What are the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16)?

A fiery dart is not a sudden desire to gratify some lust which arises from the flesh within; it is rather a diabolical suggestion from without that would raise a doubt as to the goodness of God. Satan hurled a fiery dart at Job when, in his terrible trial, his wife suggested that he should “curse God, and die.” Job quenched this fiery dart with the shield of faith, for he said, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:9-10). The devil still uses the trying circumstances of life in his endeavour to shake our confidence in God and to drive us from God. Faith uses these very circumstances to draw nearer to God and thus triumphs over the devil. Again, Satan may seek to instill some abominable thought into the mind, some infidel suggestion that burns into the soul and darkens the mind. Such thoughts are not quenched by human reasonings, or by falling back on “feelings” or “experiences”, but by simple faith in God and His word.

Verse 16. "Above all taking the shield of faith," etc. Hitherto we have had to do rather with that which constitutes the believer's standing and readiness for the contest he is called to wage, than with the positive energies which are called forth into active exercise by means of this spiritual conflict. Troth, righteousness, and peace, are words which are more expressive of quality and condition than of action. But the man who stands in grace, is to maintain that ground against all comers. In addition, therefore, to the defensive armour, which protects his person, he is to take and use such weapons as God gives to His children, that they may not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate. Of these, the first mentioned, and, in one sense, the most important, is the shield of faith. This is to be held firmly and warily over the believer's person. For as the shield was that essential defence, without which the other armour would be insufficient to protect the soldier from the effects of missiles, so, also, in our spiritual warfare, neither truth, nor righteousness, nor peace, can be effectively enjoyed without an active exercise of faith.

It is to enable us to quench the fiery darts of the Wicked One that we need this shield of faith. Without it, we are vulnerable by any of these; while with it, we may quench them all. The name of the prescribed defence, as has been well observed, declares the nature of the assault. Faith can quench nothing but its opposite, which is unbelief. All the darts of the Wicked One, fiery as they are, belong to this description. Since God saves and comforts us in Christ by means of truth, Satan seeks to work for us destruction and misery by acting on the evil heart of unbelief. All his varied machinations, as the "Wicked One," conduce to this. If sinful thoughts arise, or acts of sin are perpetrated, his object in inciting us to evil is to defile our conscience, and so to take away our peace. The most cruel wounds which can be inflicted on the soul are suggestions of unbelief. External trials are as nothing in comparison with that which is not only fiery in its nature, but the heat of which dries up the moisture of the spirit by interrupting our view of Him who is our only confidence and joy.

These darts are flung at us from diverse quarters, from above as well as from beneath. By positive temptation and betrayal into sin; by false applications of Divine truth to the conscience; by covert insinuations, tending to weaken in our minds our reverential interest in the word of God as such. By these, and many other similar means, the adversary endeavours to sap the strength of the new and inner man, and to wither the plant of righteousness which God has planted. Against all such attempts our sole, but effectual, defence is faith. None of his efforts are of any power against that. For faith finds in Christ an answer to every doubt that Satan can infuse into the soul, and hears in the voice of our Advocate an effective refutation of every charge which can be urged against us by the accuser. Hence to those who are elsewhere warned by the Spirit against the vigilance and ceaseless activity of the adversary, the word is still, "whom resist, steadfast in the faith" (1 Peter 5:9). That Wicked One touches not those who keep themselves, through faith, in conscious fellowship with God (Isa. 59:19; 1 John 5:18). His darts are quenched, and utterly extinguished, when met by a simple reference to the name of Jesus. If therefore we would walk in peace, we must bear with us this shield of faith. Having its rest in God, faith brings His strength within the heart of the believer. God thus becomes Himself the Buckler of the soul that trusts in Him. He has made Himself in Christ our everlasting Refuge and Defence. He is mightier on our side, in the power of His finished love, than Satan can be against us, in the restless malice of his hate. Doctrinal knowledge is no shield. Faith is; and, when it works, it brings the heart to an implicit dependence upon God. It is by faith that we are made strong out of weakness (Heb. 11:34), and know that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

This divine shield is to protect us against the inflamed darts of the wicked one, which are aimed to distress the Christian and to destroy his enjoyment of the blessings of God. If we are not enjoying God's blessings, there will be little testimony in our lives for Christ, and Satan will have succeeded in his attack. Inflamed darts are sent to wound and burn into the soul of the believer; they can be darts of doubt and unbelief, or of teachings that are erroneous and dishonouring to Christ.

"The shield of faith" (v.16) is to be used as an over-all protection, ready to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, from whatever direction they come. Faith is able for this, but only because it acts on the truth of the Word of God. Satan's darts are many and varied such as subtle deceit, insinuation, flattery, intimidation, wrong teaching or emphasis, lack of balance, working on the emotions, enticements to sin, and many more. An active, watchful confidence in the Lord alone will keep us prepared to properly meet and quench these darts. "I believe God" is a wonderful protection for every believer, for such faith depends on the truth of His Word.

"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." "The fiery darts of the wicked one" are suggestions of unbelief whispered by Satan, and can alone be met and quenched by faith in the Son of God. (Gal 2:20.)

