Willisburg Bulletin 9.22.24
SHIELD
For the Roman Soldier, this shield would have been around four foot by 2.5 foot. It had a curve-like design, operating like a door would on hinges. Another interesting note, the soldiers would drench their shield in water before battle to be able to ward off the fiery darts, which makes total sense why the Bible would say that! Another thing is the shield was an extra layer of protection, that “shielded” the breastplate, belt, and any other piece of armor, which shows why the verse starts off by saying “above all.” Faith is necessary (Heb 11:1,6), we can’t please God without it. In literal meaning, the shield of faith covers and protects truth, righteousness, peace, Word of God, and salvation. Therefore, when our faith is strong, Satan can’t touch the inner layers of armor. He will have to fight from a distance throwing fiery darts trying to get our shield down to get to our inner armor. Satan will have to weaken our faith first to attack us deeper. He has to convince us to remove our shield by trying to get us to compromise. That’s when we start doubting even with other armor, when our faith is wavering, we let things in we normally wouldn’t if we had strong faith. Weakened faith is the way Satan robs us of our inheritance. The closer we allow Satan to get to us, the easier it is for Satan to throw a fiery dart, fatally burning up our spiritual life and making our eternity a fiery Hell. if we have strong faith, we will not allow Satan to even try to get close enough to do such a thing. In order to fight Satan off, we must “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5-6). And it is interesting to find that even the smallest of seeds of faith in the parable of the mustard seed is told to show the greatness impact it has on the Kingdom. If our faith is developed and cared for, we will increase it by adding to it. God tells us exactly how to do that in 1 Peter 1:3-5. “Add to your faith… virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness.” That verse also tells us that if we lack any of these, we’ve forgotten why we serve God. We’ve forgotten that His only Son died for us and cleansed all our sins. Just as we talked about last bulletin, we must actively and affectively call to mind. Being forgetful was the key problem God’s people endured in the Old Testament. It can be ours too. We let our old life look appealing and we let our feelings of tiredness be an “excuse” for not going to a night of the gospel meeting, yet we can go to a ballgame or watch TV. We must understand the dangers Satan tries to use to weaken our faith. If we are just going through the motions or we are questioning or doubting, especially topics like Biblical authority, we’ve allowed Satan to undermine all of our armor. Take a look at Daniel 3, when Meshach, Shadrach, and Abed-Nego stood strong against the King. If they had weak faith, they would’ve bowed down. It’s interesting to note, the Chaldeans “accused” these three men, which means to chew up/devour, which are words that have been used to describe Satan too. They were accusing with the intent to devour/hit their shield of faith. However, they didn’t give into fear as most people would, including us! They stood saying “God is able!” (3:16) They said “He can, but if He doesn’t” not if He can’t because they wholeheartedly knew that God could save them. They were not going to have their faith shaken, even unto death! This is the faith we need to have. Remember a strong faith will ALWAYS shield against Satan’s darts! God provided this armor for us to fight His battle!