At first glance, this seems to be a horrifying passage of scripture. Did God really send an evil spirit to torment Saul? However, when we understand all of the context, and consider the solution that was available to Saul, it becomes a powerful witness to God’s never ending grace. Although he couldn’t use Saul as his chosen instrument, the Lord never gave up trying to reach Saul’s heart.

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1 SAMUEL 16:14-23

14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had left Saul, and the LORD sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. (1 Samuel 16:14)

When we first read this, it almost feels like one of the most troubling verses in the Bible. God sent a tormenting spirit? The word for “tormenting” could also be translated “evil,” which does not make it any better: God sent an evil spirit? It almost seems like God first rejected Saul, and then decided to torment him out of spite. This seems completely out of character for the God we worship. I believe, however, that when we really understand what was going on here, the Lord’s action with Saul in these verses becomes one more instance for us to thank him for his incredible grace to human beings.

Let’s begin with the context. Saul, since the very first record of him in the Bible, has either ignored God, or considered Him a tool to be manipulated and used. Time after time, Saul revealed his own insecurities, and chose to act in ways motivated by his fear. Time after time, he refused to trust the Lord, and sought instead to protect his own interests. When he did engage with God, it was to get the people to remain in the army, or to try and manipulate the Lord into helping him, or guiding him. Saul represents the very worst in religious leaders – he tried to use religion as a way to exercise power over others, all the while avoiding personal trust in the Living God.

Finally, the Lord told Samuel that he had rejected Saul as king:

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He has rejected you as king.
24 Saul answered Samuel, “I have sinned. I have transgressed the LORD’S command and your words. Because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them. 25 Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the LORD.”
26 Samuel replied to Saul, “I will not return with you. Because you rejected the word of the LORD, the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 When Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. (1 Samuel 15:23-28, HCSB)

 This happened after several incidents when Saul either ignored God, or tried to manipulate him, or used religion to manipulate others. He had many, many chances to turn to the Lord, but he never did it. The Lord simply could not use Saul as His chosen instrument in that generation, because Saul wouldn’t let him. Saul refused to trust the Lord.

After this became painfully obvious, the Lord directed Samuel to David – a boy who had given his heart fully to God. David became the Lord’s chosen instrument in that generation. (Remember in those days, Jesus had not come, and so the Lord worked usually only through one or two people at one time. Today, all believers are given the Holy Spirit. We are all supposed to be his chosen instruments in this generation).

Now, to come to terms what happens next, to make sense of God sending an evil spirit to Saul, we need to understand this situation completely. The Lord rejected Saul from being king. He rejected him as His chosen instrument for that generation. Samuel makes this quite clear in the passage I just quoted. But this does not mean that the Lord has given up on Saul as a person.

When I was a child, I remember I desperately wanted a knife. A knife represented power and maturity. It was both a weapon and a tool. It was the next logical step in my progression to responsible adulthood. After a lot of powerful legal maneuvering on my part, I got my parents to give me one. Looking back, I realize now that my wise parents gave me a tiny pen-knife, something I couldn’t do much damage with. I didn’t realize that at the time, however. After carrying it around for a while, it seemed to me that I wasn’t really using it. Out in our yard we had a clothesline made of rope. I opened my knife and took a swing at it. To my delight, the line parted like the waters of the red sea. Later on I examined the metal fly-screen on one of our windows. I wonder if this knife will cut metal? I thought. There was really only one way to find out. It did. I was awed by the power I held.

I don’t remember much about the discipline that followed these incidents. But I do know this: my parents continued to love me and teach me, while at the same time, they took away the knife until I was older. I wasn’t ready for that kind of power. Even so, they loved me. They didn’t reject me. They just rejected the idea of me with a knife.

I think that when they took the knife away, I was probably more upset about losing the knife than I was about the fact that I had done wrong. I don’t remember, but I probably had to be disciplined in other ways so that I could see that what I had  done was wrong.

Saul was in a similar situation. The Lord didn’t reject Saul as a person; instead, what he rejected was Saul, as his chosen king. When Samuel told him that the Lord had rejected him as king, Saul was naturally upset. But to me, it reads like he was upset about losing his position as God’s chosen instrument, far more than he was upset about the fact that he didn’t trust God. As we continue through 1 Samuel, we will see that this is in fact the truth.

Now, even though the Lord rejected Saul as king, as His chosen instrument, he did not force Saul to abdicate the crown. He remained king until the day he died. It’s just that he was no longer God’s chosen king, and Saul wouldn’t start a whole dynasty. What grace – that God allowed him to continue as the king, even when he couldn’t use him.

Second, though he was rejected as king, what 1 Samuel 16:14 means is that God did not reject Saul as a person. In fact, he did not leave Saul alone. He was still working on him, trying to bring him to a place of repentance and trust. If God’s plan was just to send Saul to hell, he could have let him be killed soon after. Short of that, he could have simply ignored Saul, and left him to his own selfish insecurities until he died naturally.

Instead, God sent an evil spirit to torment him. I realize that this sounds awful at first reading. We know that those who go to hell will suffer in torment, likely torment augmented by evil spirits. So why did God let it start before Saul even died? Was he just especially vindictive toward Saul? That isn’t the kind of God that the rest of the bible reveals. So what other reasons could the Lord have for doing this?

