This expression indicates that we are seeing the same play every now and then, or that we are all spectators in a play and we are watching what is happening without being able to intervene in the evolution of the play. In any case, the viewer does not participate in the events, but the events affect him at least emotionally and sometimes practically if one attempts to imitate the events.
This process of tracking the action of other people is a discovery of the ancient Greek, who thought that watching a show could convey the desirable message, as an example to avoid or to imitate. Approaching the Holy Bible with this visual angle, it is obvious that what is described there are examples to imitate or even to avoid. Because the Bible describes the Truth and the Truth is not always pleasant, but it is always instructive and above all liberates from prejudices that prevent us from moving towards freedom and perfection.
Instead, they keep us prisoners of the past and make us frightened in front of every new thing, which we later accept by necessity as good until it yields its fruits, and then we estimate what we lost in the years that we rejected it.