An Evil Spirit from the Lord

[followerofchrist]

1 Samuel 16:14-15 14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil [b] spirit from the LORD tormented him. 15 Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Now at first glance these verses kind of throw me for a loop, an EVIL spirit FROM the Lord. I mean if somebody had just said that too me I would have pegged them for crazy. But this is scripture so its definately true. So this raises the question to me, what is an evil spirit from the Lord, how can the Lord have an evil spirit or have anything to do with evil?? So I just read this verse this morning and haven't had much time to think about it. But here is how I see it, in this book Saul has disobeyed Gods commandment and the Lord has rejected him as the King of Israel. The Lord is preparing the way for David, son of Jesse, to become King.So I believe that the "Evil spirit from the Lord" is a punishment on Saul, a just punishment for Saul disobeyed the Lord and the father is a just God. And whenever Saul is plagued by this evil spirit, David plays the harp and Sauls pain is suffering is eased. Now the specifics as to what the evil spirit on Saul is are insignificant, it sounds like he might be having some sort of convulsions or siesurs or something. I really don't know, I just know they are sporadic. What I am asking is, has anyone already done a study on this? Am I correct that the "evil spirit from the Lord" is a punishment and not some like demonic spirit or anything?

 

[HammerStone]

I Samuel 16:15
Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.
I added the emphasis because folks miss the key statement. Remember that Satan's words are also found in the Bible. Does that make them true? (Obviously not.)Yes the Lord withdrew his Spirit from Saul, documented by verse 14. And obviously he would know what would happen in that instance. But did God send that evil spirit (as the advisors say) or did he merely allow it to happen?The answer is the latter.

 

[tim_from_pa]

Hi Follower of Christ:Glad to see you've been posting more lately. Missed you.Anyway, this passage that you mentioned reminds me of Romans 1:24 and Romans 1:26. In those passages, God "gave them up" to their vile passions. The translation is literally to surrender them. After a point in time where one is unrepentant, God will say "have at it" and let that person alone. This allows a satanic entity to take over if they so desire. In Saul's case, he'd be diagnosed with severe depression in today's terms. That is not to say he was not demonically attacked, but demons use a person's weakness to get to them as they feed off of anger, fear and so forth.Now, although some may not like to hear this, I'd personally have no problem if God wanted to send an evil spirit to someone after repeated warnings. It's not as if God is doing this for His amusement. This reminds me of another scripture that says:To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.This leaves a person to their own devices and hopefully destroyed by Satan (in the flesh) to the point where they come back to their senses again. Actually, in this case, it's a merciful thing to do instead of eternal destruction.

 

[followerofchrist]

(Swamp Fox;61204)
I Samuel 16:15 I added the emphasis because folks miss the key statement. Remember that Satan's words are also found in the Bible. Does that make them true? (Obviously not.) Yes the Lord withdrew his Spirit from Saul, documented by verse 14. And obviously he would know what would happen in that instance. But did God send that evil spirit (as the advisors say) or did he merely allow it to happen? The answer is the latter.
Yes, but it does not say that in v14, v14 is not a quote from the servants. Its straight from the author of 1 Samuel. It specifically says and evil spirit FROM the Lord.

 

[Christina]

I have heard two different opinions here Follower one the hebrew Lends itself to be Allowed an evil spirit.I Samuel 16:14 "But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him."God did not send the evil spirit to enter into Saul, but in the Hebrew text, He allow an evil spirit to enter into Saul. Evil spirits are of Satan the devil, and they can only enter into one that does not have the protection of God upon them. Evil spirits can give negative thoughts, and there are not as many of these evil spirits as people think that there are, but they do exist. I Samuel 16:15 "And Saul's servants said unto him, "Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee."The servant of Saul's could discern this evil spirit that entered into Saul, much as many Christians can today. The second is it is Satan ( or his evil spirits) which are the fallen Angels and Angels are Gods children also they were created by him before they fellI think its the first that God allowed it is the proper way to understand this.

 

[Sasha]

Depression, anger and fear are all demonic spirits. Anytime satan attacks it is a deomonic spirit. That's the only way satan can attack. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but, of power, love and a sound mind. (Holy Spirit) We reject God and He has no choice but to pull away,(I didn't say leave us) He is not going for force us to accept Him. So, Satan sees his enamy expose out in the open with no protection, of course he will take atvantage of that and attack.And demonic spirits are not the fallen angels. They are bound in chains.

 

[tim_from_pa]

(tim_from_pa;61208)
In Saul's case, he'd be diagnosed with severe depression in today's terms. That is not to say he was not demonically attacked, but demons use a person's weakness to get to them as they feed off of anger, fear and so forth.
(Sasha;61918)
Depression, anger and fear are all demonic spirits. Anytime satan attacks it is a deomonic spirit. That's the only way satan can attack. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but, of power, love and a sound mind. (Holy Spirit) We reject God and He has no choice but to pull away,(I didn't say leave us) He is not going for force us to accept Him. So, Satan sees his enamy expose out in the open with no protection, of course he will take atvantage of that and attack.And demonic spirits are not the fallen angels. They are bound in chains.
I won't debate the exact nature of demons considering that both the demonic and angelic world has many, many ranks and "species" just like the animal kingdom. (c.f. Ephesians 6:12). And some evil spirits are bound (Jude 1:6) due to the Genesis 6 incident, and some are free yet with Satan that will be released (See Revelation and specifically Rev 12:4). I do agree that when there is anger, depression, or the like (and that can happen without a demon due to our fallen nature) that this opens a person to a demonic attack.

