There is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture
teaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept
teaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old
Testament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the
teaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture.

Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very
significant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is
peculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on
his knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to
Christ, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting
phrase running through is--"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees."
Halfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of
these churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions
about their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the
epistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying
the man goes urging them to pray.

We must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to
twenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems
very clear to this scarred veteran:--"that ye may be able to withstand the
wiles of the devil." This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing
in a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for
that. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of
available resource to combat.

This paragraph states two things:--who the real foe is, against whom the
fight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the
main thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:--"For our
wrestling is not against flesh and blood"--not against men; never that;