14b the Spirit of Jehovah, the Idiom of Permission—4uses

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The operations of the adversary, Satan, were rarely spoken of directly in the Old Testament. Rather, the consequences of sin were spoken of as from God who permitted the consequences after having provided instructions for avoiding them in the law or by specific revelation. The uses below are literal references to God Himself, but by way of the idiom of permission they refer to the enemy of God’s people.

1 Samuel 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD (the anointing) departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

1 Samuel 19:9 And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

Isaiah 40:7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people (the Gentiles) is grass (this could refer, figuratively, by the condescensio, to God's final judgment or will upon mankind for Adam’s fall. This verse, as a reference to the mortality of mankind without God, could also be the idiom of permission, for the adversary has the power of death: Hebrews 2:14).

Hosea 13:15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.