Does the Lord Send Evil Angels?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question: Dear Search the Scriptures Daily, I listen to you every week so I know you answer people’s questions.In the past two weeks, I have been going through the Psalms again, but this is the first time I took note of Psalm:78:49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
See All... where it says the Lord sends evil angels among his people.Who are these evil angels and why is the Lord using them?Is this parallel to when the Jews were slaves in Egypt and the Lord smote the Egyptians with pestilence, death, etc.?

Tom:

Dave, let me quote Psalm:78:49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
See All..., “He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them.”Dave, before you get started on this, this is the King James, but most other versions talk about angels of destruction.As a matter of fact, this word in the Hebrew ra` = evil 442 times, wickedness 59, wicked 25, mischief 21; hurt 20; bad 13; trouble 10; sore 9; affliction 6; ill 5; in the Strong’s Concordance this is how many times in the authorized version, that is the King James Version that the word ra` is translated.So we have ill 5, adversity 4, favored 3, harm 3, so we have one Hebrew word that can have many applications and many meanings.That’s all I am saying and in probably too many words.

Dave:

It generally means physical harm, distress of some kind.Well we have—

Tom:

But the question is, are these evil angels?Are these demons?I think that’s where the person was going with this.

Dave:

They very well could be.God is able to—Satan, he allowed Satan to do things to Job.You have a specific example in 2 Chronicles 18, it’s I Kings 22.You remember when Jehoshaphat, a good king joined affinity with Ahab, a bad king and Ahab and Jehoshaphat wanted to know well what do the prophets of the Lord say?And the prophets of the Lord were not the prophets of the Lord; they were the prophets of Baal.Jehoshaphat should have known better.They promised great prosperity.You’ll wipe them out if you go against those Assyrians and so forth.Jehoshaphat was a little bit suspicious, “well are their any other prophets to give us another perspective?”This guy Micaiah, though he never says anything good about me says Ahab.Let me just read, Micaiah tells them what’s really going to happen, (1 Kings:22:21And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
See All...) “And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.22) And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith?And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”So one of the ways he sent angels among them was that he allowed them to inspire the prophets.Now on the other hand, you could say well they really brought it upon themselves because they were worshipping a false god. So they opened themselves up to evil angels and you could say well God allowed these evil angels to go there.But you read Psalm 78 and God is talking about how he has guided these people, he has tried to proper them and they have rebelled, his judgment should fall upon them, and then they cry out and repent and then he relents and so forth.So yes, this is why in 1 John 4 we are told to test the spirits for many false prophets have gone out into the world.There’s a false spirit, an evil spirit, a lying spirit behind false prophets.We’ve got a lot of them in the world today, a lot of them in the church, so yes; I think that’s what it is talking about.He allowed evil angels who would like to do some destruction or deception.He allowed them to get among his people.On the other hand, had they been obeying him, trusting him, walking with him, there would have been a shield about them that would have prevented this from happening.

Tom:

Dave, this person also asks about Egypt, what took place in Egypt.Now for example, the blood on the doorposts.This was not an evil angel.

Dave:

No, this was God’s angel.

Tom:

Yes, so depending on the circumstances, you can have it either way.God is using his avenging angels in a sense.These entities carrying out God’s will and then those God allows, as you said with Job, to sort of play havoc.

Dave:

Yes, I guess our time is about gone, but what he says about them mainly is, “He maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire—that’s amazing to us—are they not ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation?”So mainly, these angels, and we’re not to inquire about angels, we don’t try to command our angels, don’t find out who your angel is and so forth.But they are God’s ministers for his purpose.But there are also evil ones out there as well and God can use them if he sees fit.