Why Did God Use A Lying Spirit To Deceive Ahab?

Does God Really Send Evil Spirits?

Question: Greetings! One things I do not understand is, how can God who is holy and not capable of sin or darkness (1 John 1:5) could send an evil spirit to Saul (1 Sam. 16:14)? Why did God use a lying spirit to deceive Ahab?

Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!

Here are the verses of the topic in context which you referred regarding Saul,

"But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him." (1 Samuel 16:14).

"And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul’s hand." (1 Samuel 18:10).

"Now the distressing spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand." (1 Samuel 19:9).

The question to ask here is, did God send an evil spirit upon Saul?

Have we all forgotten that Satan and his one third of all the evil rebellious angels who have fallen from heaven are on a leash by God to fulfill His purpose even in their rebellious state because of God's sovereign plan that cannot be changed because of time or event, as God sits in eternity and watches over His plan to fulfill His purpose at His will and in His time (Rev 12:4). Scripture reveals that God lives outside the bounds of time as we know it (Isaiah 57:15). We read that our awesome destiny was planned “before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2) and “before the creation and foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20). Have we forgotten that Satan was thrown out of first heaven only when he sinned and could not access the Lord intimately in privacy (Isa 14:2; Ezek 28:14-16), but he could have access where angels gather together to present themselves to the Lord and receive His instruction and power to fulfill His purpose for which He has created them, Satan also still comes to this place in disguise as one among them by transforming himself in to an angel of light because no one can stand before the Lord in open rebellion and so he deceitfully submits before Him to fulfill his agenda (Job 1:6-7; 2:1; 2 Cor 11:14). By submitting to the Lord he still receives the power of God to fulfill that which the Lord wants to establish. When it comes to people, the Lord has given them power over all creation so that once they act against the will of God in rebellion, Satan can use the same power he receives from the Lord as their representative to cause rebellion against God through pointing to people as the cause of it and not himself (Psa 8:4-6; 66:3; 65:43-45; 1 Sam 13:10-11, 12-14; Eph 6:11-12; Job 1:7; 2;2). This is the mystery of sin in the heart which creates lawlessness (Jer 17:9-10; 2 Thess 2:7).

So we know when the Scripture says, "the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul", we should understand that He is not the root cause of their evil works as "God cannot lie or sin" (1 John 3:9; Tit 1:2; Num 23:19; Heb 6:18) and in Him there is no shadow of turning (Jam 1:17), but rather we know when God who knows all things past, present and future hears about a case or its execution by being involved in it, it is a know thing to him and is not a new thing He experiences for the first time like us humans or angels of whom He knows all things beforehand (Job 4:18).

When the "angels come to present themselves before Him" in the "presence of the Lord" in the second heavens in the day when angelic "sons of God" are appointed to come and take the counsel of the Lord which always stands (Job 1:6, 12; Prov 19:21; Psa 33:11), the Lord speaks to the angels and instructs them out of which He already knows what has been happening among them and within them, that is why the Scripture points to "the distressing spirit" as from God or in other words as from the counsel of God. He is not the root cause of the direction these angels take by their own choice, but he acts as the decisive decision maker to allow the desire of the angels to happens as it has appealed to the Lord according to the desire of the people who were involved with them, and thus the very act of sending these spirits as judgment upon sin in letting man's desire to be fulfilled in itself becomes an act of the wrath of God (Psa 141:10; Psa 35:8; Prov 29:6). In other words, when man craves in lust, and God decides to give him what he wants, there comes a leanness in to their soul through the evil spirits that God sends which torments and oppresses their life as an act of judgment from God until they repent of those sins and turn to God in godly sorrow for their mistakes (Psa 106:14-15; Matt 19:34-35). All the fruit of the flesh are open doors for God to allow such evil spirits to enter the soul life to influence it to become lean in the life of a human to enslave him and torment him (Gal 5:19-21).

So God can be a just judge when He sends a tormenting spirit of evil to come to man who desires after its activity of influence which then makes him a transgressor and a sinner caught in the trap of his wicked ways (Prov 5:22; Psa 7:11). God who becomes angry with the wicked takes vengeance upon them everyday everywhere by allowing the evil angels to influence the wicked and thus brings the secret thing of their heart whether good or bad in to judgment (Duet 32:35; Eccl 12:14; Job 38:33). When God allows a human to go his own way, it means, the judgment for sin has come swiftly from Him to destroy their lives in their sins and wickedness (Psa 94:1-3, 23).

So can God send a "distressing spirit" and yet remain pure without getting tainted by its evil activities? As much as he sends, he is not the one who initiates by His own will, only God stamps the desire of the wicked humans by allowing their desire for evil angels and their works to get fulfilled which then becomes a snare in which they are caught, and a judgment for the wicked and justice for God's righteousness gets fulfilled and that is why even hell was not made with an intention for humans but rather for fallen angels, but men go there because they desire evil and its works of lies, and start to hate God and His works of truth (Matt 25:41, 46). God sends to hell all humans who are unsaved in order to fulfill their desire of living without God and his presence which they expressed to Him openly when they were alive and well on earth enjoying the goodness of God and still hating Him for his light (John 3:19-20; 2 Thess 1:9).

