Empires rise and fall for the same reasons as before. Oppressive regimes are replaced by anarchy, which is replaced again by repression, which is replaced again by anarchy. I had the horrible experience this last Christmas of having my children tell me that I am just like my father when it comes to telling corny jokes. I used to groan and shake my head when my father told them. Yet history has repeated itself again.
History is cyclical.
In the same way that God's word describes linear history, history as it unrolls from beginning to end, scripture describes the cycles of human events. This helps us understand why in the world we are making the same mistake over again. Scripture enables people to stand for something else, to be different and to gain freedom thereby. Galatians has a warning passage in the sixth chapter that is quite like the warning that comes in the first paragraph of Zechariah. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.