The Armour of God versus the Armour of Rome

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.