What is the context?
The chapter returns to giving children to Molech and states the penalty and the Lord’s opposition to the offender. It also confronts the people who close their eyes to the act. The community’s refusal to respond does not make the offense invisible to God.
Turning to mediums and spiritists is again described as unfaithfulness. The call to become holy and keep God’s statutes is grounded in His identity and His work of making the people holy. Responsibility for obedience and dependence on the Lord appear together.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the opening as penalties for offenses already prohibited and understands seeking mediums as seeking their counsel or help. The USCCB notes discuss this chapter alongside the prohibitions in chapter 18. The passage addresses Israel’s community under these laws; how a church understands their continuing force is a further interpretive question.
The Westminster Confession 19.4 says that Israel’s judicial laws ended with that nation’s political order, while their underlying equity can still matter. That reading distinguishes learning from these judgments from simply transferring Israel’s penalties into a church’s instructions.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.