The world was dark and cold. Defeat had become a matter of lifestyle, of accepting a great wrong against one’s hopes and dreams with no way to overcome the pain.

         And it was certainly pain, the kind of deep pain stored in the depths of one’s heart that it seems can never be excised no matter how hard one may try.

         There were “leaders” who had come along who claimed they had answers but their efforts never went anywhere, even though a few had gained relatively large followings. Yet, no matter what particular hope had come down the road and into the hearts of the defeated, though briefly, the light shined for merely a moment and was gone.

         It was as if the whole world was against each person, and that each person had no way to strike back effectively. The great pain carried by most was the pain of a defeat so strong and overwhelming that they must simply surrender to it and find a way to make life work.

         It is one of the most difficult things to deal with and make sense of, and in all probability the most difficult. People were created to overcome, to stand tall, to fight and win, to work hard and get things done, to put their heart into alleviating a problem, and to let nothing stand in the way of their freedom and success.

         Yet, the nation was broken. It had long ago been taken over by a brutal regime that had little or no compassion, and certainly no concern for the individuals who lives were essentially destroyed and enslaved. People kept working hard—they had to—but they were only working to stay alive. Survival was the big dream, or actually, it was the attempt to stay mentally tough against so much misfortune and no hope for the future. This “survival” was the manner in which one was forced to attempt a win, the way a starving man may grab at crumbs in hopes that he may find a piece of bread, and then, just maybe, something more.

         But it was the seeking of something more substantial that caused the greatest depression among people. If they could only just give up and accept a less than good life, a less than average life, or even a mere subsistence level life, then maybe that pain would go away. Maybe if they just gave up on dreams that kept stirring their hearts but never, ever came close to reality, then, and only then, could they maybe smile a weak smile and somehow be content with their lot.

         It was not to be, of course. No one can live like that for very long without finding alternatives to bleak reality that somehow make reality possible to stomach. It had all been going on for so many years and decades. People could actually no longer remember any actual good times but they still had the misty sagas that old people told on occasion, when long ago, their people lived in victory and strength.

         In a way, such stories, real or imagined, kept a spark alive but only a few really thought it could ever grow into anything more than that. So many people had tried for so long to overcome it all…

         Their houses had been broken into and ransacked. They were forced to vacate not only their homes and fields that they had worked so hard at building, but whole towns. Communities were destroyed. Industry was destroyed. The means to build it all back was completely removed. These evil despicable hell-bound demons in human form had decided that total destruction was the answer, and in their zeal to eliminate those good people they falsely characterized as evil, they had become evil incarnate.

         Their sweeping victories, however, gave them the aura of somehow being on the winning side, and that their grossly evil behavior was somehow justified even by God Himself. It was as if God had turned from His righteousness and honor, and sided with the devil, and that any unfortunate ones who fought the invaders would be crushed by God because the good people were characterized as being the devil.

         Why would God do this? Why would He side with evil? Why wouldn’t He help these poor destroyed people? Was their sin so great and the obvious sins of these invaders so unacknowledged that the entire cosmos had gotten turned upside down?

        As their lives, hopes, and dreams were destroyed, they remembered their Scriptures, the sayings of their holy book. They remembered the words that seemed to fit so clearly—

         Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! [Isaiah 5:20-21]

         The confidence level of the invaders had grown exponentially the more they destroyed the land and its people. As the proverbial sharks smelling blood and swimming swiftly to the kill and engaging in a free-for-all bloodbath, so did these so called liberators fall into the most heinous of crimes. Looking past their own sins and thinking themselves as holy with justified and God-breathed righteous anger, and even as agents of proper judgment, they raped and pillaged and burned and murdered, and they exulted in it, they enjoyed it, it was a tremendous opportunity to release their evil passions like hardened, reprobate, insane criminals escaped from the worst penitentiaries.

         How could agents of supposed good engage in such incredibly sinful acts? And why do monuments built for their leaders exist to this day—statues and bronzes beholding their evil glory?

         As the majority of those in the Lord’s day who judged Him falsely of evil and agreed with His death sentence and torture, so do so many still to this day claim the side of righteousness while engaging in or fully supporting the most evil of deeds. They refuse to acknowledge the gross violations of the Lord’s teachings. It is a justification of the worst forms of hate and all that stems from it.

         It must be understood that the thundering hooves supporting these invasions never stop. They continue on in subjugating others, and others still, and overcome the innocent, and rob them, and destroy them, and justify it all.

         But the day will come when their juggernaut will come face to face with a higher power, the very power they had previously claimed was on their side, and they will at last meet their match, and so much more.

         In their current state, the subdued cannot imagine anything to change it, for evil has gained such a stronghold over them, and they are so small and outnumbered, and apparently defeated. But they remember what always follows, what comes next, what the prophets said about the righteous and faithful people, and it is then that the tiny spark in their deepest heart glows brighter:

         Evil is always stopped. It is only a matter of time. The temporary never survives against the eternal. Dishonesty, lies, deceptive agendas, fake historical accounts, and false narratives never defeat Truth in the long term. And the evil ones who ride high in their day and get away with so much will all eventually pay the price. Their time will come to an end. Their earthly kingdoms, like all previous earthly kingdoms and empires, and all their sordid gains will fail and come to nothing, and can never be translated into eternity.

         The real kingdom, though—the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus, inhabited by those who love Him and obey Him and are called by His Name—it will continue now and throughout eternity. And regardless of the pain and the many losses the Lord’s people have suffered upon this planet, their fate is good and bright—they will live forever in their eternal home.

         And one more thing: Those places and regions of the earth where the devil has historically wreaked the worst havoc are often the same places from which the Lord later brings forth the greatest Great Awakenings…

         “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.” [Matthew 4:16] [1]

         © 2015 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.

[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.