There's a Crack in Your Armor: Key Strategies to Stay Protected and Win Your Spiritual Battles by Stone Perry

Author:Stone, Perry [Stone, Perry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, Spiritual Growth, book, ebook
ISBN: 9781621362487
Publisher: Charisma House
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

DISCOVERING AND WEARING

THE SHIELD OF FAVOR

AFTER ABRAHAM RETURNED FROM A BATTLE WITH FIVE kings and restored the possessions and people of Sodom to the king of Sodom, God appeared to Abraham and said, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen. 15:1). In sixteen verses in Psalms, David speaks of a shield, and in fourteen verses of those sixteen, the psalmist speaks of God (the Lord) being his shield (Ps. 3:3; 5:12; 18:35; 28:7; 33:20; 59:11; 84:9, 11; 91:4; 115:9, 10, 11; 119:114; 144:2). As a shield, the Almighty provides divine protection for those who make Him their defense in times of trouble. David certainly needed protection, as he was a warrior from his late teen years when he faced and defeated Goliath. He seemed to be in a battle or family conflict until the latter years of his life, when finally his mighty men refused to let this older soldier go to battle for fear he would be slain by a remaining remnant of giants (2 Sam. 21:17).

There is also another type of shield beside the shield of faith, which David identified in Psalm 5:12: “For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.” We have a mental image of favor being a supernatural force, an aura, some unseen vapor from God or some internal charisma pulling people toward some folks like a magnet. We imagine favor as abiding either in or upon a blessed, righteous person. However, in this passage the psalmist refers to favor as a shield that covers the individual. When you carry a shield of favor, even your enemies will be at peace with you, and what evil is headed in your direction will get aborted before it can ever endanger you.

THE SHIELDS OF SOLOMON

Years ago in Israel I heard of a Jewish tradition regarding the shields of Solomon that was quite interesting. In the Bible David, Solomon’s father, desired to construct the temple of God in Jerusalem. However, the Lord refused his offer, as David was a man of blood and war (1 Chron. 28:3). Solomon succeeded his father, David, as Israel’s young king and was known as a man of peace. During his forty-year reign Solomon constructed the most elaborate and expensive temple in world history and made peace treaties with foreign nations, causing Israel to be at the zenith of its prosperity and blessings. We know that Solomon had an army, and he made three hundred gold shields, each containing three pounds of gold, and hung them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 10:17).

It is said that Solomon placed on each of the shields of his army a special seal called the Magen David, or the Shield of David, which we know today as the Star of David—the same six-pointed star emblem found on Israeli flags today.1 According to Jewish legend this was done by David as a form of protection in the time of battle. In

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