Excerpt from Chapter Nine
of the Book
Spiritual Teachings and Universal Truths
Copyright © 1998 by Raphael. All rights reserved.
The
True Meaning of "Inquiring of God"
God
is the source of all truth.
Whoever seeks the truth from Him will receive it and will be preserved
from error. This is His promise.
Knowledge of this led the faithful of ancient times to enter into
communion with God when seeking the truth.
They did not expect this communion to come about and to bring conviction
by way of inner illumination, but by way of revelations of the truth received
from without, and sent by the Lord in a manner perceptible to the human senses.
They inquired of God by means of human expedients, and were answered by
Him through the same channel. They
were well aware that the good spirit world in the service of God is the agent of
His will, and that to consult the spirit beings of God's Kingdom is equivalent
to inquiring of God Himself. They
were equally well aware that there is such a thing as an evil spirit world, and
daily experience had taught them the possibility of communicating with this
also.
At all times before the birth of Immanuel and in the early days of His
era, the godly made liberal use of the privilege of inquiring of God.
The writings of the Old and the New Testament abound in instances in
which it is related that the faithful, when desirous of learning the truth,
inquired of God and received their answers, transmitted to them through God's
spirits.
If you will open your Bible and carefully read through its Books one by
one, you will find my statement confirmed.
You will find mention made of inquiring of God in one of its very early
chapters, in Genesis 25:22, it being related of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, who
feared that she was barren. Twins
were struggling in her womb and she said, "Why has this befallen me?
So she went to consult the Lord."
The manner in which she "consulted the Lord" is not recorded,
nor the way in which she received the answer which was given to her, but the
casual way in which the story is told shows that inquiring of God was not an
unusual practice.
After the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, the people daily appealed
to Moses to inquire of God on their behalf.
In Exodus 18:14-16, "And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he
did to the people, he said, "What is this thing that you do to the people? Why sit you yourself alone, and all the people stand about
you from morning unto evening?" And
Moses said unto his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to
inquire of God; when they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a
man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his
laws." Here also nothing is
said to show the method by which the inquiries were addressed to God.
Not until later, when Moses at God's command had built the tabernacle, do
you find a more detailed account of the means by which "inquiries of
God" and the answers were made possible, again in Exodus, "It came to
pass, when Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood
at the door of the Tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses."
Also, " . . . and the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man
speaks to his friend. And he turned
again into the camp, but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the Tent."
The essential parts of this account are already familiar to you from my
previous teachings, but now you will probably notice also that there is a
difference between the manner in which Moses inquired of God, and that in which
it was done by the people. To the
solemn inquiries addressed to God as here related, Moses, as the representative
of all the people, is answered by the Lord through the pillar of cloud, whereas
when individuals of the people inquired of God, their answer came, not through
the pillar of cloud but through another channel, which although not clearly
defined in this passage, is sufficiently well indicated to leave no doubts in
the mind of anyone familiar with the subject.
You learn that Joshua, the servant of Moses, was not allowed to leave the
Tent, evidently there must have been a reason for his constant presence there.
This reason was directly connected with the practice of inquiring of God,
Joshua having been especially appointed to act as a medium for those of the
people who desired to inquire of God concerning their private affairs.
It is expressly stated that "every one that sought the Lord went out
unto the tent of meeting." No
fixed hours for inquiring of God having been set, Joshua was obliged to be
present in the Tent at all times, so that he might be available to all as a
medium for transmitting the Lord's answers.
He was employed as an instrument by God's spirits, in the same manner in
which they employ the mediums of today.
In Judges 18:5,6 you read, "When the Danites sought an inheritance
to dwell in, they sent five men to spy out the land.
These came to the house of Micah where they met a Levite who lived there
as a medium. And they said to him, ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that
we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous."
And the priest said to them, "Go in peace, before the Lord is your
way wherein you go." In this
chapter there is also a detailed account of the manner in which the Levite
inquired of God. It is related that
Micah had caused a man to make him a "graven image" and a "molten
image", as the erring translators express it, not knowing the true meaning
of the term and even assuming that these images were "idols".
As a matter of fact they were made in imitation of the Breastplate of
Judgment worn on the garments of the High Priest and so called, as you know,
because it was used for inquiring of God.
Imitations of the High Priest's Breastplate of Judgment were used
whenever the people of Israel consulted the Lord in matters of private interest.
