From Napoleon to a Homeless Person in Japan
Some issues drawing my attention:
1) Tolstoy wrote the famous novel War and Peace where he depicted Napoleon as an arrogant, snobbish, and mysteriously lucky (till his invasion of Moscow) guy. Tolstoy claimed in the novel that it is movement and sentiments of a multitude of ordinary people but not the so-called heroes or great leaders that decide the course of history.
But did Hitler read this novel in a German version? At least some around Hitler must have read it. Nazis got big support from the German people, so that they probably thought that their invasion of the USSR could be supported so zealously by the German people.
Though Tolstoy did not clearly state, the general trend of the human history following the will of God must have had a decisive influence on any big wars. In 1812 Napoleon was destined to be defeated, and in 1941 Hitler was destined to be defeated. The history denied rule by Napoleon and Hitler. And, we know today that it was fair, since we needed democracy by peoples more than Napoleon and equality among peoples, including Judaists, more than Hitler.
2) Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz, the author of On War, was on the Russian side when Napoleon invaded Russia. He worked as an officer in the Russian Army in the war, though he was German. Based on his experience of Russia's war against Napoleon, Clausewitz thought that advancing troops would get more vulnerable as they invaded an enemy's territory deeper and deeper. Did German generals read On War before WWII and before launching a war against the Soviet Union?
3) A European (French?) woman who had studied philosophy and communicated in person with some notable authors and philosophers in Europe decades ago wrote: One day when she was travelling by train, she was watching forests out of the window. And then suddenly she realized that woods existed there for God. Above any natural and human reasons, they existed for God.
So, when we look up at the sun in the daytime and stars at night, must we think that those heavenly bodies exist for God more than for us? Of course, we have to think so. The earth exists for God more than for mankind.
4) The house of Rothchild in Paris secretly donated money to the movement of Judaists to move to, and stay on the permanent basis in, Palestine and Jerusalem before WWI. Money from rich European and American Judaists helped and supported Zionism movement, but due to changes in situations in Europe and the US, this trend did not expand enough to establish a kind of shelters in Palestine for Judaists in Europe before WWII.
Does God today want Judaists to continue to stay in Palestine on the permanent basis?
5) Money is the largest criterion of value for some people. Money can be the biggest motive for their behaviors, activities, and planning for most of people. Money never loses its power and value in the human society. However, money makes people more foolish. Without big money, people can enjoy some spiritual pleasure. But the more their minds stick to money, the less they can enjoy spiritual pleasure. Conversely, the more a man has money, the more he finds pleasure in evil matters.
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Today I was looking for a certain comic book (created by a Japanese manga artist for Japanese readers). It is not for children. This comic series depicts how a young worker in a consumer credit business grows. The volume I was looking for was the last one of this series. I went to a big used book shop around Tokyo. I found it. In one of many and layered shelves of the shop, the whole volumes of the series were present. And there were two last volume books, while only one book for each of other volumes. I got one, since I thought some angel had prepared one for me. It was a sign that this volume had some holy meaning to me.
At the end of the story of the comic book, bad guys are punished and good guys (relatively) are paid off with some additional huge profit. The key to accomplishment of this result is just a little kindness of the hero, a worker in a consumer credit business, to a poor old man who was thrown out of a Japanese style of pub by his false friend and a stupid pub keeper and later was forced to live under a bridge as a homeless person, though he kept many specialized law books in a hut built on the river bed since he was still an officially qualified specialist in a certain field of law.
A lesson? Respect homeless people, since some of them might be officially qualified specialists in a certain field of law.
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Mar 5:21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea.