Wisdom

 DEVOTION

1^st SAMUEL

WISDOM

1 Samuel 18:10-16

10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11 and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice. 12 Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul. 13 So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. 14 In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him. 15 When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.

NIV

Strangely, this translation uses the word 'evil spirit' that came upon Saul forcefully from God. Does God send evil? The Hebrew word “Ra” is primarily used in the sense of something bad, injurious, or adverse, rather than something pleasurable, and is sometimes associated with evil. This word is translated as non-pleasure, sorrow, mischief, harm and evil, so we can be sure that God caused Saul to prophesy and that could not be evil, or wicked, yet God was not with Saul, so then we would have to believe that God was against Saul, as he was against Pharoah when his heart was hardened. Saul became so jealous of David, he attempted to kill him with a spear, but because the LORD was with David, no harm befell him. Certainly, we would have to believe we could be in that same situation as David from time to time. That is, there could be some injurious spirit trying to pin us to the wall, but because the Lord is with us, we can elude those spears, or flaming arrows, for we have His shield of faith, and His helmet of salvation protecting our hearts and minds. Saul became afraid of David and sent him away, and gave him command over a thousand men. We also know that because the Lord is with us, we can send any evil spirit away from us and give them a command to leave, in the name of Jesus. As David obeyed Saul’s command, so those injurious spirits must obey our commands because we invoke the name of Jesus. We are not in charge of an army, but we are in the army of God, and we fight against the forces of evil in this dark world, and we can have great success, because the Lord is with us. There is another Hebrew word that is translated as success or successful, that a more direct meaning is to be wise, prudent, circumspect. That may apply to being successful, but with the Lord being with David, as He is with us, David handled the battles with prudence and wisdom. This should mean we, too, should be able to handle situations with prudence or wisdom. Unfortunately, it seems we handle too many situations in life with our emotions rather than with wisdom, and we would have to admit we are not very successful or wise. Perhaps, when that happens we are not paying any attention to the fact, the lord is with us, or we simply ignore him because we want to react according to our emotions, either feeling hurt, striking out, or jealous, prideful, boastful, or some other emotional response, instead of hearing that still small voice within, guiding us with wisdom. Let us be slow to speak, until we hear the Lord, who is with us, speak into our hearts and minds. Certainly, as we do that in any campaign against evil, we will win, and they will be afraid of us. When it comes to our experiences with people, if we act or respond with wisdom, maybe some people would love us.