Does God Use Evil Spirits?

Does God Use Evil Spirits?

I came across a passage in 1 Kings this week while researching something entirely different and have been intrigued by it since:

1 Kings 22:19-23 (ESV)  And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; ²⁰ and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. ²¹ Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ ²² And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ ²³ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”

It looks like “all the host of heaven” includes demons or evil spirits.  One of these spirits came before God to volunteer his malevolent service in the employment of God as the evil spirit he was – a lying spirit in the mouths of false prophets but still under God’s authority and to do His will.

Now, anyone who has read the book of Job knows even Satan is under God’s authority.  It’s the fact here in 1 Kings that someone volunteered to do evil and that God okayed it in the interest of His plan to overthrow King Ahab.

So I got to wondering about God sending evil spirits like this to do His work.  If God is omnibenevolent – infinitely good – and His plan is just and good, then why use an evil spirit to accomplish it?  “On top of this,” I thought, “what’s in it for the spirit?” 

I don’t have a clue what’s in it for the spirit unless he gets some unmentioned benefit or it’s just part of his nature he must favor God’s will.

I’m convinced the spirit God used in the above text is evil because it does something evil.  It speaks lies through the false prophets.  As Eddie, a friend of mine, likes to quote his mom: “Sinners sin.  That’s what sinners do.”  Well, I think that can be applied here.  Evil spirits lie.  That’s what lying spirits do.

Then I thought about why God might send an evil spirit.  Certainly in the above case, He wanted Ahab to believe the lies he so desperately wanted to believe and lose the battle.  I started to think God could use evil spirits in other ways as well.

So, I started to think of who else God might have sent evil spirits to.  “Well,” I thought, “There was the evil spirit God sent to torment Saul.”

1 Sam. 16:14-15 (NASB)  14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. 15 Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.

This has always been an important passage personally to me.  In October of 1975, God sent an evil spirit to me.  That night, after my wife fell asleep, the spirit stood at the foot of our bed.  I couldn’t see anything, but I could certainly sense the evil that was present.  It stayed there for about an hour and scared me to death.

During the previous six months, I had fought God’s attempts at getting me to turn control of my life over to Him.  I had someone in control of my life when I was a child, and it was terrible.  I didn’t want to enter into a similar relationship with God in case I couldn’t trust Him.

The arrival of the evil spirit in my room allowed God to show me where my choice would take me if I made the wrong one.  It was clear a decision needed to be made. I had to choose eternity with either this guy or God.  I chose God as a result, and have never been happier.  So, sometimes God sends an evil spirit for good.  Perhaps He did this with Saul, but Saul “chose poorly.”

Why is this important?

There are things God does that seem out of place to us but are well within His character.  Evil is ungodliness, and God cannot be both godly and ungodly.  Being ungodly is not in His nature, of course.  Yet, evil speaks to many where godliness does not.  God may well allow evil to accomplish His purposes here on earth. As in my case and others, in fact, it may be necessary.

The Nazi’s murder of six million Jews during WWII is the epitome of evil, yet without it I doubt the nation of Israel would exist today.  God may well have used the Nazi evil to bring about His fulfilled prophecy.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m not sure exactly how much our lives here on earth rate in importance in God’s plan.  We are here to represent Him to others, to share His gospel, to live in a way that attracts the lost to His kingdom, but I’m not convinced outside of those exceptions whether it’s important to God that I die quietly in my bed on my one hundredth birthday or in an automobile accident at age fifty.  It is our next life that greatly concerns Him: whether I die as a believer and have accomplished my assigned tasks.

This is something for us all to think about.  God cannot sin, He can’t do evil things, but it seems He can allow evil things to take place under His control in order to further His divine plan.