To bring Saul to true repentance.

There are several other places in the Old Testament where the Lord used evil spirits to accomplish his purposes: Judges 9:23-24, 1 Kings 22:18-23; 2 Samuel 24:1 (combined with 1 Chronicles 21:1); and Job 1:6-12. In each case the picture we get is the Lord allowing an evil spirit to affect a particular person or group. In each case, the evil spirit wants to do the evil, but must get permission from God first. God’s permission seems to be limited to what will accomplish his purpose. In most of these cases, the purpose is to bring judgment, and if possible, repentance. I want to make sure we understand: Even evil spirits are made to serve God’s purposes, though they do so unwillingly.

Therefore, as we look at the whole of the Bible, I think the most accurate way to understand this is that the Lord allowed a demonic spirit to have a certain limited influence on Saul, with the purpose of bringing Saul to repentance and true faith. When we look at what follows, I think the text confirms this.

The NLT says the spirit filled Saul with depression and fear. Although that’s a bit of extra interpretation (in Hebrew it just says that it was a “tormenting spirit”) it is probably pretty close to reality. Even so, I don’t want anyone to get crazy ideas here. This scripture is not saying that all depression is caused by evil spirits. It does not say that whenever someone feels depressed, it is an attempt by God to get them to repent. We are learning here specifically about Saul. In Saul’s case, these things certainly seem to be true. But I don’t think we have here a blanket teaching about all cases of depression.

Saul’s courtiers recognized that at times, he seemed to be affected by something that caused torment in his heart or mind. They thought the problem might be eased by music. Their search for a musician lead them to David – who was now the chosen instrument of the Holy Spirit. They got David, to come and play and sing for Saul. Listen to the result:

23 Whenever the spirit from God troubled Saul, David would pick up his lyre and play, and Saul would then be relieved, feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him. (1Sam 16:23, HCSB)

God allowed the spirit to trouble Saul. But he also gave Saul the means to be free from it. And what freed Saul from the evil spirit was the Holy Spirit, working through David. In other words, even though the Lord couldn’t use Saul as his chosen instrument any more, He was not just abandoning Saul as a person. He had to remove the anointing of his Spirit from Saul, but he gave him a way to still receive grace from the Holy Spirit. He allowed him to experience a problem that could only be fixed if Saul would trust the Lord, and rely on the Holy Spirit’s work through David. I think the Lord was still trying to teach Saul to have genuine faith.

Do you see what grace the Lord had on Saul? Saul viewed God as a tool, and paid attention to Him only when he could see some benefit from it. And yet, if anything, it was supposed to be the other way round. Saul was supposed to be the Lord’s instrument. When Saul could not be used as his tool anymore, the Lord did not just cast him aside. He still worked to get Saul into a true, heart-and-faith relationship with Himself.

There are so many applications here. First, this is a great faith-strengthener for me. I used to view this passage as one of the most troubling in the Old Testament. Now, I can hardly stop praising God for his incredible grace to people like Saul, and me.

I think of the words of CS Lewis:

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

God wasn’t being mean. He was trying to get Saul’s attention. He was trying to get at his heart. Though the Lord had to give up on using Saul as his chosen instrument, he didn’t give up on Saul as a person. He was still calling to Saul, trying to teach him to rely on His grace.

The writer of Hebrews says something interesting:

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives. 7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline — which all receive — then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:5-11, HCSB)

(By the way, if you are female, I want to reiterate that you too are a “son.” In Hebrew culture, it was the son that carried the father’s name, the son that inherited from the father. So too, all of us who are in Jesus, whether we are male or female, are counted as God’s chosen people to receive and inherit his grace.) The main point is, sometimes we have to endure discipline in order to mature and fully receive the Lord’s grace. This discipline is positive, not negative. It is a sign of God’s grace and love, not of anger or rejection.

If God was still trying to reach Saul’s heart, after all the ways that Saul had rejected him, you can be sure He won’t give up on you either. Turn to him, and receive that amazing grace.

Another thing that strikes me about this passage is the role of music. The Holy Spirit used music to try and reach the heart of Saul. I have mentioned this before. Music can be a powerful tool in God’s hands to call to our hearts. Five-hundred years ago, Martin Luther wrote: “He who sings, prays twice.” He also wrote this:

 Experience testifies that, after the Word of God, music alone deserves to be celebrated as mistress and queen of the emotions of the human heart… A greater praise of music than this we cannot conceive. For if you want to revive the sad, startle the jovial, encourage the despairing, humble the conceited, pacify the raving, mollify the hate-filled—and who is able to enumerate all the lords of the human heart, I mean the emotions of the heart and the urges which incite a man to all virtues and vices?—what can you find that is more efficacious than music?

He was right. Pay attention to the music that speaks to your heart. Let God use it to draw you to Himself.

One other thing that amazes me as I read this passage. Even today, we know some of the songs that gave Saul peace and relief. They were written and played by David, and we have many of them preserved for us in the book of Psalms. Many times when my heart is troubled, I find relief from reading the psalms, and even singing some of the modern songs that are made from them. I encourage all of us to do that.

Take a moment to pray and let the Lord speak to you about this scripture now.