times. Paul, the Jewish emissary to Gentiles, wrote:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

What was written in former days? That the Messiah would come. That he would give his life to atone for our sins. That he would give us new life through faith in him. That’s in the Scriptures, but you won’t likely hear it from a psychic.

It is possible to hear God’s voice, to discover who he made you to be, and learn his direction for your life—if you seek him. Ask him to reveal himself to you. And ultimately, a powerful encounter with the God of the universe is better than the answers to all our questions.