Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman! 

This week’s post is another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a.  This post will (I think) be the last on The Shield of Faith which we are told to “take up” because, with it, we “will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. 

There is a long standing belief that the Apostle Paul was describing the Roman soldiers either soaking their shields in water or covering them with a wet hide in order to protect them from burning arrows.  I cannot say with absolute certainty that this is not true.  I have added a few books to my reading list to see what arguments are made and sources used for this belief and, since I have not yet read them, I am putting this idea on a shelf until a later time.  What I will say is that my studies on Ancient Warfare has told me this is highly unlikely.  I shared these studies in last week’s post so won’t repeat them here.

My studies have also led me to believe fiery darts or burning arrows were not something a Roman Soldier would face in open combat.  I don’t know if this is true for you but the mental picture that would form whenever I read this passage in Ephesians was one of Roman Soldiers lined up in battle using their shields for protection against flaming arrows being shot at them by the enemy.  Both sermons I heard and images from movies helped to form this mental picture.  If this picture is inaccurate (and I believe it is) what does this mean when we study Paul’s letter to the Ephesians?  Was Paul mistaken?  How does this passage tie in to the warfare of the day?  If it doesn’t describe actual warfare, can we trust this passage?

My study has led me to answers that I find satisfactory.  If you have asked these questions yourself and perhaps not dared to ask them of anyone else, I hope these answers are a help for you as well.  My simple answer is this: I believe the Apostle Paul used actual warfare as an analogy but then built on it in a way that transcends any sort of warfare.  He twice made the point that our warfare is spiritual rather than carnal and our enemy a spiritual rather than one of flesh and blood (See 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Ephesians 6:12) so I am not at all bothered he would begin with an analogy rooted in actual warfare but then point out our weapons have properties far and above their earthly counterparts.

There is every reason to believe the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison being guarded by Roman soldiers.  I believe that he would not have let such an opportunity go to waste.  I imagine him asking his guards questions, drawing them out, building relationships with them, and looking for those opportunities to share the gospel.  I think these soldiers would have eventually shared their experiences and thus Paul’s passage on the Whole Armor of God was rooted in ancient warfare but, rather than describing battles fought by infantry,  I believe the picture he was painting was one of siege warfare. 

Flaming arrows were an integral part of siege warfare.  The goal of using them was to cause distraction, chaos, and terror.  The arrows didn’t need to start a fire though if even a few succeeded the better for the army laying siege.  These arrows did need to be stamped out and that meant the defender no longer had his full attention on any mounting attack.  As I take this into account along with the fact that the Apostle Paul writes it is the Shield of Faith which quenches these fiery darts, I see both the enemy’s tactics revealed as well as our defense against them. 

I have spent weeks looking at the definition of faith along with the meaning and use of the word in its original language.  I think the dictionary definition of faith is important to know as it makes me careful to listen to what others mean when they use the word while at the same time I am careful to hold the original meaning close.  The original use of the word was one of covenant.  Faith was the response one made to another person according to all that person revealed him or herself to be.  Our faith in God is the same: God reveals Himself to us and we respond to that revelation.  “Faith comes by hearing,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). 

Jesus is the Word who became flesh John writes in his gospel and he goes on to write “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (See John 1:14-18).  As our eyes are opened to see Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), we respond to that revelation.  We come to know Him intimately and through Him to know the Father.  This knowing is the definition of eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:20).  It makes perfect sense to me that the Apostle Paul would state the defense against the fiery darts used in siege warfare-weapons intended to distract and cause fear-was the shield of the faith which originates in the revelation and word of God.  “Has God indeed said…?” the enemy asked in the garden and the tactics have not changed in millennia.  Perhaps not every arrow will start a fire, but if they can lure us away from our stability in our faith and make us doubt all He has revealed Himself to be, the tactics have been successful.

