In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana's "The Life of Reason" also contains a similar quote. King Solomon in his lament over the vanity of man said, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun (Ecc 1:9)." Unfortunately for man this is true. Mankind has continued to cycle through the same mistakes with the same disastrous results over and over. The devil continues to use the same lies he used on Eve 6,000 years ago in Genesis 3 because man keeps falling for them. Egypt is symbolic of the way of the world in the Bible and in no place more clearly than in Exodus 1-14. Egypt's attempts to attack the plan and people of God, its refusal to acknowledge to sovereignty of God, its hardening of heart against the word of God, and its stubborn refusal to humble itself and repent are the way of the world. This will be repeated in the book of Revelation. The devil will continue to deceive the world (Rev 12:9, Rev 13:14, Rev 20:8). The devil and the world will attack the people of God (Rev 6:11, Rev 12, Rev 20:4). The world will understand that the judgments happening are directly from God for their sins, but they will stubbornly refuse to acknowledge His sovereignty and repent (Rev 2:21, Rev 9:20, Rev 16:9-11). Some the plagues on Egypt in Exodus will even be repeated in Revelation:

1. Water into blood - Ex 7:17-21, Rev 8:8, Rev 11:6, Rev 16:3-6

2. Frogs - Ex 8:1-7, Rev 16:13

3. Sores - Ex 9:8-11, Rev 16:11

4. Hail with fire - Ex 9:22-25, Rev 8:7 (Rev 11:19, Rev 16:21 - hail)

5. Locusts - Ex 10:4-6, Rev 9:3-7

6. Darkness - Ex 10:21-23, Rev 16:10 (Rev 8:12, Rev 9:2)

Psalm 2 perfectly describes the futility on man's attempts to reject the rule of God and be his own ruler. History repeats itself because man refuses to admit he is wrong and needs God. Only when we relinquish our futile attempts to be our own god, humble ourselves (2Chr 7:14), confess and repent, and get off the throne and give God His rightful place there, can this cycle of failure ever stop. Sadly, the Bible and history show us this will never happen. The devil and the world will make another major attempt at running God off at the end of this age, and it will culminate at the battle of Armageddon in a valley in Israel called Mediggo which Napoleon called the greatest natural battlefield in the world (Rev 16:14-16, Rev 19). Then there will be one final attempt at the end of the Bible in what is called the battle of God and Magog (Eze 38-39, Rev 20:8). The world will never learn this lesson for that is what the world is; but we as individuals must. We need to end our personal cycle of failing to learn from our own history that shows us that when we are in control we fail but when God is on control we are blessed.