Hebrew Word Study – Depart – Sar – סָֽר  Samek Resh 

I Samuel 18:12: “And Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul.”  

Here we have a powerful king afraid of a little shepherd boy.   The word for “fear” here is “yara.”   This is a fear or terror.  Esoterically, the yod, resh, and aleph show that this is a fear generated from the word and power of God.  The passage goes on further to confirm that this fear was the result of the Lord being with David.   The word “with” is “’imo” which means “with” but within its context, it could be translated as surround, encompass, or even hide. 

What sheds light on how we would translate “imo” is a word hidden away in this verse. It is the word “pani” (presence)  with two prepositions in front of it. “from” and “to.”  So the literal translation of this would be:  “Saul was terror-stricken by the presence of David because Jehovah was surrounding him.  

We learn in verse 10 that an evil spirit from God came upon Saul.   I don’t understand the theology of God sending an evil spirit.   All I know is that it was not a nice spirit and that this spirit had a violent reaction against the mere presence of David.  Well, we know from this verse that it was not the presence of David that caused terror to Saul, it was the presence of God surrounding David that caused the terror and most likely it was the spirit that came upon Saul that was terrorized. 

We also learn in verse 10 that this spirit upon Saul caused him to “nevim.”  We translate the word “nevim” as prophesy.   I had to really do a study on that word “nevim”  because whenever I read about Saul prophesying I pictured him walking around saying things like: “And then in 1947 AD Israel with again become a nation.”  After all, prophesy is foretelling the future – right?  Nevim has a broad range of uses.  One use is to express a shaking, groaning, grunting, and other strange manifestations.   Most likely when Saul started to “nevim”   he was not going around telling everyone their fortune, he was shaking.

What seems to be going on here is a spiritual battle and two spirits clashing.   Ever have the experience of just walking up to someone while you were enjoying the presence of God and suddenly that person just lashes out at you saying horrible things?   This situation in II Samuel could very well be the same thing.  That person lashing out at you may have a spirit reacting against the Spirit inside you.  Ever heard the saying that sometimes you bring out the worst in people?  You may actually be doing that.  Surely David was bringing out the worst in Saul and all David was doing was just enjoying the presence of God. 

Here’s the chilling part.   The Bible says in verse 10 that God sent the evil spirit “to” Saul.  That is the word “al” which simply means unto.  This spirit did not possess Saul nor surround Saul as the Spirit of God did with David, it was merely hanging out with Saul.  The Lord had departed from Saul.  The word “depart” is “sar” and is found in a simple qal form.  As a qal, I would lean toward using a milder form of the word which is to turn aside.  God simply turned aside or turned away from Saul and along comes an evil spirit just waiting for that opportunity. 

I don’t believe a Christian can be demon-possessed if he has the Spirit of God inside of him.  But I do wonder if this passage implies that if there is unconfessed sin in our life such that God can not look upon us and He must turn aside, that this gives some tormenting spirit sitting off in a corner the opportunity to have at it with us.  In a way, that tormenting spirit does come from God for it is God who allows him to attack because He can not look upon our unconfessed sin and hence He can not surround us with the covering of protection.  

Ok a theological issue that has no definitive answer, but it does give one pause to consider the possible consequence of unconfessed sin.  The more we seek the heart of God the more the enemy is just itching for that one opportunity to get his licks in. Allowing sin into our lives may give him that opportunity just like he had with Saul. 

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