Isaiah 8 includes various prophecies dealing with Aram, Samaria, and Assyria, but I am most intrigued by the prophet's warning against consulting the spirits of the dead.
"Now if people say to you, 'Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and mutter; should not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living, for teaching and for instruction?' surely, those who speak like this will have no dawn!" (vs. 19-20) Just as we find today, in Isaiah's time were people who sought answers and direction by calling up the spirits of dead people. (see, for instance, the account of Saul and the witch of Endor in I Samuel 28).
The Bible does not deny that there may be a certain reality and effectiveness to spiritualist and occultic practices; however, it condemns them in no uncertain terms. Consulting with the dead and cavorting with psychics is not an option for the followers of God. There is a danger in divination. The Lord's people are to rely on prophets, not psychics.
Reading on in this passage, the Lord reveals the bleak outcome those who dabble in such "dark" practices: "They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward, or they will look to the earth, but will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness" (vs. 21-22).
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