From great to divided...repeats through history...

 From great to divided....repeats through history...

When you read through history, there is so many repeats...do we really learn from the past...in our proudness and pride, we seem to feel our generation, our nation can do it better...so we build, become great, follow God, then follow after other gods, divide, generation after generation after generation...cycle after cycle...

You can see that in Judges, through Kings and Chronicles, through the ages right down to the present...we really haven’t changed...countries, civilizations have come and gone....blossoming for a time, being a light, falling into despair, stumbling downward until fallen...

Reading through the Bible sometimes feels like reading a modern newspaper...

A case in point...and I am not trying to politicize, or take sides, just observations...

I was reading the news and an article about taxes caught my eye...how plans were being put into place for tax increases...could be either party on any given year...how or who the burden was falling onto...and the same day I was reading a portion in scripture which mirrored the article, thousands of years ago...

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 

So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” 

Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away. 

Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. 

“How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. 

They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” 

But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 

He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” 

The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 

My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’” Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” 

The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. 

My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

1 Kings 12:1-15 

Reading further in the same chapter, the people formed golden calves to worship....sound familiar????

The same thing their forefathers formed and worshipped in Mose’s time...

Repeats, repeats down through time...

My take away...my days are numbered as are everyone’s...follow the path that God has planned...Seeking His will, humbly coming before him no matter the times  I live in, in times of plenty and times of want...God is here, He has never left.... He alone is the creator of the Universe, the comforter, the Redeemer...our only hope ....

Thank YOU that You are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow...Your love never fails...

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8