Thought for Today
Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (KJV)
Deuteronomy 18:10 No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
Matthew 2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
Acts 13:6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.
“Then let us give thanks that our God, whose creative power conjured the magnitude of the heavens and the vastness of this world and everything within it, also has the time to care for us.” (These Days, October 13, 2026)
Conjure!?! God does not conjure; Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts conjure. Our God creates! I was flabbergasted at encountering the word conjure this morning in that devotional.
As I stewed and simmered, I decided I needed to look up the definition of conjure before I did anything else. I found, “transitive verb: 1. To charge or entreat earnestly or solemnly; 2a. to summon by or as if by invocation or incantation, b. to affect or effect by or as if by magic – intransitive verb: 1a. to summon a devil or spirit by invocation or incantation; b. to practice magical arts.” (merriam-webster.com)
I decided that J.K. Rowling had the right idea and that the author of that devotional unfortunately used a misleading word. Not that I am particularly pedantic or retentive; but, I am very sensitive about language and word choice. In addition to their basic dictionary definition, words, in every language, evoke certain images, ideas and social conventions. Words carry semantic baggage that sometimes weighs them down significantly.
Create and conjure are vastly different words. Our Bible begins with, “Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” We understand that to mean that God created Creation, including time itself, from absolutely nothing other than God’s own creative will. Theologians and pastors being who and what we are, there is a Latin phrase to capture that idea, “creatio ex nihilo (Lat. ‘creation from nothing’) The Christian view that God created all things out of ‘nothing’ and is thus the ultimate cause and source of meaning for the whole created order.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 65)
The Bible takes a very dim view of witches, sorcerers, magicians, diviners, soothsayers and others who conjure. Prophecy is entirely different, “Speaking on behalf of God to communicate God’s will for a situation. In the New Testament it is a gift of the Spirit . . . It is also used for the prediction or declaration of what will come to pass in the future.” (ibid, pg. 224)
I loved reading the Harry Potter books. I also love a series of fictional novels whose protagonist is a wizard private detective, The Dresden Files. The idea of magic, of conjuring, invocations and incantations is at times very appealing. To imagine that one could create things, could wield the very forces of nature merely by chanting the correct words or waving a wand is tantalizing. It is also falsely seductive.
Those wise men who came following the star and searching for the King of the Jews are sometimes referred to as the Magi. The Greek word is “μάγος, ου, ὁ from Persian magus (great); (1) magus, plural magi, the high priestly caste of Persia; wise man of the Magian religion (MT 2.1); (2) magician, sorcerer, one using witchcraft or magic arts (AC 13.6).” (Friberg, Analytical Greek Lexicon) Their profession would have included a mix of astronomy and astrology as well as some knowledge of meteorology.
My takeaway from all of this is first, only God can truly create from nothing. We can mold, reform, recombine, etc. but only God can create from nothing. God is truly the Author of the Universe. Second, relying on purported magic is not only futile, it is sacrilegious. Truly believing in magic or conjuring is denying the reality of our Creator God.
It is fun to read the books. It is fun to imagine the possibility of controlling such powers. But, at the end of the day, the only real magic is the love of our God, the wonder of John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8. And, in the end, that is more than enough.
Wonder at the power of our God, be amazed at God’s love for God’s Creation, trust God,
Pastor Ray