These imitations corresponded perfectly to what is now called a "planchette"
and consisted of two parts: a lower, stationary part, generally cast as a plate
and engraved with the letters of the alphabet or other symbols, and an upper
part, light and handsomely carved and having a pointer.
The cast plate was either set upon a table or fastened to a base or a
pillar, and was highly polished to allow the upper part to slide over it with
ease. Whenever counsel was sought
of God, the movable upper part was sent upon the plate, and the medium, laying
his hand on it, waited for it to be moved by the spirit beings to the letters on
the plate with the aid of his own spiritual energy power.
If this happened, the pointer indicated in the proper order the
characters which, when combined into words and sentences, spelled out the answer
returned by God. It was
substantially the same thing as the High Priest's Breastplate of Judgment.
The imitation of that Breastplate was even carried to the extent of
having precious stones engraved with characters, set into the cast plate by
expert jewelers, large sums of money being spent for the purpose.
And precisely as the High Priest wore costly robes when seeking counsel
of God, similar garments were provided for the private mediums who attended the
Breastplate of Judgment.
We read of Micah in Judges 17:5, "And he made an ephod and a
Breastplate of divination, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his
priest." Also in Judges 8:27,
"Gideon also made the spoils taken from the Midianites into an
"oracle" of the kind described, and "put it in his city even in
Ophrah, where it could be consulted by all."
But before long it was used by the people to consult evil spirits.
Gideon had caused it to be made for the use of inquiring of God only, but
it was misused by the people, who employed it to inquire of the "dead"
or in other words, to communicate with the evil spirit world, and who thereby
fell into idolatry.
However, those among the Israelites who observed God's commandments made
use of private channels for communicating with Him only in emergencies.
In matters of great importance they still preferred, when inquiring of
God, to go to the spot which He Himself had appointed for the purpose in the
days of Moses. They used to go to
the "tent of meeting" where the High Priest inquired of God for them
by means of his Breastplate of Judgment. When
King Saul wanted to pursue the defeated Philistines by night and to destroy them
and his people were willing to follow him, the priest said, "Let us consult
God here." So Saul asked God,
"Shall I go down after the Philistines?
Will you deliver them into the hand of Israel?"
But God did not answer him that day.
God did not answer Saul on that day because Saul's son had violated a
command of the Lord. God by His
silence indicated that He would answer only those who obey Him.
David invariably inquired of God through the Breastplate of Judgment.
His medium was Abiathar, the priest, in 1st Samuel it is recorded, "
. . . but David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God, and David said to
Abiathar, I pray you, bring me the "ephod" (Breastplate of Judgment).
And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
And David inquired of the Lord saying, "If I pursue after this
troop, shall I overtake them?" And
he answered him, "Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and will
without fail recover all." (1st
Samuel 30:7,8)
Only those who put their whole faith in Him and who look to Him for help,
will God allow to inquire of Him. But
all those who hold communion with the Evil One and who look for help to the
spirits of the Abyss, God will reject. It
is not the half-hearted, not those who today turn to God and tomorrow to Evil,
not those who today pray and devote tomorrow to wickedness, whose appeals for
counsel God will answer. This was
true in olden times and it is true today.
Of such, God has drawn a true picture through the mouth of Isaiah the
Prophet, "Yet they ask me daily, and delight in, knowing my ways, as a
nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they
ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near God, . . . Is not this
the fact that I have chosen, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands
of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to give your bread to the hungry, and that you
bring the poor that are cast out to your house?
When you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not
yourself from your own flesh? Then
shall your light break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth
speedily, . . . Then you shall ask, and the Lord will answer."
(Isaiah 58:2-9)
There were many different ways in which God manifested Himself to the
faithful who sought His counsel in their troubles.
The story of King Saul, in
the book of Samuel, relates the manner in which this prince, the first of the
Kings of Israel, was answered by the Lord while he was still an obedient servant
of the Lord. On the day before the
battle of Gilboa, Saul, who because of his disobedience had been deserted by
God's spirit, "inquired of the Lord" but "the Lord" answered
him not, neither by "dreams" nor by the "Urim", nor by the
"prophets". This
indicates that on previous occasions Saul had been answered in one or another of
these ways.
End
of Excerpt
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True Meaning of "Inquiring of the Dead"
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