How Darkness Heralds the End of Days

And God said, let there be light: and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. – Bereshit 1:2-3

Only when darkness is at its peak does it look like there is no end in sight. Little do we know that Redemption is already in progress and the next second it will start to be light. From the beginning of time, the darkness came first. Then G-d said “Let there be light.”

Why It’s Darkest Right Before the Dawn

Right when the light is about to shine through, the darkness pushes against it with all its might. To the naked eye it looks like things are getting worse. The truth is that the light is getting bigger. Darkness is digging in for a fight to the death. A fight it is destined to lose.

That is why it is darkest right before the dawn. It is the point of the night when the sun is just about to emerge. When the thick of the night seems too much to bear, the sun peaks out from the abyss. Even as the night smothers it in a bear hug of darkness, the light keeps rising. It gets to the point that the sun climbs so high it as if the darkness never existed at all.

We saw this in 1942 when the Nazis took over Europe and it looked like they would wipe out the Jewish people. Little did we that 6 short years later the Jewish nation would return to rule our eternal soil for the first time in almost 2,000 years.

The Light at the End of Days

Every day mimics the cycle. Every day is like Day One: there was darkness, then there was light.

In our day, we can lament the unprecedented darkness. We can lament the families and young people destroyed by the Internet. We can weep over the Jews killed and wounded by terrorists, and the rising antisemitism around the world. We can shake our heads over the anxiety and depression that plagues our generation.

Or we can anticipate the great light that is making its way from the void. We can see the amazing websites like Breslev Israel that enable us to spread emuna in a way that was unimaginable just a few decades ago. We can thank Hashem for the opportunity to serve Him in the face of such adversity, and to strengthen ourselves to be His holy nation in whatever circumstances we face.

In Israel, there are more Yeshivot than ever before. Israel has more prosperity, freedom, Kosher restaurants, and Synagogues than at any time since King Solomon and the First Temple.

The light is emerging as we speak.

But it’s just the beginning. It’s merely a spark of what is yet to come. The darkness, in its predawn death throes, is doing everything it can to prevent the light from rising. It heralds the future because the intensity of the darkness is greater than anything mankind has encountered before. The fact that the darkness is greater than it has ever been is the ultimate sign that the light it is resisting is greater than anything we have ever known. We see how the media, Hollywood, and technology are dominated by the forces of horror doing everything to hold back the Divine tide.

We shouldn’t be worried.

I had a liberal friend tell me that if Mashiach were to come, he would prevent it. One of the leaders of Israel threatened us by saying, “We won’t allow Israel to return to how it was under King David.” But that’s exactly the way Israel is supposed to end up: A Torah state governed by the Laws of Hashem and His Torah, just like it was during the times of King David.

This is Hashem’s plan. Can man prevent it? Can anyone stop the sun from rising? They can try, but nobody fights G-d and wins.

The darker this world gets, the happier we should be. Hashem is advancing the light of Mashiach and pretty soon it will be as if the darkness never was.