The Shield of faith
Above all-over all
The shield of faith
A glimpse of the enemy is again thought necessary. In New Testament times darts were often made with tow dipped in pitch and then set on fire, and the wooden shield needed to be covered with leather so as to quench them quickly. The ‘wiles of the devil’ (v. 11) Paul knew to include such flaming darts, people’s arrow tongues, the shafts of impurity, selfishness, doubt, fear, disappointment, that are planned by the enemy to burn and destroy. The apostle knew that only faith’s reliance on God could quench and deflect such weapons whenever they were hurled at the Christian. It is of interest also to recall that the Romans had a system of locking these large shields together for their corporate defence against their enemies and for attack
Fiery darts
Fiery darts (τὰ βέλη τὰ πεπυρωμένα). Lit., the darts, those which have been set on fire. Herodotus says that the Persians attacked the citadel of Athens “with arrows whereto pieces of lighted tow were attached, which they shot at the barricade” (8:52). Thucydides: “The Plataeans constructed a wooden frame, which they set up on the top of their own wall opposite the mound.… They also hung curtains of skins and hides in front: these were designed to protect the woodwork and the workers, and shield them against blazing arrows” (2:75). Livy tells of a huge dart used at the siege of Saguntum, which was impelled by twisted ropes. “There was used by the Saguntines a missile weapon called falarica, with the shaft of fir, and round in other parts, except toward the point, whence the iron projected. This part, which was square, they bound around with tow and besmeared with pitch. It had an iron head three feet in length, so that it could pierce through the body with the armor. But what caused the greatest fear was that this weapon, even though it stuck in the shield and did not penetrate into the body, when it was discharged with the middle part on fire, and bore along a much greater flame produced by the mere motion, obliged the armor to be thrown down, and exposed the soldier to succeeding blows” (21:8). Again, of the siege of Ambracia by the Romans: “Some advanced with burning torches, others carrying tow and pitch and fire-darts, their entire line being illuminated by the blaze” (38:6). Compare Ps. 7:13, where the correct rendering is, “His arrows He maketh fiery arrows.” Temptation is thus represented as impelled from a distance. Satan attacks by indirection—through good things from which no evil is suspected. There is a hint of its propagating power: one sin draws another in its track: the flame of the fire-tipped dart spreads. Temptation acts on susceptible material. Self-confidence is combustible. Faith, in doing away with dependence on self, takes away fuel for the dart. It creates sensitiveness to holy influences by which the power of temptation is neutralized. It enlists the direct aid of God.
Quench
“Wherewith ye shall be able,” saith he, “to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.”
For this shield nothing shall be able to resist; for hearken to what Christ saith to His disciples, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove.” (Matt. 17:20.) But how are we to have this faith? When we have rightly performed all those duties.
“By the darts of the evil one,” he means, both temptations, and vile desires; and “fiery,” he says, for such is the character of these desires. Yet if faith can command the evil spirits, much more can it also the passions of the soul.