The Shield of Faith (Ephesians 6:16)

As we have noticed previously, Paul divides the list of spiritual pieces of armour into two groups. The first group were pieces designed to be worn continually and they are the belt, the breastplate, and the sandals. They depicted conviction about God’s truth, wearing the righteousness of Jesus, and possessing the state of reconciliation with God. The second group of pieces were items to be used on specific occasions and they are the shield, the helmet, and the sword, and a soldier would take hold of them when he needed them. Paul describes them as the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (the word of God). 

The shield

Paul’s readers would have known what a Roman soldier’s shield looked like and they would see the meaning of the illustration clearly. We may not know. So here is a summary of the benefits of the shield. It was large (48 inches by 30 inches) and was designed to deflect or douse any fiery darts thrown at the soldier. It was usually made of wood and covered in animal hides, which meant it was flammable. To prevent a fiery dart causing problems when it fastened itself to the shield, the soldier had to soak the hides of his shield in water beforehand, and the watered hides would extinguish the fiery darts. 

 

We can derive several applications about personal faith from this illustration: faith needs to be active, either deflecting or dampening the darts of the devil; faith, when it is properly exercised, is sufficient for those purposes to occur; and it is our responsibility to have a healthy, well-watered faith.

 

When does a Christian need to use his shield? Paul says that it must be used in all circumstances, which means that any circumstance is a potential battlefield. We might find that very surprising because we can assume that some places are safe from attack. Yet we can be attacked at home and we can be attacked away from home; we can be attacked when engaged in personal devotions and we can be attacked when we are working; we can be attacked when in church and when out for a walk; we can be attacked when reading a devotional and we can be attacked when watching the news.

 

Nevertheless, a believer should recognise that every circumstance is part of God’s providence. Nothing happens to him outside of the Lord’s timetable. There is never a moment when he is the victim of circumstances under the control of someone else. As a hymnwriter said to God, ‘My times are in thy hands.’ It is important for a believer to realise that to be attacked is not an indication that he is offending God.

 

Fiery darts

What ideas come to mind from this illustration? One is that they arrive at the target quickly – the more powerful the enemy soldier, the more strength he had to throw the dart and send it quickly. The devil has strength. Another is that the darts come in quick succession, so close that they seem to be together. Moreover, they usually could not be heard until they hit the target. 

 

What kind of darts does the devil? Usually, they will be temptations to do something wrong. Sometimes, he will send distressing thoughts. He can also send imaginary thoughts in the sense that he suggests other persons in a conversation mean something when in fact they do not. He can rouse ideas in our memories that he has sent previously. He can exaggerate our failures. He can say untruths about God. He can send all of them closely together. He can send them persuasively, at the time when we are most vulnerable. He sends them without warning. 

 

A further way of being attacked is for the devil to aim his darts at the weak points in our characters. Some people are pessimistic by nature, others are optimistic by nature. The devil can arrange his darts for a pessimistic person so that they start to doubt that they are converted when there is no reason for them to think that way. But he can cause them to ignore the divine helps that have been given regarding how to get assurance of salvation, and when a believer ignores them, he will become weaker in his faith. 

 

The devil also has darts for optimistic people by nature. Such can be tempted to self-confidence. After all, optimism may have nothing to do with faith; such expressions may only be unrealistic assertions about a situation. There are individuals who glibly dismiss some problems before they come and fall into other difficulties instead. We are facing a crafty foe who knows which darts to fire at us. It makes spiritual sense for us to know ourselves because we can then be prepared for attacks on our weak points. Just because someone else deals more easily with one kind of dart does not mean that we will.

 

Where could the enemy position himself to throw his darts? Given Paul’s reference to all circumstances, the enemy could be anywhere. Obviously, in such a situation, the soldier needed to have his eyes open. He must remember that the enemy has his eyes fixed on him, and the soldier therefore had to be alert to the possibility that the attack could come at any time from any place. Faith in this sense is like those radar machines on warships that are constantly looking for surprise attacks.

 

Faith in action

Faith under attack is different in some ways from other expressions of faith. Sometimes faith receives blessings as when a believer is pardoned. At other times, faith is confrontive as when dealing with a problem. Here are two examples of faith taken from Hebrews 11. Abraham’s faith was tried when God told him to offer up his son Isaac. The faith of the children of Israel was tried when they had to walk round Jericho for seven consecutive days, and do so seven times on the seventh day. Both these activities required faith up until the last second, but neither of the tests was initiated by the activity of the devil. Rather God tested their faith. But both Abraham and the children of Israel needed to exercise faith, with confidence that God knew what he was doing when he arranged the circumstances.

 

Perhaps the devil harassed Abraham as he walked to Mount Moriah, suggesting that it was odd of God to ask what he did about Isaac, especially as all the future promises depended on Isaac remaining alive. It is possible that the devil tried to get the Israelites to stop marching round the city of Jericho by implying that it was a pointless activity that would get them nowhere.

 

Yet there are circumstances and occasions when the onslaught from the devil is very fierce, and the darts are coming one after the other. They are coming from all directions and the shield of faith must be manoeuvred constantly to deal with them. In whatever direction we look all we can see is lines of numerous and unwelcome and fearful darts hastening towards us. There seems to be no possibility of respite.

 

There are obvious dangers in such situations. One is fear caused by the seeming strength and resources of the enemy. He is powerful, much more capable than we are. If we keep looking at his store of darts, we could frighten ourselves into panic. Another danger is exhaustion because the onslaught lasts and lasts, with no sign of respite. A spiritual attack is what it says, an attack. Any attack weakens us, and we will need to be revived. 

 

Watering the shield

How can we have a faith that extinguishes the fiery darts? The illustration of the shield suggests we deal with the darts as they come towards us, one by one, as it were. How can we water our faith so that it deals effectively with the devil’s attacks? There may be numerous ways, but they can be summarised as a proper, continual use of the means of grace. 

 

Here is an illustration. For example, we fall into sin by losing our temper. The devil sends a dart indicating that Christians, since they are new creatures, would not lose their tempers. What do we do to stop that dart burning away at us, making us question our salvation? We should recall God’s salvation arrangement of Jesus as our advocate and how in heaven he continues to represent his people on earth even when they sin. We recall that the Holy Spirit will lead us to confess that sin and receive restoration to fellowship. And we will remember that we can confess that sin to the person against whom we expressed it and receive forgiveness from them as well. And the dart is extinguished. 

 

The reality is that faith, in its biblical sense, brings God into the situation of enemy attack, and in so doing brings truth into the situation. We recall with his help that justification by God and reconciliation with God are permanent states, and that through faith in Jesus we can receive strength to obtain victory again and again over the enemy. It may not feel like that when the darts are being hurled. But we will be able to look back and see that faith, because it is God’s gift and because it is his chosen way for his people to make progress, works and they are able to ‘extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one’.