From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 'Prophesying' 1 Samuel 18:10
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 03:41:53 -0500
Dear Brian,
I want to add a couple of thoughts to what I said last night.
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar notes that the Hithpael is primarily the
reflexive of Piel. While the intensive is not always
distinctly marked, it is so in other cases, e.g. HTNQM "to show
oneself revengeful" (Niph., simply "to
take revenge"), and in the numerous instances where the
Hithpael expresses to make oneself that
which is predicated by the stem, to conduct oneself as such, to
show oneself, to imagine oneself, to
effect to be of a certain character.
Regarding the meaning of "evil spirit," it seems helpful to recall
the framework of a heavenly juridical setting for much of the angelic
conflict between evil and God. God is sovereign but does not commit
evil. The OT shows Him sovereign over Satan and evil spirits and
seemingly directing (1 Kings 22) or allowing (Job) their work. But we
know from Revelation that the evil spirits are only tolerated in
heaven. Though Zechariah shows Satan with a role in the heavenly
courtroom, Revelation shows that it is as an Accuser. Though the OT
seems to have God deputizing evil spirits to do His work, Matthew 25
teaches that Gehenna is prepared for the devil and his angels. So the
heavenly courtroom is just part of the overall struggle between good
and evil.
God allows evil to exist for the accomplishment of His greater
purposes of good, and He can utilize evil spirits, in their hostile
rebellion to Him, for those purposes. If Scripture says that God sent
an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, we can
trust that this was part of the heavenly drama, and that God allowed
demonic spirits to carry out certain actions, as in the case of Job.
The text says that He did it in order that Abimelech's crime against
Jerub-Baal's seventy sons might be avenged (Jdg 9:24). God is
separated from evil (holy), and so it is the part of creation that is
in rebellion to Him that must be involved in God sending an evil
spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, it seems to me.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
Re: [b-hebrew] 'Prophesying' 1 Samuel 18:10
, (continued)