Deathtrap, Remixed.

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14, NET Bible)

Thirty-five years ago, a play titled “Deathtrap” debuted on Broadway and ran for four years. The play highlighted the fact that engagement in abhorrent practices leads to a cycle of deception and death. A key character in the storyline is a psychic, who by the end of the play became entangled in the same deathtrap she had revealed through divination.

In this past Sunday’s sermon Pastor Andy spoke on Mark chapter 5, which contains the narrative of the demon-possessed man who lived in the tombs of the Gadarene region. Our pastor also took a few minutes to reflect on Deuteronomy 18:9-14. He reminded us that God’s desire for His people is that they never engage in any form of abhorrent practice. Our pastor noted that engagement in activities such as magic or the occult is never a one-time occurrence: such engagement plants the participant into a demonic system in which the participant becomes trapped, and from which she or he might never escape.

Deuteronomy18:12 indicates that engagement in abhorrent practices opens the door to one’s dispossession (being "driven out"): a loss of one's lands and habitations. This is what happened to the demon-possessed man in Mark chapter 5: a loss of property internally and externally. 

Internally, his body (which God had designed and tailor-made as a habitation for his soul) was no longer his own. It had been inhabited by demons—a group of demons so large that they identified themselves as “Legion”, a term used to describe a band of Roman soldiers numbering between one and six thousand. 

Externally, the man was no longer able to reside in his hometown. He was driven by the demons away from his household, out of his hometown, and into the demons' preferred home: a graveyard. 

It is no surprise, then, that the demon-possessed man was out of control—so much so that, as our pastor noted, the man could not even say his own name when Jesus asked him to identify himself: instead, the demonic community in the man responded.

And in light of this, it makes it all the more curious that persons who claim to be Christian would engage in practices that will result in their souls being accessed by demonic spirits, their voices being subsumed by the voices of darkness, and their covenant blessings cancelled.

What has God said? “The Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things.”

May we never be found standing in opposition to God’s directives. Never.