In Eph 6:10-28, we read, “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
In mainstream Christianity, it is said we are under grace and not law. And because we are under grace, we must never attempt to do anything to get anything from God. According to them, trying to do something to get something from God is legalism. But as we have seen in the previous chapters, this understanding of grace has no foundation in the Bible. The Bible (and Paul the Apostle) clearly says, to get something from God, we need to do something, and that something is to obey the Torah.
Torah obedience is our guarantee to have our prayers answered; it is also our most important weapon to use against the devil and his demons. We see this in Rev 12:11, Rev 14, where it says those who obey the Torah AND believe in the cross will overcome the devil.
So how are we to use the Torah as a weapon against the devil? To this, Paul says, we are to take on the full armor of Yehovah. Paul even goes as far as to say that Yehovah’s full armor is what gives us the ability to stand our ground. But to be able to clothe ourselves in Yehovah’s complete armor, we first have to understand the different parts of the armor.
To understand the armor, we have to keep in mind, when Paul wrote Ephesians, the New Testament did not yet exist. Pauls’s letters are divinely inspired and breathed by Yehovah. But to understand his letters, we have to know why he wrote them. He wrote them to instruct believers in Yeshua on how to obey the Torah. So all of his letters are instruction manuals on how a believer in Yeshua is to apply the Torah to their lives. If we reject the Torah, we will have no way of understanding Paul.
In Eph 6:14, we read, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.”
Here Paul is quoting Job 29:14, Isaiah 11:5, 59:7, Psalm 119:142, Jeremiah 31:33. In these verses, it says truth, and righteousness is the Torah. We also see how Jeremiah 31:33 says the Holy Spirit will write the Torah on our hearts. Now we understand what Eph 6:14 is saying to us; we are to obey the Torah, so it encompasses everything we do and have the Torah on our hearts.
In Eph 6:15, we read, “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”
Contrary to what we have been told, the Gospel is not a New Testament concept. In Hebr 4:2, it says our forefathers in the desert heard the Gospel, but they did not believe. When they were in the desert, Yeshua had not yet been born and died on the cross.
So what exactly is the Gospel?
We find the Gospel in 2.Chron 7:14, if we repent back to Torah, Yehovah will forgive us of our sins, and they will be no more. Repentance back to Torah means we start obeying the Torah’s commandments on how to atone for our unintentional sins by sacrificing in the temple. As we all know, the temple is gone, and the sacrificial system could never atone for intentional sins. Yeshua’s sacrifice did atone for deliberate sins, and now He is in the heavenly temple making atonement for us for our unintentional sins (book of Hebrews).
So the Gospel is: repent back to the Torah and be forgiven.
Paul says here in Eph 6:15, is that we are always to make sure we live in a repented back to Torah so our sins can be blotted out. Then we are to spread the good news, which is: Repent to Yehovah and be forgiven. And of course, considering the temple is gone, repentance to Torah today will require us to believe in the cross. The cross is our only way of atoning for our sins. If we claim to repent, but we do not believe in the cross, we are disobedient to the sacrificial laws.
In Eph 6:16, we read, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
What is the shield of faith? The shield of faith is what we talked about in the last chapter. In Heb 5:9, it says if we repent back to Torah, Yeshua (Jesus Christ) will become a constant source of salvation for us. Through Yeshua, we will be saved from whatever we are facing right now, and in the end, hell. But as Yeshua says, in Mark 11:24, we have to believe we have received the Torah’s benefits. So the shield of faith is what happens when you choose to believe, contrary to your circumstances, whatever you need is given to you because you keep Torah. Or you might say it like this; you are saved from every circumstance because you keep Torah. (2. Cor 5:7, Deut 28:1-13, Heb 5:9)
Paul says that if we take up the shield of faith, we will extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.
What are “the flaming arrows of the evil one”?
As we have seen, in previous chapters, the Bible emphasizes the importance of having our minds (what the Bible calls heart) circumcised to Yehovah. Having your mind circumcised means to yield to Yehovah and obey His Torah. The opposite is an uncircumcised mind which is not yielded to the Torah, something Yehovah hates and sees as an abomination. Therefore, it is evident how the mind is the battleground in our lives, the battleground between the devil and our evil inclinations on one side, and Yehovah on the other.
We see this in the garden of Eden. The devil did not force Eve to do anything, but because he got her to accept a lie, she acted on that lie. So the devil attacks us in our minds intending to make us doubt Yehovah and His intentions for us. If we accept his lies, we will act on what we accept and rebel against Yehovah, just as Adam and Eve did.
