History is such a great teacher

Micah 3:9-12

Have you ever ask the questions; how did I get to this point, why was I so foolish, did I not have any understanding of the price I was going to pay?  As a citizen of the United States of America I’m asking, as many of you are, these questions.  My questions are not formed from a political party view, for I have long given up on both of the major parties that control our government.  If one is to understand what has taken place, should they not first grasp how far we have fallen, for it is only in the understanding of history that one does not repeat it’s ills.

Thirteen colonies united in a Congress and there charter was to write a new constitution.  It began an armed conflict and in 1776 that Congress declared themselves to be an independent nation, the United States of America.  It was that Congress on July 4,1776 that declared a unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.  The following is a small part of that document:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

History is such a great teacher that is unless one has no knowledge of history, and to grasp what has happen it requires us to understand only the Jewish people were free from the evils that take place when one goes under the rule of man and does not look to God the Father.  But they looked around an every other nation had a king and they also wanted one, so God laid out what happens when you have a king.  We find the account in 1 Samuel chapter eight this is what they gave up: “Samuel told all the Lord’s words to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These are the rights of the king who will rule over you: He will take your sons and put them to his use in his chariots, on his horses, or running in front of his chariots. He can appoint them for his use as commanders of thousands or commanders of fifties, to plow his ground or reap his harvest, or to make his weapons of war or the equipment for his chariots. He can take your daughters to become perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He can take your best fields, vineyards, and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He can take a tenth of your grain and your vineyards and give them to his officials and servants. He can take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys and use them for his work. He can take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves can become his servants. When that day comes, you will cry out because of the king you’ve chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you on that day.”

Many of you will say we have no king we have a President.  However, when our leaders do not follow the Constitution, we have a President acting as a king.  And this question must be asked are we not doing what the leaders, the priest and the prophets were doing in Micah’s time?  “Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.  Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us?  No disaster shall come upon us.” Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.”  (Micah 3:9-12 ESV)  You need to ask what have we given up?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice