May 2024
Nougat 31
I confess, there are some phrases in the Bible that get me. They feel contradictory to my understanding of God and how God operates. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat
1 Samuel 16:15-17 NIV
[15] Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.
[16] Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.”
[17] So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.”
An Evil Spirit From The Lord
I do understand that in those times, everything had a spiritual dimension to it. It still does, in my estimation. But … ‘an evil spirit from the Lord’ leaves me a bit confounded. Now, my consternation is neither unique nor new. (There’s even a fancy term for it, which is ‘theodicy’, the problem of evil). The challenge that others and I face is reconciling evil with our understanding of our good God.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe evil spirits exist. I completely believe that God created all things and that there’s none greater than God. But it goes against the grain to think that my good and loving God would send an evil spirit to attack someone. It gets more complicated because I have zero challenge believing God opened that door so David could understudy Saul.
As I write and ponder, however, a thought crossed my mind. Actually, two thoughts. The first comes from Romans 1:24, where God leaves us humans over to our own desires (i.e. those who do not choose to obey God). This followed my thought of Jesus’ teaching that when someone controlled by an evil spirit gets release, the evil spirit returns with crowds of it finds no other soul to torment. (One might argue that both texts are taken out of context, but it is as far as I’ve processed to any point of satisfaction.) Perhaps this is what it relates to.
Without making Saul a fall guy, I see that this business of evil spirits could allude to some of his later evil deeds. But what if he suffered from mental health concerns? It is evident that his choler (irritability) leaned toward manic depression, but didn’t God know of this problem when selecting Saul as king? And if so, was Saul set up? Or was God working with the best human at the time until God’s choice (David) was old enough to take over?
The jury is out, folks. I still wrestle with this idea of God deliberately sending evil spirits to haunt us. But even with that, I keep my trust in God.
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May all we seek be found in Christ