I don't think I've
ever really studied the armour of God. Sure, I've heard lots of
Sunday School lessons and some sermons that talked about Ephesians 6
and what a Roman soldier's armour looked like. But I was reading
Isaiah the other day, and was struck by this passage:
“The
Lord saw [lack of truth], and it displeased him that there was no
justice.
He saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm
brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.
He put on
righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of
salvation on his head;
he put on garments
of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped
himself in zeal as a cloak.
According to their
deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his
enemies;
to the coastlands
he will render repayment.
So they shall fear
the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of
the sun;
for he will come
like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives (Isaiah
59:15b-19).”
I didn't know, or
somehow had forgotten, that the language of the armour of God is
rooted in the Old Testament. But I got thinking about how we talk
about the armour of God in Ephesians 6. We spend so much time
thinking about the Roman soldiers that Paul may or may not have been
looking at that we forget to talk about God's armour.
The context of
Isaiah is God's wrath against the deep sin and wickedness of his own
people. After a long discussion of the unrighteous acts of those who
should know better, and a description of the how the righteous are
oppressed, we see God essentially fed up with the lack of protection
for the poor, and so he, the righteous king, becomes the avenger of
evil. In his hatred of wickedness and his love of the righteous, he
prepares himself to battle sin. And I think it is this passage, much
more than the soldiers of Rome, that underlies Paul's words in
Ephesians 6. We are not told “the armour of Rome is a mystery
revealed in Christ, so now take up the *real* armour of Rome.”
Rather, we are told to take up the very armour of God. It is this
same armour with which God has always battled evil – a battle for
which Rome, or any nation, could never be prepared.
If anything, the
picture of the soldier's armour is meant to be shown up as the poor
substitute for armour that it is. What good is leather and metal
plate when faced with the true armour of righteousness, salvation,
and zeal? How mighty is the sword when faced with the word of God?
History can give us the answer to those questions. So take up the
only armour that can save you. Study not the historical reenactment
of Sunday School lessons, but the very character of God himself that
can make you strong against Satan's attack.
