Random Thoughts 301

​The new year is rapidly approaching and with it W2’s, 1099’s and all the other thing having to do with tax season. With all the news about the popular vote in the last election we know a majority of voters think our Government isn’t big enough.
Did you know God warned us about over taxation and a powerful central government? The children of Israel had judges of varying levels of power and responsibilitie who were primarily there to settle disputes between the people and raise a temporary army when need. Other than that the people were free to live as they saw fit. A rather libertarian system with republican overtones.
In 1st Samuel 8 the Israelites said they wanted a king so they could be like all the other countries thinking this would make them more secure. Samuel told them that this was a bad idea. He told them a king would take their children for his own purposes and take a 10th of all they produced to supply him self and his government. He will take from the people and give to his cronies. Samuel told them they would become slaves to the very government they were asking for. (Notice a 10% tax rate equated to slavery) The Israelites still demanded a king and got not only what they asked for but also what they were warned about.
During the time of the first three kings Saul, David and Solomon they raised a standing army to be proud of. They felt with palace intrigued with officials raping and murdering. They  had a civil war. They instituted hug building projects. And they got into unsavory and unhealthy deals with those foreign nations they wanted to emulate.

Then came along a fourth king named Rehoboam. The people came to him and asked for a reduction in taxes. The king, liking the power he held over the people and the perks of his office, refused. 

The people had had enough and rebelled. The nation fell apart and ten of the twelve tribes (kind of like states) succeded from the union and war broke out.

Over the next couple hundred years the northern nation sank farther and farther into degradation, being farther away from their cultural centers, and eventually ceased to exist. Meanwhile the southern nation, now called Judea, played at maintaining their unique culture which struggling through numerous wars, crooked political leaders and some really hard times.  They started paying other nations to be nice to them and got into unfair trade deals that sapped their engines of industry. They eventually fell under the power of various world orders from the Babylonians and Persians to the Greeks and Romans. It was the Romans who finally put an end to them through genocide. The Romans around 130 ad even changed the name of their country from Judea to Palestine hoping to finally put an end to them.

Does anyone see any similarities to a modern nation? Could this God and His bible teach us anything about extreme taxasion and strong central governments? Do you think there’s anything we, as a people, can do before our nation, with our unique culture, falls apart? Or are we doomed to repeat history as seems the case with this most recent election and the majorities desire for more government? 

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