Difficult Questions: Does God Send Evil Spirits to People?

From time to time, we dig into Scripture and seek answers to difficult questions from the Bible. Today, we are asking the question: “Does God send evil spirits to people?”

And the Lord said, ‘Who can entice Ahab to go into battle against Ramoth-gilead so he can be killed?’“ There were many suggestions, and finally a spirit approached the Lord and said, ‘I can do it!’ “‘How will you do this?’ the Lord asked. “And the spirit replied, ‘I will go out and inspire all of Ahab’s prophets to speak lies.’ “‘You will succeed,’ said the Lord. ‘Go ahead and do it.’ “So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all your prophets. For the Lord has pronounced your doom.” I Kings 22:20-23 (New Living Translation, NLT)

If we just read this passage and take it at face value, we might be inclined to think that God sends evil spirits to us. But we have to read the entire story of King Ahab, an extremely wicked king. If we go back one chapter, we read in chapter 5 that Ahab and Jezebel had a man named Naboth killed so they could take his land. As a result, Ahab set events into motion by this wicked deed that would result in his own death. The prophet Elijah prophesied his doom.

Give him this message: ‘This is what the Lord says: Wasn’t it enough that you killed Naboth? Must you rob him, too? Because you have done this, dogs will lick your blood at the very place where they licked the blood of Naboth!’” I Kings 21:19 (New Living Translation, NLT)

Now, let’s go again to chapter 22, where Ahab asks King Jehoshaphat to go to battle with him. Jehoshaphat wants to inquire of the prophets, and hundreds of false prophets tell them to do it. However, Jehoshaphat holds out for the word of a true prophet of God, Micaiah. He tells them that they should not go to battle because it will not go well for them. When Ahab resists this word, Micaiah explains that a lying spirit was permitted to come and draw Ahab into battle. Why? So the Word of the Lord would come to pass as prophesied by Elijah and Ahab would die as a result of his wrong actions to Naboth. God was not a party to deception, but was allowing Ahab an opportunity to choose to listen to the Word of the Lord or reject it. If they would listen, they would be spared, if not, the enemy would bring destruction. The Lord knew Ahab’s heart and what his response would be, so Ahab was reaping the harvest from the wickedness he had sown. God simply allowed him to choose to believe a lie.

King Saul also dealt with an evil spirit. Did God send it?

Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. I Samuel 16:14 (New Living Translation, NLT)

The evil spirit that tormented Saul was a result of his disobedience to the Lord detailed in I Samuel 15. God allowed the evil spirit to torment Saul because he had opened the door to it by his actions. The evil spirit in both situations had a legal right to be there, because both men had done things to give the devil access to their lives.

In such passages, sent could more accurately be translated as allowed or permitted. God doesn’t just send evil spirits to wreak havoc in our lives. He has set in motion certain laws, such as sowing and reaping. Our actions have consequences, and because God is just He honors His laws and will allow evil spirits to bring to pass the harvest off of bad seed sown. Both men we discussed were given time and opportunity to repent, but did not. They sealed their own judgment.