The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-5, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  Copyright John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

The question comes really from my daughter.  She was studying the Word the other night, and it is 1 Samuel 18:10, "Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul."  Her question is the "evil spirit," for as far as she is concerned, there is no evil coming from God, it only comes from Satan.

Answer

All that you have to do to explain that is to let her know that no evil spirit, and no devil, and no demon, anytime can ever do anything, except within the larger picture of God's allowing.  That "evil spirit" was from God only in the sense that the devil was from God, when the Lord allowed him to go and test Job.  You remember when the devil came before God and said, "You don't have anybody on this earth who will be faithful to you if given the circumstances that I can create."  And God said, "Yes, I have one faithful servant (Job 1) Job."  And God said to the devil, in effect, "You go and do whatever you want to Job."  Of course, it was all within the limitations of God's will, and of course, he did, and as a result of that Job's faith was strengthened, and Job proved to pass the test.

That illustrates the same idea: an evil spirit comes from the Lord, only in the sense that no evil spirit, no demon, no devil himself can act in this world independently of and outside of the allowing will of God.