FIERY DARTS AND DREAMERS

I’ve been saying, in many ways as possible…perilous times have come upon us.

The world will never be the same again. We will never know the ‘freedom’ we had, and our children and grandchildren, may not understand everything us as we are scanned and bodily searched more and more at airports and malls.

Yes, the world has changed. Look around at the people! Nobody trusts anyone. They have become heavily opinionated and lovers of themselves. Narcissistic. Selfish. Opposing good. Walking in a philosophy called ‘My Truth’, a non-negotiable attitude that determines them to be right, and everyone else wrong!

This morning my dream shook me up. I woke up with a ‘noise’ of something whirring loudly overhead in the sky above me. Thinking it was a helicopter I looked up into the sky. To my astonishment I saw many flying missiles above me. Something like a World War beginning, and the enemy was now sending these missiles, real fiery and noisy ones, at us. The horizon was full, and it looked like one of those Hollywood apocalyptic movies. The missiles were not huge but literally ‘flying arrows’ with their heads on fire. The ‘whooshing’ noise they made is still sounding in my ears as I write.

My thought went back to the time I was standing inside a tank on the Golan Heights in Israel, on one of my many trips to this lovely nation. It was an old enemy tank of the past battles in Israel’s history. It lay there as a historic trophy, I think. The turret was blown off and am sure all the occupants were killed inside. But I noticed a huge hole that a missile made as it went through into the tank. The hole was about the size of something bigger than my span. But I also noticed something unique that I’ve never forgotten ever. The tank metal wall was about as thick as my palm, or maybe even much thicker. But the missile that hit it was so hot, it not only penetrated that thick metal, but dissolved the metal around it as it went in. What heat! What fire!

In the last weeks sharing from my heart about spiritual warfare and the wiles of the Devil, I turned to my Bible and this verse popped out like a comet from behind the clouds, catching my eye instantly.

Ephesians 6:16

16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

The word for ‘darts’ is the Greek word ‘belos’ (Strong’s 956).  It means a missile, and that is, a spear or an arrow in the Greek.  One scholar calls it the ‘artillery of Satan’.

But it’s interesting that Paul would use this term, ‘darts’.  He could use a lot of other things but why did he use ‘fiery darts’. He wanted to get his point across to the reader of course.

What would this really mean in Paul’s day?

Let’s try and understand Paul by looking at the 21^st century missiles, and drones. These missiles are optically tracked and satellite commandeered. Some of them can be fired like bazookas from the shoulder, some of them can travel for thousands of kilometres into other nations.

Satan is the master of destruction and confusion.

What kind of weapons he will use against his enemies…the Church of Jesus? Look at…

1 Peter 5:8

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Satan’s weapons are far more powerful than any human weapon and he is extremely sophisticated than what we humans can design. 

Zodhiates, a Greek scholar, describes the word ‘adversary’ and he defines it as ‘echthros’ which really means enemy. So, if we are Satan’s enemy, then he will use his most potent weapons against us, and so in the plethora of arsenals he has, his key weaponry is his ‘fiery darts’.

And Paul talks about this.

 Zodhiates continues say, “an evident illusion to those arrows or javelins which were sometimes used in sieges or battles.  Sometimes they were missiles fitted with combustibles, like you would put some flammable material on the head of an arrow and shoot it.”

The Greek word for ‘fiery’, in the Ephesian passage I used above is, ‘pyroo’ (Strong’s 4442), and it just means to literally ‘be on fire’.

Now Clarke’s Commentary is very interesting. This is what it says. “It is probable that the apostle alludes to the darts called falarica [Latin], which were headed with lead, in or about which some combustible stuff was placed that took fire in the passage of the arrow through the air and often burnt up the enemies’ engines, …”

Now, ‘engines’ was a term used for the battering rams that they used and those giant slings that would catapult burning things over a wall into a besieged city. 

The Commentary continues to say, “… this often burnt up the enemy’s engines, or ships, etc. They were designed also to stick to the shields and set them on fire.”

We know that the Roman soldiers in those days used a wooden shield.  And if a burning arrow went into the wooden shield, the shield caught on fire, and soon it would render the shield useless. 

Clarke’s Commentary goes on to say, “When they stuck on a shield and set it on fire, the soldier was obliged to cast it away; thus, becoming defenseless.”

So, Paul, when he uses the term, ‘fiery darts’ is using this as an analogy. This means that the enemy destroys our shields to make us defenceless. This is his strategy. Making our defences of no use.

Satan is surely not throwing something physical that is burning at us.  He is throwing something spiritual that can inflame us.  ‘Spiritual’ fiery darts, if allowed to penetrate our ‘spiritual shield’, will inflame us. 

That is the point Paul is trying to make.  Satan wants to inflame us to do his will.  Not God’s will.

Also, there are things he can launch at us that will get us inflamed. Things and situations that can leave our emotions uncontrolled. In turn hinder our decisions, and in turn lead us to the wrong place.

The shield stands for faith. Satan’s ploy is to destroy your faith, rendering you useless against his wiles, and making you just like the world.

Did you get the message? I just dreamt it this morning!

If not read this again.

Faith comes by the Word.