So now we understand the evil one’s flaming arrows are the devil attacking us in our thoughts. But Paul says, if we take up the shield of the faith, we will extinguish them. How do we take up the shield of faith? By believing we have already received what we need because we keep Torah. (Mark 11:24, 2.Cor 5:7)
Eph 6:17, we read, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
What does it mean to take the helmet of salvation?
In Heb 5:9, it says Yeshua is everlasting salvation to all those who obey Him. He told us to obey the Torah, so the helmet of salvation is what we take when we believe we are saved from whatever you need saving from because we follow the Torah. (Matt 6:25-34, Deut 28:1-13)
What is the sword of the Spirit?
The sword of the Spirit is the Torah (Rev 1:16, Isaiah 49:2, Heb 4:12). When the devil attacks us in our minds, the attack is sometimes so intense we have to fight back not to be overwhelmed. How do we fight back? By confessing the promises of Yehovah. When confess we are healed because we keep the Torah, we are provided for because we keep Torah, we are protected because we keep Torah, we use the sword of the Spirit to fight the devil.
Now we understand the different parts of the armor, and we know how to wear it. But do we know how to apply it to our lives?
Because the Torah is such an essential part of the armor, it stands to reason; we have to learn what the Torah says, so we know what to obey. If we reject the Torah, we reject the armor of God.
Being clothed in the armor is not the same thing as knowing how to use it. And there is a difference between wearing the armor on a good day when everything is quiet and comfortable and on a bad day when it seems as if the enemy has an endless supply of burning arrows one bigger than the other.
We all go through seasons in life like the one I described, seasons where everything is quiet and comfortable, and seasons when the enemy has an endless supply of burning arrows.
Over the years, I have seen how the key to victory is persistence.
When you find yourself in a season where everything goes wrong, and you do not know if this will have a happy ending, you need to be persistent. You need to use all the armor parts and focus your mind persistently on the Torah, no matter what happens, and it can be stressful and tiring. But war is stressful and exhausting, and Paul reminds us here in Ephesians, we are at war.
I am in one of those seasons right now. Yesterday my car did not pass air care; it will cost somewhere around 1129 USD for me to fix my vehicle. I do not have that kind of money, so I have no idea how to fix this. I only know I have a deadline of two months to either come up with the money to fix the car or sell it. But I dont have the money to buy a new car, and where we live, we need a car.
When the mechanic told me it had not passed air care, I knew I needed God’s armor. So I made sure to take up the shield of faith and started using the sword of the Spirit. I could feel the enemies burning arrows hitting me with thoughts like “this is it, you will never get that kind of money, now you have to walk to work,” “how will you manage this, this is awful, you must feel so sorry for yourself.” For every burning arrow, I countered the attack with confession, telling myself, “I am prosperous, well able to pay this because I keep Torah. Because I keep Torah, Yehovah will either give me the money one way or the other, or give me a new car, or intervene directly and fix the car.”
The attack went on, so I took up the helmet of salvation and the shoes of the Gospel with the breastplate of righteousness and the belt of truth, continuing to confess “I have what I need to pay this because I keep Torah, I will not worry about this because I trust Yehovah to help me because I keep Torah.”
At times, the attack was so intense I had to resort to James 2:19 and confess the most important commandment in the Torah, Yehovah is my God, Yehovah is one.
Did money magically appear in my bank account? No, I still dont know how to fix this. Is the attack ongoing? Yes, as I am writing this, I can feel the arrows hitting me, and I am fighting them off with the confession of “Yehovah is my God, Yehovah is one.”
So how has the armor of God helped me in this situation?
Yesterday I was worried, and I had no idea how to fix this.
Today I still have no idea how to fix this, but I am not worried. I am at peace; I am filled with faith and trust, knowing Yehovah is working on my behalf, and something will happen. But I also know I have a responsibility to keep fighting clothed in the armor if I want to see something happening. Because I know, just as with Daniel in the Bible, Yehovah heard my prayer yesterday when I called to Him for Yeshua (salvation) from this situation. I know, just as with Daniel in the Bible, Yehovah dispatched help to me yesterday. And I know, just as with Daniel, the help is on its way, but I need to keep fighting so the help can get through to me. The angels dispatched to help Daniel broke through to him because he never stopped praying and fighting the good fight of faith. If he had stopped and given in, the angels would never have gotten through to him.
If you stop and give in, the angels will never get through to you.
So take up the armor of Yehovah today, and fight the good fight of faith. Choose to walk by faith and not by sight, choose to believe whatever happens, because you keep Torah Yehovah will save you from whatever it might be.
Yehovah bless you.
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