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Transcript 211C — The Evil Spirit in 1 Samuel 16:14
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Mr. Camping, I have a question about I Samuel 16:14, where it speaks about an evil spirit from the Lord coming to torment Saul. It's hard for us to understand that, because it sounds like there's evil coming from the Lord. Is an evil spirit the same thing as a demon?
HC: The question is, How are we to understand I Samuel 16:14, where we read, "The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. And Saul's servant said to him, 'Behold, now an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.'"
Now the question is, How is it possible that an evil spirit would come from God? Isn't an evil spirit a demon? Yes indeed, an evil spirit is a demon. An evil spirit is a fallen angel. But you see, God is in control. God controls everything.
Now normally, unsaved men are under the power of the evil spirits. They are enslaved to Satan, and he does with them what he wills, insofar as God allows them to do what they will with mankind. God chose Saul to be king, and therefore qualified him to be king by sending the Holy Spirit upon him, not in the sense that he was born again, but in the sense that he would have the wisdom and the qualification to be a king.
But then Saul turned against God, rebelled against God. And so God allows the evil spirits to again gain more control over his life. And to show that God is in control of this, the language is actually used that an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
Now we have other illustrations of this in the Bible. In other words, this is not isolated, as if it's an anomaly that you just can't understand at all. In II Samuel 24:1 we read this: "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And He incited David against them, saying, Go number Israel and Judah." Now God is taking full responsibility here.
Now the same event is recorded also in I Chronicles 21:1: "Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army," and so on. In other words, Satan is actually the instigator, but because God allows it to happen, God takes the ultimate responsibility that it has occurred.
CALLER: With this evil spirit tormenting him, it causes Saul to sin. I was under the impression that because the Lord is without sin, He cannot tempt anyone.
HC: Now the question is, Since God is a holy God, how can He allow anyone to be tempted into sin? This is beginning to look like it is God who is making Saul sin. Now we must remember that God isn't doing the sinning. Saul is doing the sinning. Saul is the one who was created in the image of God, and who, all the way from the depths of his heart, is in rebellion against God.
Now God can restrain sin in Saul's life, as He has done to some degree in order that Saul might be a good king over Israel. But when God removes His hand of restraint, then this allows Saul to become more firmly in the grasp of Satan, in whose dominion he is normally, anyway. And Saul simply does what comes more naturally to him now, and that is to sin. That is the normal posture of Saul, to sin. That's the normal situation of mankind. Mankind's heart is desperately wicked.
In other words, any time God takes His hand of restraint off of any unsaved man's life, that man is going to start sinning more desperately.
CALLER: Is that what it means in Romans 1, when it speaks of the lifting of God's hand from someone?
HC: In Romans 1 we read that God gave them up to all kinds of immorality, and so on, and so on. Three times in Romans 1 we have the terrible words, "God gave them up." Now that is emphasizing, amongst other things, that if man persists in rebellion against God, then eventually God allows wickedness to multiply in their lives and gives them up to that which is natural within their lives, so that they become increasingly sinful.
Now this non-neutrality of God is also emphasized in II Thessalonians 2. It's very surprising how God becomes involved in the sins of mankind, never making Him the author of sin, never making any sin to be charged at God's door. But because the basic nature of man is so fantastically sinful, the heart of man is desperately wicked, the moment that God removes any restraint from man, any insights from man as to what really goodness is, man will automatically become exactly what he is.
Now we read in II Thessalonians 2, where it's talking about, in verse 10, those who are to perish "because they refused to love the truth, and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Now how does God do this? All He does is remove His hand of restraint, and He lets them be as blind as they are by nature.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.