Saul Taken Over By a Demonic Spirit

From the beginning, Saul’s faith had been in his ability to manipulate people to do what he wanted, and he tried to manipulate God in a similar fashion by his sacrifices and prayers.  At first, he allowed God to direct his actions, but as time passed he became more confident of his own rightness and less concerned with what God wanted, eventually even ignoring god’s commands and getting angry when confronted.  Eventually Samuel was forced to withdraw his support, and no longer allowed god to guide him.    His selfish attitude caused the Holy spirit to withdraw and opened the door for demonic influence in his life, as we see in I Samuel 16:14.  “But the spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.” 

 

Not understanding that the problem was a spiritual problem, Saul’s servants sought for physical things to calm him down, in I Samuel 16:15-17.  “And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.  Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.  And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.”

 

As a result of their decision, David was brought before Saul, in I Samuel 16:18-22.  “Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.  Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.  And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul.  And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.  And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight.”

 

As Saul’s armor bearer, David was in a position to meet the leaders of Israel and see what was needed for leadership as well as learning how the political system worked so that when he became king he would be prepared to take charge. 

 

Unfortunately, Saul’s problem was a spiritual problem, not a physical one, and the efforts to quiet his spirit did not cure the problem although the music would temporarily calm his anger, as I Samuel 16:23 describes.  “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” 

 

Today, our Psychologists and psychiatrists make the same mistake, using Drugs and counseling to temporarily relieve the symptoms but doing nothing to cure the problems, which continue to get worse.  Curing such problems requires a whole new spirit or attitude.  Just teaching them to use more socially acceptable ways of releasing their feelings or drugging them up does not fix the underlying problem.