As Guilty As The One Who Consults Him

In a few spots, the Old Testament directly addresses whether someone is guilty for in some way collaborating with or prompting another person to sin, though the former does not actually carry out the actions of the latter.  Ezekiel 14 contains a relevant passage.  A person with a heart bent towards idolatry (towards worshiping idols or gods besides Yahweh) who visits a prophet is said to have the same moral culpability as the prophet they consult, who in this context would in turn be given to some sort of wicked inclination since they too are under divine wrath.  With verses 1-8 establishing that the people seeking prophets are idolatrous and hypocritical for seeking an alleged representative of God anyway, the next verse leads to the declaration in verse 10 that the guilt of these two parties is equivalent.

Ezekiel 14:9-10—"'"And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.  They will bear their guilt—the prophet will be as guilty as the one who consults him."'"

Because God enticing the condemned prophet is included in the quoted verses above, to briefly summarize since this topic is not the primary focus here, even prophesying true things on behalf of false gods is still egregious because of the motivation behind it (Deuteronomy 13:1-5), so if God told someone accurate things which they then proclaim as if on behalf of other gods, they would still sin.  And nowhere does Ezekiel 14 say that God forces any prophet to sin (either through false prophecy or declarations in the name of other gods) in the illogical Calvinistic sense—which would make God the real and sole "offender" and not the human puppet.  As for how some translations besides the NIV (shown above) say God deceives the prophet, that is for another post.  However, it is clear that, one way or another, God says the one who pursues advice from a wayward prophet (of either kind) is equally in the wrong along with the prophet.

Someone who consults a false/falsely motivated prophet cannot be innocent if they have no regard for the veracity of the response they receive or for the veracity of the reasons for giving the response.  If that person merely hopes to be told exactly what he or she wants to hear or wants to be true, or if they seek to oppose Yahweh, then they, despite not delivering the false prophecy, have encouraged or provoked the false prophet to do something which is evil (Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 18:20-22).  Both are guilty.  Being slightly further removed from the direct action of either making false predictions in the name of God or speaking as if for other gods does not absolve the one who consults the other.

There are significant ramifications of this matter for other sins.  One of these sins is communicating with the dead.  Obviously, if mediumship is sinful (as attested to in verses like Leviticus 20:6, 27, and Deuteronomy 18:9-12), then asking someone else to communicate with the dead or to try to would have to be sinful as well.  Complicity in an evil behavior still requires that even a party who does not directly do the thing in question errs.  The Torah does not have to say this for it to be both true (as logic dictates) and knowable apart from its acknowledgement.

The man or woman who consults a medium, as does King Saul in 1 Samuel 28, is in a particular sense just as guilty as the man or woman who attempts or succeeds in contacting the dead.  In that instance at least, the medium might only be acting because of the other party's request.  The client wants them to perform an action that is so vile it is a capital sin.  1 Chronicles 10:13-14 actually retells Saul's death at his own hands in 1 Samuel 31:5-6 as God putting him to death because of his evils, among them that he approached the witch of Endor for an immoral form of guidance.  Though Saul does not himself rouse the spirit of the prophet Samuel from the sheer unconsciousness of Sheol (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, etc.), he is necessarily guilty of partaking in something that, Biblically, should not be done.

Also of relevance, steering someone towards worshiping a false god, or anything which is either nonexistent or not divine, is itself a capital sin no less than actively worshiping another god.  Compare Deuteronomy 13:6-10 with Deuteronomy 17:2-5.  Deuteronomy 13 absolutely addresses the same sort of topic that Ezekiel 14:9-10 does concerning the guilt of consulting someone or enticing them to do something vile.  Working with an evildoer by encouraging their wrongs is in some ways as wicked as whatever the other person is doing.  May no one feel safe in being slightly removed from a sin as if they could prompt someone else to commit a misdeed without also being guilty for the outcome, or for their own sin in this encouragement whether or not the other person proceeds in accordance with it.