Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 TLB
As I began writing for my kids one of the lessons I really wanted to impart was that there is an enemy seeking to undermine all that is good and right in the world. At the time I used the term allegorically to vaguely describe the forces of evil. In 2009 when I started writing, I had no idea we would be facing the the oppressive threat of disease and civil unrest in 2020. But what is "The Darkness" really? Where does all of the chaos come from?
While it's easy to look at the world and imaging "The Darkness" as some vague all encompassing external force. However, Christians believe Satan, is personal. 1 Peter is very clear in pointing out that Satan is looking for someone to destroy. Satan’s purpose is to take down individuals who express the light of God’s truth.
The book of Job is the ultimate example of Satan picking out an individual to destroy. Satan uses his power over the earth to destroy everything Job loves. He leverages fire from the heavens and mighty winds destroy to wreak havoc through Job’s life. However, Satan does not always leverage power on this scale to wreak havoc on our world. He also uses little influences to drive individuals towards the darkness.
"But when you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group…” Galatians 5:19–20 TLB
I chose The Living Bible translation for this one because I feel like the last line is more explicit than the KJVs strife, seditions and heresies. Satan uses simple things like “the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group,” to spread the darkness. On a certain level the filter bubble created by social media is the perfect medium for amplifying and spreading the darkness. The feeling that everyone else is wrong but my little group, engenders bigotry. That builds to pride, greed, covetousness, jealousy and anger and finally hatred and fighting. Satan is the master at taking one little thing and building it to enmity between people, tribes, and nations. That is "The Darkness" and how it spreads.
The Israelites saw the darkness overtake them first hand. Lamentations speaks to the utter despair brought about by "The Darkness" lived out in humanity.
"The roads to Zion mourn, no longer filled with joyous throngs who come to celebrate the Temple feasts; the city gates are silent, her priests groan, her virgins have been dragged away. Bitterly she weeps.
Her enemies prosper, for the Lord has punished Jerusalem for all her many sins; her young children are captured and taken far away as slaves." - Lamentations 1:4-5
As I look around America right now, I see the Darkness cloaking our land, and like the Israelites I weep for my nation.