Evil spirit from God

1Sa 16:23 So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him. - NASB

I came across this last night. What does this mean by "evil spirit" that is from God? Can anyone clarify that?

Does it mean that God allowed a demonic spirit to come over Saul, or that God purposely sent it?

thanks,
Keith

Both Keith.

You have opened a whole barrel of worms, look out. :-?

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Who put evil in the garden and who put the tree of life in the garden? God of course.

Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

They had to choose to do right to present themselves before God that they might who Him that He is right and love and worship Him.
This was not their nature, that is why they had to choose Whom they would serve.

When we believe in Christ, He is birthed in us and now we have a nature of God Himself in us by the Christ the is now our spirit, and our soul will be renewed by the Holy Spirit to the Mind of Christ that we now have. Evil is no longer present in our spirit because it is the Spirit of Christ, not Satan.

Jos 23:15 Therefore it shall come to pass, [that] as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

God used in the Old Testament to show Israel That He was God and controlled even their lives even in good and evil, if they would not obey.
Even in this He already knew they would not, because Christ was chosen to be in us even before the foundation of the World. Israel must seek God and repent and do His Will, that is why He gave the Law to Moses. We with Christ in us already have Christ Himself seeking the Father and we are learning to do the same and it will be some day complete in Christ, with us in our Father's House, where Christ is preparing us a place.

Jdg 2:15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

God uses evil for His own purpose to deal with His Creation as He Pleases. Jdg 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

Jdg 13:1 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

Dealing evil for His purpose, even as we know God is a loving God. Tough Love is perfected in God and through Christ on the Cross for those that believe.

This was said to David because of what he did to Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba's husband. 2Sa 12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give [them] unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

Again God uses evil for His purposes and in His choice and timing to bring forth His Will. That is why we work out our salvation with fear and trembling because God disciplines those He loves.

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

Amos 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Last: Jeremiah 18:7-10 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Our repentance is in Christ that is righteousness to us, we know what to repent of by the Christ in us through the Teacher, Comforter, The Holy Spirit. Praise God for His Evil, for it leads us to His righteousness and repentance.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

In Christ: Phillip

hmmm it's a little hard to chew.

So in essence you are saying that God uses evil spirits to accomplish His will? Would that not make Him evil? Would you say that this is just an Old Testament thing or do you think that He currently uses evil for His purposes? If you say that God also operates this way in the New Testament too, how does this not conflict with statements about the Lord's goodness, and He being a loving parent who would not give us a serpant or a stone instead of bread?

Thanks

That is if we ask for bread.

God is not evil. For me to create a Chevy P.U. Does not make me a truck. I will use it for what it was intended.

Where did evil come from if the tree in the garden was truly there?

Where did the Plan of God come from. Where did evil come from if it exists?

God is the God of the New and the Old Testaments.

In Christ: Phillip

hmm

Well I do very much appreciate your explanation of the verse. I cannot say that I fully agree with you. But thanks for your input, I appreciate it all the same. Different perspective are often good to hear, to get one thinking out of the box.

Keith

bro Keith
we know the New Testament says that ALL things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. In this light all things are good in the sense that they fulfil our Lord's purposes and plan in our life which is to glorify Himself. God is not the author of evil but evil doesn't operate independantly of Him because He controls all things and in Romans Paul speaks of how our sin is used of God to make plain His grace and mercy, not that we ought to sin wantonly however.

God's goodness doesn't mean that we won't experience any pain/displeasure in our lives. if we ask God for endurance we will get it but the only way to learn to endure is to endure. what God sees as good is often at odds with our own perception of what is good.

Maybe this will help clarify things:

"Letting Satan crack his whip over man is one way God punishes rebellion...Satan is an overseer given in God's wrath. The devil is God's slave, and man the devil's."

From William Gurnall's, "The Christian in Complete Armour." Vol.1, pg. 144.

PaulWest wrote:
Maybe this will help clarify things:

"Letting Satan crack his whip over man is one way God punishes rebellion...Satan is an overseer given in God's wrath. The devil is God's slave, and man the devil's."

From William Gurnall's, "The Christian in Complete Armour." Vol.1, pg. 144.

Well I most certainly disagree with that.

What part of Gurnall's statement do you not agree with?

Does it mean that God allowed a demonic spirit to come over Saul, or that God purposely sent it?

There are a couple of Bible narratives which make interesting reading in this light; Pharaoh and the Prodigal Son.

The KJV says that God 'hardened Pharoah's heart'.“And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.”
(Ex 4:21 KJVS) The Hebrew word Strongs 2388. חָזַק chazaq actually means 'to strengthen'. It seems that God 'empowered' Pharaoh to choose to reject God's counsel to him. We are empowered to choose but the choice is still our responsibility.

The Prodigal, of course, could never have made his journey to the far country unless the father had given him his inheritance. In other words the father empowered the son's rebellion.

With regard to your scripture I would say that God empowered all the choices of men and demons. These events could only have happened by God's empowerings.

This does not explain away the mystery. One day we shall see that all God's empowerings were 'holy' and every mouth will be closed.

"Now, therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee" (I Kings 22:23).

I think this goes along the same lines. Surely, God cannot lie. But he may empower the "father of the lie" to rise up in order to accomplish that for which the ultimate end will be to His glory. God can "put" or "send" wicked spirits wherever He wants to accomplish His divine purpose.

Looking into the life of Saul, the bible teaches that he would call for David when ever the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him to torment him.

Was he demon possessed? No, he just needed deliverance. Deliverance from what?

Samuel 16:14 Now the spirit of the Lord has left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear;

Some of Saul’s servants suggested a remedy. It is clear that a spirit of God is tormenting you, they said. Let us find a good musician to play the harp for you whenever the tormenting Spirit is bothering you. The harp music will quiet you, and you will soon be Well again. All right, Saul said. Find me someone who plays well and bring him here.
One of the servants said to Saul, the son of Jesse is a talented harp player. Not only that; he is brave and strong and has good judgment. He is also a fine-looking young man. And the Lord is with him.
So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say Send me your son David, the shepherd.

Why would God send this type of a Spirit upon his chosen, his anointed? Could it be that there was something in his heart that was not right in the eyes of God? Yes

First and foremost it is the heart that God looks at. Now why did all of this come about. You must first look at Israel -- what God desired was for the Israelites to worship him. Is that not why he led them out of Egypt into the wilderness to lead them into the promised land?

God desire to have communion with us, but they said No, we want a King? Why did they want a king? Moses and Joshua had already died and now the Israelites were left alone, they could have gone to God for themselves but they were afraid.

Exodus 19: 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a thick cloud so the people themselves can hear me as I speak to you. Then they will always have confidence in you. Moses told the Lord what the people had said. Then the Lord told Moses, “Go down and prepare the people for my visit. Purify them today and tomorrow and have them wash their clothing. Be sure they are ready on the third day for I will come down upon Mount Sinai as all the people watch.

Exodus 9:16 on the morning of the third day, there was a powerful thunder and lightning storm, and a dense cloud came down upon the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, (-------), and all the people trembled. Moses led them out from the camp to MEET with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. All Mount Sanini was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook with a violent earthquake. As the horn blast grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply for all to hear.

Samuel 8:6 Samuel was very upset with their request and went to the Lord for advice. Do as they say, the Lord replied, for it is me they are rejecting, not you. (Doesn’t this just hurt you – to hear HIM say, it is me they are rejecting not you).

So here you have Saul, God anoints him king specifically asks him to do something, to wait!

Samuel 13: 1 Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilbal, and his men were trembling with fear. Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. So he demanded, Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings! And Saul scarified the burnt offering himself, Samuel ARRIVED. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, but Samuel said, what is this you have done?

Saul replied, I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle. So I said, the Philistines are ready to march against us, and I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s Help! So I felt obligated, to offer the burnt offering myself before you came. (And I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s help)

Why did he feel obligated to do this when God specifically asked him to wait?

His ways are not our ways, we are to trust him even when it hurts and we don’t understand why, why is this happening to me, God I thought you loved me, why is the answer no, why is it always no. God why am I treated this way and they are not?

Because the way that God deals with one person is not necessarily the same way he deals with you/me. This is not to say or even think God does not love you? Yes he does.

And there is work that he wants to do, deep deep inside of you, because he loves you.

So he sent this tormenting spirit upon Saul, and what does Saul do, he calls for David to play the harp, why didn’t he just repent, why didn’t he just call out to God the same God that Samuel would pray too, isn’t this what David would do, that is why he is called a man after God’s own heart.

I understand that in those days you needed a mediator, but once that veil was removed, you, we, him, her they, them all have access into the holiest of holies, into the presence of God. Hallelujah!

Do not be afraid to talk with God and share your concerns with him, he will hear you. His word says that his ear is attentive to prayers of the righteous.

This is why God send the tormenting spirit it was A MATTER OF THE HEART.

There are some very good replies. Thanks so much.

If anyone has the time, can someone list as many scriptures that they can find that has to do with this subject such as: God sending and evil spirit, putting a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets, hardening pharoh's heart and so forth?

I definitely appreciate it.