 

[Sasha]

Babies and children are innocent until they come to the age of accountability. This age is not the same for every child. It happens the moment they knowingly sin. They understand the difference of good and evil, this however is not the same as right and wrong. What is right in one country could be wrong in another and the same from household to household. It was wrong for me to disrespect my mom but my best friend disrespected her mom all the time straight to her face. Right and wrong changes from household to household, from country to country; even from 50 years ago until now it has changed and so on and so forth. Good and evil however remain the same at all times. Once a child learns it is evil to rebel against their parents and they make the decision to do it anyway they die spiritually, just like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Therefore they are now in need of a savior, they need to repent and as Jesus Christ to the be Lord of their lives. Behold old things are past away and all things become new. They need to be a new creation, to be born again. This is why it is common to see a huge change in kids. It seems like it came from nowhere and caught you off guard. You begin to wonder what you did wrong or what happened to them to make them change so much over night. Their eyes have been opened to the knowledge of good and evil. They are now in need of salvation.We chose evil over good and opened the door for satan to attack us. God gave us love, joy, peace, & patience. Satan attacked with demonic spirits of jealousy, lust, depression, rage, loneliness, suicide ect... God blessed us with health, satan attacked with cancer, AIDS, arthritis, and every other kind of sickness and desease you can think of. Praise the Lord, God said He has given us everything pertaining to life and Godliness. Authority over satan and all his power, (demons) and dominion over the earth. That includes our bodies, we were made from dirt. We can command our bodies to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. Of course we do have to apply faith in God to honor His word, by responding to our faith.

 

[eternalarcadia]

Evil spirit from the Lord - angels were created by God. Some of them decided to join satan, yet God still has dominion over them. God has dominion over all spirits and can command any of them to do anything. thats the way I see it.

 

[logabe]

When we look at the prophetic example of King Saul, we find him in rebellion against God (which is witchcraft—1 Sam. 15:23). By the end of his reign we see him consulting the witch of En-dor (1 Sam. 28:7). Because Saul is a type of the Church under Pentecost, it would be a surprise if we did NOT see much of the Church under the spell of the Queen of Heaven.In fact, Saul had outlawed witchcraft and had even persecuted witches and mediums. 1 Sam. 28:9 says,9 But the woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?”The Church has indeed persecuted witches and mediums throughout history. But in spite of this, Saul was still into the spirit of witchcraft since his original rebellion without repentance. Though he confessed his sin to Samuel, he did not repent. He could have repented when confronted by Samuel, but instead, he was more concerned about public relations. 1 Sam. 15:30 says,30 Then he said, “I have sinned; but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and go back with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel went back following Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.It is amazing to me that Saul could be in witchcraft and still worship the Lord. Saul’s problem was not in his ability or desire to worship the Lord. The problem was hidden in his heart. It was a mystery, a secret, a hidden rebellion, and he refused to repent of that witchcraft.It was not long before God sent Samuel to anoint another king. He anointed David. 1 Sam. 16:14 says,14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.Later, in 1 Sam. 18:10, we read (NASB),10 Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved [naba, “prophesied”] in the midst of the house.The NASB translators could not understand how Saul could prophesy under the power of an evil spirit, so they thought he must have been raving. However, this Hebrew word is consistently translated “prophesied” throughout the Old Testament. In no other place is it translated “raved.” The fact is, Saul prophesied under the influence of the evil spirit FROM GOD. He assumed that he was under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. But in fact, it was by an evil spirit from God. He did not know the difference, and neither do very many Christians today.Such counterfeit prophecy comes from the Jezebel spirit, “who calls herself a prophetess” (Rev. 2:20). She was brought in by Saul’s rebellion, overthrown later by David, and then re-established by Solomon through his marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh and his other foreign wives (2 Chron. 8:11; 1 Kings 11:1-10).Logabe

 

[Christina]

Very interesting post Logabe thanks for sharing

 

[univac]

Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version)7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

 

[Jordan]

(univac;63429)
Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version)7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
That verse is being twisted once again. God is not Satan. *sigh*

 

[univac]

Amen there is no darkness found in him, What is meant here, that God disciplines and punishers to reprove those he loves

 

[Christina]

Perhaps this is better said Allowed by God The fact is, Saul prophesied under the influence of the evil spirit ALLOWED FROM GOD. He assumed that he was under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. But in fact, it was by an evil spirit ALLOWED by God. He did not know the difference, and neither do very many Christians today.Such counterfeit prophecy comes from the Jezebel spirit, “who calls herself a prophetess”