I think it’s fair to say that one of the key themes of the Bible (both in the Old and New Testaments) is the battle in the world between the forces of evil and the forces of good. To put it simply, the way the idea is expressed in the Bible is that the forces of evil are under the control of Satan (the devil), and the forces of good are those that act under the authority of God.
The way in which we understand the notion of ‘forces of evil’ and ‘Satan’ in the twenty-first century is no doubt very different to that of ancient times. As a society today, we acknowledge that certain people who commit unspeakable crimes against fellow human beings can be ‘inherently evil’, and we describe particular acts carried out by people and/or countries as ‘evil’, but we don’t attribute the crimes or acts of such people to the control or influence of a supernatural being known as Satan or the devil.
It’s also not uncommon to hear people say, particularly in relation to heinous crimes or acts of terror etc, that if there is a God, why does he allow such things to happen? In their minds, at least, it would appear that forces of good operating under the authority of God do not exist.
So, taking all of this into account, when we read a passage from the Bible, such as verses 10 to 20 of chapter 6 of the Letter to the Ephesians, how are we to understand the message of the author when they encourage their readers to “put on the whole armour of God?”
The first thing to say, is that the author of the Letter to the Ephesians is drawing on the image of God’s armour as described in the Book of Isaiah: “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.” (Isaiah 59:17 NIV11) The prophet Isaiah appeals to the ancient Near Eastern tradition of the Divine Warrior, which had been adapted to Jewish faith already by early Israel, to portray God as the foe of chaos and evil and the champion of the alien and the oppressed.
To provide some context for this portrait of God as Divine Warrior, we need to understand what was happening in that point of history. The people of Jerusalem and Judah, who had been in exile in Babylon, had now returned home and were rebuilding their community and their lives, as God had promised them through the prophet (Isaiah). However, rather than witnessing that promised restoration in the Jewish homeland and the rebuilding of a righteous and faithful community, what the prophet now reveals is actually the undoing of God’s plan through the people’s blatant disregard for God’s will. The prophet describes the disintegration of social order as the people embrace deceit and violence to advance their own power and wealth at the expense of others.
Against this backdrop, the people of Jerusalem and Judah once again feel that God has abandoned them, but God’s failure to save them from their situation has only one cause, and that is the barrier they have created between themselves and God because of the lies, deceit and violence they perpetuate against one another. They are the ones who have abandoned God, not the other around!
And even though in this scenario it appears there is no earthly possibility of good triumphing over evil, it’s exactly at this point that Isaiah claims such a victory is not only still possible, it is assured. The victory is made possible by perseverance in faith and steadfastness in obedience to God’s will. When the Divine Warrior does his full work in the life of the believer, then the people of God, helpless in themselves, will indeed be the lamps through which the light of God will shine in the world.
The author of the Letter to the Ephesians expresses a similar message to his readers. They too can triumph over the forces of evil by putting on the armour of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
For Christians in the twenty-first century, we can perhaps substitute the term ‘forces of evil’ with terms such as the worries, stresses and anxieties of daily life, and we can talk in terms triumphing over these troubles by putting our trust in God and handing them over to God.
