I’d been debating what to talk about today, I didn’t want to steal the thunder from my brother as he probes Solomon’s meaning in the latter verses of Ecclesiastes. Nor did I just want to skip today entirely. Now on a separate matter, I’ve been teaching my Wednesday night class through the armor of God. Tonight we talked about the "Shield of Faith". So I figured that was a good place to go tonight, to the thought of faith.
Ephesians 6:16 says: "above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."
Now from this point we could take to logical approaches to this verse. 1. We could describe the shield and how it keeps the soldier safe, or 2 how can faith work as a shield. Since I doubt most of you want a history lesson on the Roman shield, lets look at the work of faith, if protecting the believer. To do this, I would like to look at two men of faith, Job and Paul.
Job
Job probably took on more hardships then any man outside of Christ. Let me encourage you to open your Bible’s to the first 2 chapters of Job and give them a read, but for space today, I’ll give you a paraphrase. In a short time Job:
· Had his servents slaughtered
· Had his oxen, donkey’s and camels stolen
· Lost the rest of his lifestock to fires
· Lost all of his children when a house collapsed on them.
Shortly after that:
· He had his body covered in boils
· His wife turned against him
· His friends blamed him
But even admist all off this Job did not lose faith. He made it through the greatest diseasters life has to offer, because he had faith. Jobs’s faith turned away the firey darts of the wicked one. Just look at these responses Job gave as his life fell all around him.
Job 1:21-22 - 21 And he said:
" Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
Job 2:10 - But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Paul
We all know the story of Paul, but let me encourage you to pause for a moment as you read these next few verses and remember this was a real man who went through these trials. Lets look at 2 Corinthians 11:23-27:
23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness
Yet with all of this Paul was still able to say this about his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8:37-39
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Truly in the Lives of these two men, we see the shield of faith in full use. They went through trials and tribulation beyond what any of us can imagine. They were under the full attack, and drew full attention from Satan. Yet both me prevailed. Both men kept the faith. Both men were able to fight of the attacks of the evil one. Because as there bodies were sick and beaten, there souls thrived in the love of the Lord.
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