Every New Year’s Day in Japan, many people go to the Japanese shrines and get what is called omikuji.
Basically, people give a small offering, about 5 yen (5 cents or so), and get a piece of paper which tells their future, basically saying it’s going to be a great year, a so-so year, or an awful year, and then gives perhaps a few more predictions about the future.
Most Japanese people I’ve talked to only take it semi-seriously. Basically, if it’s good, they choose to believe it. If the fortune is bad, they tend to ignore it.
I’ve also seen fortune tellers around in the city while I was in Kobe, and I know of some people that are into astrology, tarot cards, and ouija boards, much like people are in the U.S.
Some people see ouija boards as a game. In the States, toy manufacturers like Parker Brothers and Hasbro have made them, and Hasbro still does, I think.
In most American newspapers there’s a little caveat that they add to the horoscopes. “This is for entertainment purposes only.”
In infomercials for fortune telling, they add the same caveat. I guess even fortune tellers don’t like getting sued.
But fortune telling isn’t game, and God didn’t treat it such. He said in verse 6,
I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute themselves by following them, and I will cut them off from their people. (Leviticus 20:6)
He later said in verse 27,
A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.
Basically mediums and spiritists were people who contacted the dead to get information, mostly about the future.
Why was God so against this? I think the key word here is “prostitute.”
As Christians, we are called the bride of Christ.
But when we consult fortune tellers, astrologers, and use other such means to try to find out the future, we are really dealing with demons.
We’re playing with spiritual forces that are definitely not from God, and that is always dangerous.
It’s been said that the door to the spiritual world (of demons) has only one doorknob and it’s on our side. When we open the door of our lives to demons, it puts us in serious spiritual danger.
If we want to know our future, we shouldn’t be going to demons, we should be going to God. And if he decides that we shouldn’t know something, then we need to learn to walk in faith, trusting him.
As Proverbs 3:5-6 says,
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 