The shield of faith. This is to be "over all" (not above all" as in the Authorized Version). Faith in God, faith in His promises, faith in His Word, simple child-like faith is to cover the head and the body like a great shield. It is the exercise of an unwavering confidence in God. The fiery darts will thus be quenched. These "fiery darts" are indeed terrible weapons. The fire speaks of the wrath of God, of judgment, at least, from Him, and it is with this that the enemy would assail us. He is, we must remember, the accuser. His aim, as already said, is to bring distance in some sense between our souls and God. How great a necessity, therefore, to maintain this happy confidence in Him, which, while it does not excuse failure in the least, yet, in utter weakness, finds all its confidence in Him who has undertaken for us. "All the fiery darts of the wicked one" can thus be "quenched" by the "shield of faith" (F. W. Grant).

We now turn for a moment to the second thing: "Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." The enemy's first and dreadful aim will be to weaken in our hearts this unquestioning confidence in God, to edge in by some means unbelieving thoughts, to insinuate that God is not all love, all goodness. These are his fiery darts, darts of unbelief. Especially when there has been failure; when the heart, by some means, has been turned away from God, will he drive the soul to despair, if he can. He will press upon the fallen one the terrible thought that God is a against him, that God has abandoned him, that there is no hope. Hence the Lord's prayer for Peter that his faith might not fail him, that he might not be tempted, in consequence of his great sin, to unbelieving thoughts of God. There is no suffering so great as the agony of despair. Those who have witnessed it in others will never forget it. What must it be to pass through it! It partakes of the torments of hell — the forsaken place — the place where hope never enters. Nothing but the shield of faith can quench the fiery darts of unbelief.

The efforts of Satan to seduce, to act upon the desires of the flesh and of the mind, are entirely different to his fiery darts. There is pleasure of a certain kind in gratifying these desires. But there is no pleasure of any kind in yielding to unbelieving thoughts of God. Despair, more or less, is the result. At the same time, his seductions, if yielded to expose the soul to his further and hotter attacks. If we have opened the door to him in gratifying an evil desire, one may have to suffer terribly from his fiery attacks before we are restored to the confidence and peace of God. But pray tell me, how these dreadful darts may be detected and avoided. They are truly awful to think of. Yes, indeed, my soul, they are truly awful. They are called fiery darts, because they are like a consuming fire in the soul; at least if they bring the soul to the point of despair. His great object is to darken the light of God in the soul, and hide from it His love and favour. But few cases reach this point, thank God, where accomplished redemption is known. But here, prevention is better than cure: let us see how these inroads of the enemy may be prevented.

Verse 16 introduces another and quite as necessary a part of the divine armour, but, doubtless, justly put subsequent to what we have seen. "Above [or, beside] all, having taken up the shield of faith with which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." This means that confidence in God Himself which the soul is entitled and encouraged to cherish: I say, in Himself, because, though inseparable from the godly and righteous state the previous portions of the panoply intimate, it is a confidence springing only from what God is known to be in His own nature and character. All the envenomed efforts of the wicked one are futile where God is thus known in the power of the Holy Ghost ungrieved within us; all his darts not only fail to produce despair and distrust, but they are extinguished by the shield of faith.

When the wiles of the devil come to us, they do not appear as pink devils labelled "wiles of Satan". They come in forms dictated by a great wisdom, designed to deceive. Our struggle is against those great and mysterious spiritual beings, of whom we know so little, called in Scripture "principalities and powers". Their method is like that of the Philistines with Samson. He only saw Delilah, and probably never heard of or imagined the secret conference, "Entice him. Entice him, that we may bind him." Another hint as to their methods is in 6:16: the shield of faith is needed to quench "the fiery darts of the wicked one." At times, when all seems calm and bright, a thought, a word, a sight, suddenly sets us on fire. It may be the thought of distrust of God, or something that sets alight an evil temper. From whence come such thoughts? They are the fiery darts of the wicked one. The Romans used arrows and darts carrying fire when attacking a camp, with the intention of finding and igniting inflammable material within, and so distracting and confusing the defenders. We certainly have inflammable material within, and therefore we need the shield of faith.

But, together with all this, a piece of defensive armour is needed over all the rest, that we may be able to stand in spite of all the wiles of the enemy — an armour, however, which is practically maintained in its soundness by the use of the preceding ones, so that, if the latter is essential, the others have the first place in practice. This is the shield, faith; that is to say, full and entire trust in God, the consciousness of grace and of His favour maintained in the heart. Here faith is not simply the reception of God's testimony (although it is founded on that testimony), but the present assurance of the heart with regard to that which God is for us, founded, as we have just said, on the testimony which He has given of Himself — trust in His love and in His faithfulness, as well as in His power. "If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God." The work of the Spirit in us is to inspire this confidence. When it exists, all the attacks of the enemy, who seeks to make us believe that the goodness of God is not so sure all his efforts to destroy or to weaken in our hearts this confidence in God and to hide Him from us, prove fruitless. His arrows fall to the ground without reaching us. We stand fast in the consciousness that God is for us: our communion is not interrupted. The fiery darts of the enemy are not the desires of the flesh, but spiritual attacks.