Many times the evil activities of rebellion against God are done by the evil angels thinking that by doing it, they are causing the purpose of God to get aborted, when in fact they do not realize that God is using the insidious work of rebellious evil spirits and the wrath of man against God expressed through evil and wicked works of breaking God's law and transgressing against God, altogether, God makes it fit his plan and works out his purposes through it all, thus causing defeat to both the evil angels and the wicked men to be judged at the end by His righteousness that will praise Him for eternity ahead (Rev 11:17-18). Like God showed his genius ways of allowing His only begotten Son to be killed by wicked men through the evil angels but then turned it over to become the reason of redemption for the whole mankind to be drawn towards Him in friendship instead (Psa 76:10; 1 Cor 2:7-8). Likewise, God has got the power to use all things bad, evil, good and ugly to be turned in to something good at the end (Rom 8:28), and the hidden wisdom of God which Satan and his demons cannot understand, through it God is able to turn the curses in to a blessing which is He is specialized to work it all out and turn the tables on Satan and his evil demons at the end of it all to fulfill His plans and purposes without fail (Gen 50:19-20; Deut 23:5).


The following are the verses of the topic in context which you referred regarding Ahab,

"18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” 19 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. 20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ 22 The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ 23 Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.” 24 Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go from me to speak to you?” 25 And Micaiah said, “Indeed, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide!” 26 So the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son; 27 and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.”’” 28 But Micaiah said, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Take heed, all you people!”" (1 Kings 22:18-28).

Ahab was the king of Israel who had a divided heart, so he had previous experience of hearing both the false prophets prophecy and also true prophets prophecy. Because of his divided heart, he wanted to hear God's counsel through true prophets and also wanted to please his own flesh by choosing to hear and give heed to false prophets because of their smooth words which pleased his flesh. So Ahab was the one who was already having a lust in his heart for false prophets and their deceiving prophecies of 'peace and safety' to be heard, in other words, he was having a open door in his life for the evil angels to be at loose in their work of deception in his life because of divided loyalties and the lack of steadfastness he exhibited in his life because of being influenced by Jezebel his idolatrous wife and the spirit of seduction that worked through her.

Thus Ahab who had previous experiences by hearing the prophecies of Micaiah the true prophet of God, was afraid of hearing true prophecy from God from him because of the impending judgment for sin and evil deeds that he has already been involved in, thus wanted to avoid him. But Jehoshaphat the King of Judah was little more inclined towards hearing God's word and respected the true words of prophets of God to hear their counsel and obey the Lord. Thus when Micaiah stood over there, God opened his eyes to see what was happening in the second heaven in the Presence of the Lord's counsel.

There he saw the Lord saying, "'Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ 22 The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’" (1 Kings 22:20-22).

Though it may seem that when God asks, 'Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?' and a little later after some intense lobbying from the angelic spirits, the Lord asking, ‘In what way?’ In response the insidious spirit saying, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD finally giving permission to this fallen angel to go and persuade Ahab, and also prevail, may seems to be externally at first sight as though the Lord partakes in the evil activities of the earth, but the fact of the matter is, as I had said before, because the Lord lives in eternity (Isa 57:15), he knows what is going to happen even before it happens (Isa 48:5; 46:10-11), the Lord's counsel always stands as he in the only one who knows the things that man thinks and also what goes on in the mind of all the angels whom he has created for His own glory (Psa 94:11; Isa 14:13; Ezek 28:16, 17; Job 4:18), so that when God gives a angel the permission by asking a question for which the answer was already in their heart, God does not get involved in the evil, but rather He becomes the judge against evil by letting evil to happen through which the wicked will get caught in his own iniquity and deceit because he has no love for the truth and has hated it like in the case of Ahab the king (2 Thess 2:10-12). Just because God knows the story line before it happens by His sovereign right and omniscience doesn't not make him responsible for the evil, but rather exhibits as the all knowing sovereign judge to whom all must give account for their activities whether good or evil presently and also in the future. As we have already discussed, even the spirits that come in to his presence to receive power on behalf of people on earth as a appointed watcher over them, cannot come before the Lord in rebellion and stand even for a fraction of a second of time, so it always conceals itself as one among the angel of light by transforming itself like their leader Satan to appear before the Lord (2 Cor 11:14), and then when the Lord asks them of their mission they reveal their heart desire to do acts of deception that they are used to. Thus the Lord gives permission to them, not willingly but because of the hardness of sin in the heart of man and deceitfulness in the fallen angels which gets supplied to those humans who desire for it and are lusting after it to be received through these fallen spirits (Matt 19:8). But soon these fallen angels and evil spirits that are at loose on earth, will in the right time get judged by God and will be removed from being a watcher completely when Jesus returns to the earth to rule it for a thousand years time and will be replaced by the saints who will become the new watchers for eternity ahead (Mark 1:24; Matt 8:29; Dan 4:13, 17; Rev 12:9, 17; Rev 19:14).

I hope now you have clearly understood why, the God who is holy and not capable of sin or darkness (1 John 1:5) sends an evil spirit to Saul (1 Sam. 16:14), or a lying spirit to deceive Ahab, because they were already desiring evil and lusting after it, so as a just judge God sends these fallen spirits to judge Saul with a tormentor and to judge Ahab with a deceptive instrument of death (Isa 54:16). Thus because God lives in eternity and knows all things before it ever happens, he has got the ability to reveal the counsel of one's heart whether humans or angels, and lets them to do and fulfill their will and wishes by giving the permission of His to fulfill it, without becoming involved in the evil He fulfills what angels do under the name of humans whom they were created to serve originally (Heb 1:14; Psa 103:20-21; 104:4), and thus fulfill His plans and purpose for His Glory in His time, in His will and in His way. Glory to God!

Much Blessings....

Share:

Previous Posts