During the cold months of the winter I am reading through the Lord of the Rings to my boys in the evenings. (And to my little girls as well when something interesting catches their ear and they wander in for a bit.) Something caught my attention in our last reading that I found relevant to present circumstances, and I thought I would share.
Here we have a description, in story form, of the thoughts of powerful men, wherein some have sold their souls to the devil and to great evil– the rank pride, the lust for power and control. This seems very applicable today as we watch the oligarchy of the “high and powerful” making their attempt to take control in our own land in order to “save the world.” This is a skillful word picture as to how they can excuse it to themselves: (from The Lord of the Rings, Saruman the White speaking to Gandalf the Gray)
“And listen, Gandalf, my old friend and helper!” he said, coming near and speaking now in a softer voice. “I said we, for we it may be, if you will join with me. A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Numenor. This then is one choice before you, before us. We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.”
The enemy is always calling evil good and good evil. This has always been his way of working in the minds of powerful men, playing upon their pride and lusts. May the people of God firmly stand for the Way, the Truth, and the Life, building the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in this world in an evil day. Jesus is the Light in the darkness, and no matter how dark the evil may grow, in the end, He wins. Stand strong!
Steve Hall 