I Samuel 18:12: “And Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul.”
Here we have a powerful king afraid of a little shepherd boy. The word for fear here is yara. This is a fear of respect and awe. The word is spelled Yod, messenger or message from God, Resh the power of the Holy Spirit and Aleph which represents God. Thus this fear is a fear generated from the word and power of God. The passage goes on further to confirm that this fear was the result of the Lord being with David. The word with is ’imo which means with but within its context it could be translated as surround or encompass or even hide.
What sheds light on how we would translate imo is a word hidden away in this verse. It is the word pani (presence) with two prepositions in front of it from and to. So the literal translation of this would be: “Saul was in awe of the presence of David because Jehovah was surrounding him.”
We learn in verse 10 that an evil spirit from God came upon Saul. I don’t understand the theology of God sending an evil spirit. All I know is that it was not a nice spirit and that this spirit had a violent reaction against the mere presence of David. Well we know from this verse that it was not the presence of David that caused awe and respect from Saul, it was the presence of God surrounding David that caused this awe and most likely it was the spirit that came upon Saul that was reacting violently.
We also learn in verse 10 that this spirit upon Saul caused him to nevim. We translate the word nevim as prophesy. A lot has been said and written about this word prophesy and I fear I can no more than what has already been offered by others. However, I had to really do a study on that word nevim so I could have a personal understanding because whenever I read about Saul prophesying I pictured him walking around saying things like: “And then in 1947 AD Israel with again become a nation.” After all prophesy is foretelling the future – right? Nevim has a broad range of use. One use is to express a shaking, groaning, grunting, and other strange manifestations. Most likely when Saul started to nevim he was not going around telling everyone their fortune, he was shaking, groaning and grunting and other strange manifestations.
What seems to be going on here is a spiritual battle and two spirits clashing. Did you ever have the experience of just walking up to someone while you were enjoying the presence of God and suddenly that person just lashes out at you saying horrible things. The other day I was standing in line at Target and the woman in front of me was having problems with getting the right price on a certain items. I had only a couple items and I could have moved to another line but I figured it was a good time to just pause and quietly worship God. Suddenly this woman turned on me and said: “Look, I was here before you I have right to get the right price.” I told her I didn’t mind waiting and then she said in a very unpleasant voice: “Get out of here, go to another line, I don’t want you here looking at all the stuff I’m buying.” The cashier shrugged and I went to another line. Maybe there was little spiritual warfare going on? You think?
Anyways this situation in II Samuel could very well be the same thing. That person lashing out at you may have a spirit reacting against the Spirit inside you. Ever hear the saying that sometimes you bring out the worst in people. You may actually be doing that. Surely David was bringing out the worst in Saul and all David was doing was just enjoying the presence of God.
Here’s the chilling part. The Bible says in verse10 that God sent the evil spirit to Saul. That word for to is al which simply means unto. This spirit did not possess Saul nor surround Saul as the Spirit of God did with David, it was merely hanging out with Saul. The Lord had departed from Saul. The word depart is sar and is found in a simple Qal form. As a Qal, I would lean toward using a milder form of the word which is to turn aside. God simply turned aside or turned away from Saul and along comes an evil spirit just waiting for that opportunity.
I don’t believe a Christian can be demon possessed if he has the Spirit of God inside of him. But I do wonder if this passage implies that if there is unconfessed sin in our life such that God can not look upon us and He must turn aside, that this gives some tormenting spirit sitting off in a corner the opportunity to have at it with us. In a way, that tormenting spirit does come from God for it is God who allows him to attack because He can not look upon our unconfessed sin and hence He can not surround us with the covering of protection.
Ok that is a theological issue that has no definitive answer, but it does give one pause to consider the possible consequence of unconfessed sin. The more I seek the heart of God I sense the more the enemy is just itching for that one opportunity to get his licks in. Allowing sin into our lives we may give him that opportunity just like he had with Saul.
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