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Whither the “Harmful Spirit?”
There are stories in the Bible whose main plot is given the most attention but missing are the details behind the plots. For example, a lot of people are familiar with the Biblical story of “David and Goliath,” but are they familiar with the events leading up to that famous encounter between the two, which has fostering ideas including the size of a person may not necessarily make him a victor in a fight with a much smaller person? And where does the “Harmful Spirit” fit in? Well, here’s the story behind the story.
It starts in 1 Samuel 15:1 in the OT. In those days, the Philistines were a massive headache to the people of Israel. Do things like this ever change with the people Israel? Anyway, as told in 1 Samuel 15, the Lord says to Samuel to go to Saul and tell him God has anointed Saul King over Israel. Samuel further says to Saul that God wants him to annihilate the Amalekites, who had tormented the Hebrews on their way to Israel in their 40-year journey from Egypt. Samuel says that God wants nothing left, not “man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” as it says in 1 Samuel 15:3.
So, Saul defeats the Amalekites, but contrary to God’s command, Saul spares its King and takes alive “the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good,” not destroying them, according to 1 Samuel 15:9.
In Verse 10, God tells Samuel He regrets having made Saul King since Saul, by sparing the animals mentioned above, has disobeyed him. In subsequent Verses Samuel conveys this message to Saul, and he also essentially tells Saul that God has fired him as King of Israel.
What follows in Chapter 16 is a tie-in that eventually leads to David’s fight with Goliath. In 1 Samuel 16:14–17, God sends a “harmful spirit” to torment Saul. Saul’s servants, seeing this, tells Saul that a man who is “skillful in playing the lyre” will make Saul well when he plays it. Saul tells his servants to provide such a man. The man happens to be David. Not only that, but before David appears to Saul, David in 1 Samuel 16:12 is anointed the new King of Israel by God, and Saul doesn’t know this; neither do most of Israel’s people.
So, when David appears before Saul and plays his lyre, Saul is made well and he keeps David by his side, not knowing that he’s keeping by his side his own replacement.
Shortly thereafter, in Chapter 17, Goliath issues his challenge to Saul to send one man alone against Goliath to fight him. David, knowing he has Saul’s ear, convinces Saul to let him fight Goliath. Saul, convinced, says ‘OK, go,’ and the rest is history.
Would David have known of the challenge if he wasn’t in Saul’s company? Who knows? But in Chapter 18, Saul becomes jealous of David who is glorified by the Israelis, to the point where he tries to kill David with a spear. But the Harmful Spirit appears again in 1 Samuel 18:10, causing Saul to rave within his house. With the presence of the Harmful Spirit, though, Saul misses and he realizes at that point that God is with David and He had departed from Saul.
Too make a long story short, after a number of interceding events including battles involving David, in 2 Samuel 5:1–3 David is anointed King by the people of Israel. All things considered, it seems the “Harmful Spirit” was harmful only to Saul.
There are stories in the Bible whose main plot is given the most attention but missing are the details behind the plots. For example, a lot of people are familiar with the Biblical story of “David and Goliath,” but are they familiar with the events leading up to that famous encounter between the two, which has fostering ideas including the size of a person may not necessarily make him a victor in a fight with a much smaller person? And where does the “Harmful Spirit” fit in? Well, here’s the story behind the story.
It starts in 1 Samuel 15:1 in the OT. In those days, the Philistines were a massive headache to the people of Israel. Do things like this ever change with the people Israel? Anyway, as told in 1 Samuel 15, the Lord says to Samuel to go to Saul and tell him God has anointed Saul King over Israel. Samuel further says to Saul that God wants him to annihilate the Amalekites, who had tormented the Hebrews on their way to Israel in their 40-year journey from Egypt. Samuel says that God wants nothing left, not “man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” as it says in 1 Samuel 15:3.
So, Saul defeats the Amalekites, but contrary to God’s command, Saul spares its King and takes alive “the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good,” not destroying them, according to 1 Samuel 15:9.
In Verse 10, God tells Samuel He regrets having made Saul King since Saul, by sparing the animals mentioned above, has disobeyed him. In subsequent Verses Samuel conveys this message to Saul, and he also essentially tells Saul that God has fired him as King of Israel.
What follows in Chapter 16 is a tie-in that eventually leads to David’s fight with Goliath. In 1 Samuel 16:14–17, God sends a “harmful spirit” to torment Saul. Saul’s servants, seeing this, tells Saul that a man who is “skillful in playing the lyre” will make Saul well when he plays it. Saul tells his servants to provide such a man. The man happens to be David. Not only that, but before David appears to Saul, David in 1 Samuel 16:12 is anointed the new King of Israel by God, and Saul doesn’t know this; neither do most of Israel’s people.
So, when David appears before Saul and plays his lyre, Saul is made well and he keeps David by his side, not knowing that he’s keeping by his side his own replacement.
Shortly thereafter, in Chapter 17, Goliath issues his challenge to Saul to send one man alone against Goliath to fight him. David, knowing he has Saul’s ear, convinces Saul to let him fight Goliath. Saul, convinced, says ‘OK, go,’ and the rest is history.
Would David have known of the challenge if he wasn’t in Saul’s company? Who knows? But in Chapter 18, Saul becomes jealous of David who is glorified by the Israelis, to the point where he tries to kill David with a spear. But the Harmful Spirit appears again in 1 Samuel 18:10, causing Saul to rave within his house. With the presence of the Harmful Spirit, though, Saul misses and he realizes at that point that God is with David and He had departed from Saul.
Too make a long story short, after a number of interceding events including battles involving David, in 2 Samuel 5:1–3 David is anointed King by the people of Israel. All things considered, it seems the “Harmful Spirit” was harmful only to Saul.
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