The scene in this passage returned to
Saul in Gibeah. It seems Saul did not know that Samuel had anointed David as
king yet. God had rejected him as king of the people of Israel. The Spirit of
God is said to have departed from Saul. What a sad day! One of the worst
possible feelings for a believer to experience is when the Spirit of God has
distanced Himself from that person. That person becomes venerable to
spiritual attacks and the schemes of the evil one, and also to his cohorts of
demonic forces. The absence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life will leave
him or her dry, listless and directionless. Remember David’s prayer of
repentance after he had sinned against God, Uriah, and Bathsheba. He felt the
horrible experience of a life without the presence of God’s Spirit. So in Psalm
51:11, he prayed to the Lord saying, “Do not cast me away from Your
presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” He felt a tremendous
loss without the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord abandoned Saul
and immediately, he was subjected to spiritual attack. The evil spirit is said
to have come from God. Does God send us an evil spirit? Of course not! This
expression that “an evil spirit from God terrorized
Saul” was expressing the way the Israelites viewed things in life. They
supposed that God’s hand was behind every experience of life, good or evil. The
intention here is to tell us how vulnerable a believer can be without the
protection of God, and not that God has an evil intention for those who fail
Him. What exactly happened to Saul? Nothing
is said about his condition how he was terrorized. He was probably suffering
from bouts of distress, depression, or miseries that completely altered his
mood. He probably became uncontrollable and violent. All these that he
suffered was a consequence of being rejected by God.
In verse 16, one of
Saul’s servants suggested a remedy to help him overcome the spiritual attack.
He said to Saul, “Let our lord now command your servants
who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp;
and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he
shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well.” So Saul accepted the suggestion. In verses 17-18
we are told that Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me now a
man who can play well and bring him to me.” Just as
amazing there was a man who knew exactly the person who could help. He said to
Saul, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a
skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in
speech, and a handsome man; and the Lord is
with him.” That son of Jesse, of course, was David.
We all need the Spirit of God to guide
and direct us in life. The Bible leaves us with two signposts that we must
learn to live within. The first signpost is found in Ephesians 4:30 where we
are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom
we were sealed for the day of redemption. The second is found
in I Thessalonians 5:19 where we are told not to quench the Spirit of God.
We must neither grieve nor quench the Holy Spirit of God. We grieve the
Spirit when we do things which He tells us not to do. And we quench the Spirit
when we do not do the things, He tells us to do. These are like two harbor
lights that guide us so that we can travel safely on our spiritual journey. Let
us live in obedience to the Spirit’s leading in our life, and neither grieve
nor quench the Holy Spirit of God.
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