Armour of God, Nerd Style: Cap and the Shield of Faith

Ok, you have to admit that you saw this one coming when your following along the Armour of God (Ephesians 6:14-17) in connection to a shield. It's right there! Captain America is super iconic for his use of the star spangled shield and fighting to defend the world.  His shield over the years is made of various indestructible metals that allow him to go toe-to-toe with big hitting villains.  It can ricochet off of surfaces to be a weapon, not just a defense. And finally one of my favorite features of the shield is when something hits it, it absorbs the impact of the object hitting it without trauma for the one holding it. Literally no vibration shock!

Looking back into Paul's time, this is not what the shield would be like.  He would have seen large shields that were rectangular and covered a majority of a soldiers body.  This curved wood panel was also covered in leather and would have been submerged in water for the leather to soak in (talk about heavy).  By soaking the shield in water, if an enemy archer were to fire on you with fiery arrows (remember this part), upon impacting the shield the water that was in the leather would mist out on the arrow and put out the flame.  To maximize the shield's protection it would be used in groups to create shield walls (phalanx) or moving fortresses (the turtle: look it up) to advance the legion's movement toward enemy forces. Shields really are more of a communal item for a soldier than it is an individual support, specifically looking at how the Romans used them.

Ephesians 6:16 says, "In additional to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil." Reflecting back on our examples, a shield is an individual item that is best used in a community. Faith is not just a belief, but it a dependency on something to carry through, trusting that whatever is believed is or will be true and living as though it is. Our faith is not just an individual thing, but is encouraged in a community that is supporting one another, defending one another when we are down, and working together to make a bigger impact.

How is your shield holding up? Do you have a community to maximize your shield as well as to keep moving forward in your faith?

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