But, the Apostle Paul writes the Shield of Faith quenches every fiery dart and there is no proof a Roman soldier ever used his shield to quench anything.  Protect and deflect absolutely: quench no.  I can see the Apostle Paul warning his readers of how the enemy would attack.  There would be no need to go out to meet the enemy in battle: the enemy would come to us.  The attack would be leveled at the foundation of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.  We would find ourselves under siege.  The analogy found in Ancient Siege Warfare is a perfect one.  And yet here is where the Apostle Paul transcends his analogy and, in order to understand why he writes the Shield of Faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one when no shield would have been capable of such a feat; we have to take into account several things.  First, the two words used for “word”.  Second, Psalm 3:3 and third, Paul’s understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the logos of God (John 1) and our faith comes by hearing the rhema (Romans 10:17).  Logos (G3056)means “something said, including the thought, by implication a topic (subject of discourse) reasoning” while rhema (G4487) means “an utterance”.  There isn’t much discernable difference between the words on the surface but let’s think of it this way: Jesus is the thought of God made manifest in flesh.  He is the living word, God expressed, and is also the revelation of God’s thoughts toward humankind.  The words (rhema) He speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63).  When Jesus faced the enemy in the wilderness, he spoke these words: “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word (rhema) that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  We need both: we must know the Logos of God who is Jesus Christ but we must also hear the rhema that proceeds out of His mouth.

Psalm 3:3 says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me…”  It would be more accurate to use “around” or “about” in place of “for” in this passage.  The word in the Hebrew is baadi (H1157) and means “in, up to, over against, beside, among, behind, about, within.”  Each of these words is important to consider and the picture here is not just of a shield being carried in front of one but rather a shield that utterly surrounds and protects.  I have no doubt the Roman soldiers would have loved to possess such a shield and I think this is Paul’s point: you, Believer, possess such a shield.  “In Him we live and move and have our being” Paul declared to the Athenians (Acts 17: 28) and I think this is his point in his letter to the Ephesians: the wicked one will lob fiery darts at you in an attempt to destroy your faith but fear not!  Your Shield of Faith is the very life of Christ which surrounds you on every side!  This shield quenches every fiery dart!

The Shield of Faith.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  The words that Jesus speaks are spirit and life.  Before Jesus ever declares the words He speaks are spirit and life, He says, “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”  Jesus later says this about the same Spirit: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14).

I find it interesting that the word used in Ephesians 6:16 and translated quench is translated as quench in another significant passage. The word means “to extinguish” and is used for what the Shield of Faith does to the fiery darts of the wicked one but is also used in 1 Thessalonians 4:19: “Do not quench the Spirit”. 

This is something far too many believers have done.  They have fallen victim to the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit died out with the last apostle” and the fiery darts of “the Holy Spirit was no longer needed once we had the Bible.”  The Bible is precious to me.  It contains the very words God has spoken to so many others but the fact remains it contains the words God has spoken.  The Spirit gives life, Jesus said, and the New Testament is packed full of the description of our new covenant life in Jesus Christ through the vitalizing working of the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit at work in our lives, speaking what He hears to our hearts and minds, and causing our knowledge of Jesus Christ and who we are in Him to come to maturity; the Shield of our Faith cannot quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. 

Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, of a different gospel which you have not accepted…”

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  He is the only trusted voice to lead us into the truth that is Jesus Christ.  Without His teaching, guiding, instructing, and leading, we have not heard the words by which faith comes and our shields are not capable of quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one.  There is no substitution for KNOWING Jesus Christ, and through Him the Father, for yourself.  That is done by the Holy Spirit indwelling us and teaches us.  You must know He indwells YOU.  You must know that YOUR body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  There is no priest or teacher or any other intermediary that is necessary.  The Spirit has been shed abroad in YOUR heart!  This is the absolute truth.

Maybe this is too much for you to believe.  Read the scriptures I have shared in this post for yourself.  Read to the end of John 6 where Peter says, “To whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  Then ask that the Spirit Jesus promised He would send would open your eyes to see Jesus has kept His promise.  Ask Him to convince you it is the truth that both Jesus and the Father dwell within you in the Spirit, and ask Him to open your ears to hear the words of eternal life.

Faith comes by the hearing of these words of God and this faith is a mighty shield that surrounds you on every side.  It is a living shield fully capable of quenching every fiery dart of the wicked one.

Hallelujah!  It is so! 

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References     

Quenching fire arrows on shields (romanarmytalk.com)

Hebrew Concordance: ba·‘ă·ḏî — 8 Occurrences (biblehub.com)

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume 2, Authors for Christ, Inc., Lafayette, IN, 1985

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990