1 Samuel 18:10 (KJV)
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul's hand.
The commentaries I have available all tend to concentrate on what sort of spirit this was—whether a devil, or some sort of mental illness such as melancholy or depression—which, by the way, they note “the learned” are not agreed upon. I am more interested in the phrase “from God.”
I see at least three ways to understand this:
This was an evil spirit God created.
Even devils are beings created by God. He did not create them to be evil; that was their choice. But He did create them. From time to time we hear of someone being mauled by a bear. The bear could be said to be from God because it is a creation of God. The bear did what bears do. That would not be the same as saying that it was God’s will for the bear to maul the man.
This was an evil spirit God allowed.
God allowed the devil to do all sorts of evil to Job. It was not that God is evil, nor that He did the evil, but that He allowed the evil that exists in this world to operate. He has a plan to eradicate it in the future (I pray it is in the near future). Evil exists because of the sin of man, and God uses even that which is evil to bring about His will. It had already been determined by the Lord that Saul would be replaced and that David would be his replacement. Whatever evil befell Saul was used by God to direct events toward that eventual transition.
This was an evil spirit God knew would result from Saul’s disobedience.
Here is the plain fact: evil exists in this world. There is no way to avoid being affected by it entirely, but the Word of God does teach us how to avoid much of it. A person who goes out in the rain will get wet. A person who goes out into the woods could encounter a bear. A person who disobeys the Bible will face consequences he might have avoided had he obeyed.
In some measure, all of these were true of Saul.
The devil was certainly playing his part in this most important event in the history of the people of God. God was using the corrupt nature that existed in Saul to direct circumstances toward David’s becoming king. And there is no doubt that Saul’s disobedience to God led him to jealousy toward David, seasons of depression, and an explosive, evil temperament.
#WhenGodRemovesHisHand #ConsequencesOfDisobedience #GodsSovereignRule #SpiritualDecline #LessonsFromSaul
An Evil Spirit from God”: Spiritual Torment After Disobedience
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