by Nompiliso Maphosa

Created on: December 06, 2009   Last Updated: December 08, 2009

Witchcraft has always existed since the beginning of the world. It is mostly demonstrated in the time when the children of Israel were being delivered from slavery in Egypt. It is also mentioned in the Ten Commandments, when Saul disobeyed God and when he visited a spiritualist. In the book of Kings and Chronicles we learn about how different kings and judges tried to destroy the high places of worship which were introduced during Solomon's reign and also by Queen Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. In the new testament , Paul prayed for a girl who had a familiar spirit and also prayed for blindness to come upon a prophet who wanted to buy the Power of the Holy Spirit.

When God created the heavens and the earth, He alone existed and in the book of Isaiah He declared that there has been no other God besides Him and He did not form any other God after Him. Mankind has always had a vacuum in their heart to worship or seek to be under the influence of a greater power. In their quest for spirituality, they began to build altars for gods or tried to be like God as demonstrated in the building of the the tower of Babel.Their mission was to build and reach where God was but He confused their tongues and dispersed them.

The greatest witchcraft found in the Old Testament was that of the Egyptians. When Moses went to Pharaoh seeking for the deliverance of the children of Israel ,(Exodus 7 verse 11 ) Pharaoh called the wise men, magicians, sorcerers with their enchantments. They cast down their rods which became serpents but in a demonstration of the power of God, Aaron's rod swallowed all magicians' rods. This demonstrates that these Egyptians had power to change ordinary rods to serpents and their power was not from God. We also know that Pharaoh used to worship the River Nile because every morning he used to go and pray by the river that is why God killed all the fish in the river to demonstrate His power. The Egyptians also worshipped the frogs, the wind, the sun and did not know the true God. When God punished them using various plagues, their magicians could not compete as they were competing with a Supreme Power. Since the children of Israel had lived so much in Egypt, they had adopted their ways of worship and God had to redirect them in His ways. In the Ten Commandments which He gave them ( Exodus 20), there are three commandments against witchcraft.

- Thou shall not make any other god beside me

-Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of

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