Bible Wonders - Armor Choices

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises but the stars never fall?

Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough? Enough. God has had me lately is just right here in Job 41. It seems like there's so much to understand about our enemy because he certainly infiltrated us from time to time. So in Job 41 5, it says his scales are his pride shut up together with a close seal. And, you know, I don't know if you've ever thought about it. You know, in Job 41, God is describing Leviathan to Job, which is clearly in several places a reference directly to Satan, the dragon himself. And so I don't know if you'd ever considered this, that we're supposed to put on the full armor of God in Ephesians 6. And one of those things that we're supposed to put on is a shield of faith above all, you know, put on the shield of faith.

Well, here we have this word scales, but when you look at it in Hebrew, it's more often translated shield. And as I began to look at it, I could see that what Satan has going on here is a way of protecting himself. And I think all of us have a choice of putting on the shield of faith in Christ or the shield of faith in ourselves. And quite often that becomes a mask, and actually quite often it becomes a pose, right? I'm going to act a certain way in order to protect myself. Sometimes I act in anger to protect myself.

Sometimes I scoff at people in order to protect myself. I have all different ways of protecting myself with my particular shield. But when you look at this word in Hebrew, it's a beautiful, beautiful word of what a shield was meant to be, which is almost like the word of God. It's like Jesus himself, his greatness is our faith. It's like the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Like your shield, Christ is your shield. That's who our shield is. But if we don't choose that one, we're going to protect ourselves in our pride. And so it's interesting, Job 41.5, his scales are his pride.

Shut up together with a close seal. In fact, later on it talks about how it's airtight these scales are airtight. And I don't know if you've met many people that are just clearly, you know, walking in a false identity, but you can tell their alibi is airtight. I mean, you can't get underneath that skin.

In fact, that's why a lot of people refer to Leviathan as a crocodile, because it has that kind of skin that is so thick and so shielded, you really can't get underneath it to see what is going on. Well, yes, that's a picture of Satan, but also it's a picture of his children, the children of pride, which I can be and not be vulnerable and not let anybody get in too close. And all those things, really God's giving us here a picture of how we take on these scales, these shields where we protect ourselves, right?

Where I act like I know stuff I don't know, or where I act like I care about things I don't really care about. Or when I come into church and people say, how are you doing today, Robbie? Oh, I'm fine. Everything's fine. Yeah, we're fine.

My family's fine. Well, honestly, those are scales. And the more that I rely on them, the more they grow together into this tight seal so that even God can't get to me. So, you know, I've been thinking about if I go to Ephesians 6 and I'm supposed to put on this armor, I first got to take off all these other scales that I've allowed to grow in my life. And so, you know, clearly this is another place where God is telling me, Robbie, you can't do this on your own. You can't take off all those scales without my help. And so would you join me today in prayer that God will help us see where we've been scaling up and trust His armor rather than faith in ourself? As we don't want to be the King of Pride's kids, I'm just saying. Thank you for listening.