{"id":298,"date":"2015-02-08T17:48:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T17:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/2015\/02\/08\/history-tends-to-repeat-itself\/"},"modified":"2015-02-08T17:48:44","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T17:48:44","slug":"history-tends-to-repeat-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/2015\/02\/08\/history-tends-to-repeat-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"History Tends To Repeat Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nehemiah5 \u2013 9<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Verse 5:2 opens with the people complaining about taxes:<\/p>\n

Jews Without Land:<\/b>\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Our
\nfamilies are large, and we need food so that along with our children, we will
\nnot starve. Let us have grain!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nehemiah as a governor was assumed to be as strict and
\nunyielding as other ones. The problem was they would collect taxes for Persia
\nsince they are occupying the land and then collect more to enjoy. The extra
\ntaxes were burdensome for the people and made it so they could not eat or
\nsurvive. Nehemiah on the other hand lived well on what he was allowed from the
\nking and did not desire more. <\/p>\n

I read stuff like this and wonder how our nation would be today
\nif everyone were like this. Right now governments are over taxing the nation
\nand businesses seem to be squeezing us for the rest of the money. Consider
\nmobile communications where almost everyone now has a cell phone. Now data
\nplans are limited and cost way more than before because of bandwidth
\nlimitations. But almost everyone has to have one including many homeless. It\u2019s
\na sad state when the people believe they require phones before shelter. <\/p>\n

Verse 8:5 shows the people\u2019s respect over the Word of God:<\/p>\n

Standing above the people so they
\ncould see\u00a0and hear him,<\/i>\u00a0Ezra opened the book of the law. As he
\nopened the book, everyone stood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Shadowbrook the youth took this verse to heart and during
\nthe service when they would open with the scripture reading they would stand.
\nThis became an agent for change in the church, unfortunately not for the good.
\nIt apparently made some uncomfortable that they were standing during the
\nreading so instead of honoring God as they did in Nehemiah\u2019s time they ceased
\nthe opening reading of scripture. It was a subtle change but disheartening when
\nyou consider the factors leading up to it. Now this may have been done for
\nother reason, but as a \u201clayperson\u201d it appeared to be because of the youth.<\/p>\n

Verse 9:28 is part of chapter 9\u2019s review of the Israelites
\nhistory:<\/p>\n

As soon as they were at peace, they\u00a0began
\nto wander and<\/i>\u00a0abandoned You
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and did evil things, so You
\nabandoned them to their enemies.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thus,\u00a0once more,<\/i>\u00a0You allowed them to
\nbe conquered.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Somehow Your mercy is
\ninexhaustible.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once more You listened to them when they cried to You
\nin heaven\u00a0for help<\/i>.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over and over and over You
\nintervened and saved Your people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The thing that stood out to me was how human nature seems to
\nnever change. When things start going well God is most often forgotten. Sure
\ninitially the blessings will be thanked, but as time goes on and the
\ndistractions of prosperity continue the worship of God ceases. Then corrupt
\nideas creep in and eventually society breaks away from God and drifts to chaos.
\nWe are seeing it today in our nation, the difference is science has done away
\nwith \u201cgods\u201d and replaced them with self. So now we worship self and take
\nadvantage of \u201cThe Secret\u201d for selfish desires and not the good of mankind. <\/p>\n

The irony of today\u2019s reading is I see much of our nation
\nreflected in Israel of this time. We have become separated from God and our
\nleaders are squeezing every last dime from us to continue their lavish
\nlifestyles. The only thing history really teaches us is that it repeats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nehemiah5 \u2013 9 Verse 5:2 opens with the people complaining about taxes: Jews Without Land:\u00a02\u00a0Our families are large, and we need food so that along with our children, we will not starve. Let us have grain! \u00a0 Nehemiah as a governor was assumed to be as strict and unyielding as other ones. The problem was … Continue reading “History Tends To Repeat Itself”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}