Why reset now? The evil day
When the apostle Paul uses the term, ‘the evil day’, generally it is viewed that he is not specifically referring to the end times, but rather any season of attack, temptation or tragedy in our lives.
The commentator F.F. Bruce writes, ”The “evil day” (like the “evil age” of (Gal. 1:4) is the period that is dominated by the forces of evil, with special emphasis, perhaps, on those occasions when the hostility of evil is experienced in exceptional power, and the temptation to yield is strong…It is then that the panoply of divine grace and strength is indispensable, enabling the believer to resist the pressure and stand firm. A Roman centurion had to be the kind of person who could be relied upon, when hard-pressed, to stand fast and not give way; and the same quality is necessary in the spiritual warfare.1
Just as Job experienced a day of utter, catastrophic loss, so we can find ourselves in a day or season when the pressure is so intense, the grief so great, that ‘a day of evil’ is the best way to describe that time. Surely the Covid event fitted that description, with such widespread global loss, uncertainty and fear. We were forced into constraints that were utterly unfamiliar, and looking back, it seems incredible that we navigated that season as we did. We are still feeling many after-effects of that terrible time, with massive concerns about mental health being one of the lingering results of it all.
But with all of the above noted, we should remember that we always live in an evil day, because the powers of darkness are not yet fully tamed and dispensed with - that will only happen when Jesus finally returns and the end of all things as we know dawns. In the meantime, we are called to be steadfast and diligent, awake and aware that as believers, we live on a battlefield.
1 Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (pp. 406–407). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.