The Armour Of God, Part 2

I’d like to start by reading two short passages from Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe.

Ivanhoe is set in the 12th century, a time when soldiers fought with swords and arrows and knights wore chain mail armour.

Ivanhoe is a young Saxon knight. He’s fighting alongside Sir Robin Locksley, who turns out to be Robin Hood, and the Black Knight, who turns out to King Richard I. This is a fictional story!

Maurice de Bracy is a Norman knight. He’s kidnapped Ivanhoe and a woman named Rowena and taken them to a fictional castle called Torquilstone Castle. A young woman called Rebecca has also been taken captive and is there too.

Sir Robin Locksley and the Black Knight come to rescue them. The Black Knight and Ivanhoe’s father, Cedric, advance across a drawbridge. When they get to the gate, they take cover, and the Black Knight uses his axe to try to break into the castle. But above them, De Bracy is heaving a coping stone out of its place to land on them. Locksley sees what he’s trying to do. Let’s hear what happens:

‘Thrice did Locksley bend his shaft against De Bracy, and thrice did his arrow bound back from the knight’s armour of proof. “Curse on thy Spanish steel-coat!” said Locksley, “had English smith forged it, these arrows had gone through, an as if it had been silk or sendal.”’

There’s some archaic language there!

De Bracy’s armour protects him against the arrows. Scott describes De Bracy’s armour as ‘armour of proof.’ It means armour that had been tested and PROVEN to give protection against the arrows.

De Bracy gives up on the idea of throwing a stone down on the attackers and comes down with a group of soldiers to fight them. They open the gate, and the Black Knight forces his way in. Before long, De Bracy and the Black Knight are fighting hand to hand. Let’s hear what happens:

‘And well and chivalrous did De Bracy that day maintain the fame he had acquired in the civil wars of that dreadful period. The vaulted passage to which the postern gave entrance, and in which these two redoubted champions were now fighting hand to hand, rung with the furious blows which they dealt each other, De Bracy with his sword, the Black Knight with his ponderous axe. At length the Norman received a blow, which, though its force was partly parried by his shield, for otherwise never more would De Bracy have again moved limb, descended yet with such violence on his crest, that he measured his length on the paved floor.’

De Bracy’s crest was the emblem on his helmet. So, De Bracy’s shield and helmet gave him some protection from the Black Knight’s blow, but not entirely. He has now fallen.

‘“Yield thee, De Bracy,” said the Black Champion…’

A few pages on, the Black Champion finds and releases the various captives.

The passage gives us a picture of a battle. The combatants put on armour, and they take up weapons. Some things they do are defensive and some things are offensive.

That is exactly how the apostle Paul depicts our Christian life. He tells us that we’re in a battle, and God has given us armour to put on and weapons to use.

There are three spheres in which this conflict is fought.

The first sphere is EXTERNAL attack. The attack comes from the world around us, but it is Satan and his forces who are behind it. An example of this is persecution of Christians. It could be killing of Christians in North Korea or it could be mocking of Christians in the UK. In this sphere, we have to be defensive.

The second sphere is INTERNAL attack from Satan’s lies and temptations. An example of this might be Satan telling us, ‘You’re no good. You’ll never be able to do this job.’ We have to be defensive in this sphere too.

The third sphere is OUR attack on Satan’s territory. In this sphere, WE attack. Jesus came to ‘proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.’ Jesus didn’t just defend. He freed captives. He attacked the castle – just like the Black Knight did.

Paul tells us that God has given us a set of armour and weapons for this fight. If we’re going to win, we need to put them on or take them up as appropriate.

Three weeks ago, we looked at the first two pieces of armour in Paul’s list: the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. Today, we’re going to look at the remaining four.

The third item in Paul’s list is ‘feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.’