6. Magic Arts. In examining the statutes on this point, we are struck with the number and variety of names which designate these arts. The standard enumeration (Deut. 18: 10, 11) gives at least eight; viz.——(1.) “He that useth divination”—professing to gain knowledge and power more than human and in some sense divine:——(2.) “An observer of times”—the Hebrew word being related to cloud, perhaps in the sense of covering, hiding, as the cloud shuts off the sun’slight; practicing covert arts:——(3.) “An enchanter”—the original suggesting the serpent, and implying either a hissing, in imitation of the serpent; or the practice of charming serpents, yet always connected with the arts of divination:——(4.) “A witch”—the Hebrew word signifying one who mutters incantations, its cognate words having the sense of praying, but in Hebrew only in the bad sense of seeking help from others than God:——(5.) “The charmer”—a word which suggests binding as with the spell of enchantment—“spell-bound”; often used of the charming of serpents:——(6.) “A consulter with familiar spirits”; (Heb.) one who prays to the bottle-man—the Hebrew word for bottle being applied to the ventriloquist from whose body came forth unearthly sounds as from a second being imprisoned within him. Ventriloquism was one of the arts practiced by the ancient magicians to excite the wonder and to command the belief of the credulous.——The English phrase—“familiar spirit”—signifies spirits who stand in such a relation to the performer that they come at his call, like servants of his family, he having the power to evoke them at his will. Of course it is pretended that these spirits are other than human and greater than human spirits can be while yet in the body. The original Hebrew [Ob] comes down to us in the African “Obe-man” who still follows the same profession, by means of similar arts.——(7.) “The wizard” is one who claims superhuman wisdom—the old English accurately translating the Hebrew: the distinctively wise one. Of course the word is restricted in usage to this sort of superior wisdom—that which is gained by the arts of magic.——(8.) “The necromancer”—precisely the spiritist of modern times—or rather, of all time—whoclaims to have communion with the spirits of dead men.[41]
I have led the reader through this analysis of the original words, to aid him toward some just conception of the associated ideas which cluster round the magic arts of the Hebrew age. Their name and their arts are legion. Think of so many classes—professions—of men and women naturally shrewd, sharp, cunning; practicingupon the superstitions, the fears, the gullibility of the millions; gaining an almost unlimited control over them; working upon their imagination, haunting them with the dread of unknown powers, bringing up to them ghosts froth the invisible world, claiming to give auguries of the future, playing in every way that may be for their own selfish interests upon their fears and their hopes to extort their money or to make sport of their fears, or to gratify their own or others’ malice. Or go still deeper and see all this machinery subsidized by the devil to impress men with his supremacy, to extort their homage, or at least their fear of himself; and perhaps, most of all, to turn them utterly away from the true God and to displace him from his proper sphere as the supreme hope and joy and trust of mortals.——It will always be an unsettled question—How much help in the line of superhuman knowledge and power does Satan give to his servants who work the infernal machinery of magic arts? But on the point of his interest and sympathy in these arts, there need not be the least question whatever. A system so near akin in spirit and influence to idolatry—which so thoroughly displaces God from the hopes and fears of men, and which seeks so successfully to instal these horrible superstitions in his place;—a system which perverts the powers of the world to come to subserve ungodliness and which practically rules out the Blessed God from the sphere of men’s homage, fears, and hopes;—this system has always been worked by wicked and never by good men—has always subserved all iniquity, but piety and morality never;—this has been a master stroke of Satan’s policy and one of the most palpable fields of his triumph through all the ages.——Let it not surprise us that God’s law given through Moses denounced it unqualifiedly and made it punishable with death.
The nations whom God drove out of Canaan were steeped in its abominations and ripened under its influence for their righteous doom.——I am not aware that even one pagan, idolatrous nation, known to history since the world began, has been free from this abomination—the arts of magic. Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, India, Africa, historic Greece and Rome; the old nations of Northern Europe, the savages of America—allcome up to testify that they have been cursed by its presence and power. The latest edition, modified slightly to adjust it somewhat to an age of Christian civilization, is the “spiritism” of our day—of which I need at this point to say but two things:—(1.) That its principles and policy, its spirit and its influence, are essentially the old “necromancy” of the ages of all history: and (2.) That it naturally becomes the nucleus around which chrystallizes whatever elements in society are irreligious and unchristian.——This last remark would not deny that some are attracted toward it temporarily by curiosity; but it would maintain that the animus, the soul of the system, is congenial to those who know not God, and who choose not to know him;—who therefore gladly seek a substitute for God, for his Bible, for prayer, and for trust in his providence in these new revelations from the future, unseen world.
Passages in the Old Testament treating of this subject are Ex. 22: 18 and Lev. 19: 26, 31, and 20: 6, 27, and Deut. 18: 10, 11, 14, and 1 Sam. 28: 7–20, and 1 Chron. 10: 13, 14, and 2 Kings 21: 6, and 2 Chron. 33: 6, and Isa. 8: 19, 20.
II. Crimes against Parents and Rulers; (Violations of the Fifth Command).
Of crimes against parents, the statutes of Moses specify smiting and cursing (Ex. 21: 15, 17); the penalty in both cases, death. The precept forbidding to curse a parent is repeated impressively (Lev. 20: 9); “For every one that curseth father or mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.” This crime stands in the list of those that are anathematized—in Deut. 27: 16: “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother; and all the people shall say, Amen.”——In Mat. 15: 3–6 and Mk. 7: 9–13, our Lord seems to give this law forbidding a son to curse father or mother, coupled with the fifth command, a construction broad enough to require him to give them an adequate support—of course in their years of infirmity and want.——That God had a high regard for this filial duty toward parents is manifest in the place of priority accorded tothe fifth command and in the special promise made to those who fulfill its obligations.
In Deut. 21: 18–21, the case is supposed of a son incurably stubborn, rebellious, gluttonous, and drunken, upon whom parental chastisement is unavailing. The law very considerately provides that his father and his mother shall lay hold of him and bring him before the elders of his city unto its gates (i. e. into open court), and there, as a public example and warning, the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die:—“So shalt thou put evil away from you and all Israel shall hear and fear.”——Parental love and partiality would guaranty this law against abuse. It is pleasant to note that no case of its execution is on record. Perhaps the severity of the law forestalled its violation.——The spirit of this precept is so fully in harmony with the book of Proverbs that we naturally expect to find it there. (See Prov. 20: 20 and 30: 11, 17.)
A precept forbidding insult and reproach of magistrates stands in Ex. 22: 28: “Thou shalt not revile the gods [Elohim used probably in the sense of judges], nor curse the ruler of thy people.” The word “gods” here can not refer to false gods, idols (as the English reader might suppose), for the Hebrew word can not bear that sense, nor would it be pertinent. The parallelism with “ruler of thy people” favors the sense above suggested—judges—acting under God and in his behalf before the people. Their sacred office under God is assumed to be good reason for treating them with respect and against offering them insult.——No penalty is attached to the violation of this law—perhaps because the penalty ought to depend so much upon the aggravation of the offense.——Under the kings, it was apparently a capital crime, for when Shimei cursed king David (2 Sam. 19: 21–23) Abishai assumed that he ought to die; and his temporary pardon was manifestly due to David’s sad consciousness of deep personal ill-desert and of God’s righteous visitations upon him.
III. Crimes against Person and Life; (Violations of the Sixth Command).
Under this head the salient and vital points are: