I have a very clear memory of my reaction to a church service during my second year of college that made me very unhappy and probably solidified my decision to change churches. I was already frustrated with the new college minister and his wife (more on the subject of God’s attitudes toward women another day), but the final straw was a sermon by the new pastor. He announced the passage the sermon was on and made his first point. I proceeded (in my arrogance) to jot down a pretty full outline of the sermon and then got more and more annoyed as he preached the exact sermon that I had just outlined.

In my next letter home, I complained to my parents at some length with the theme that there’s no point in wasting my time listening to a sermon when I obviously already knew everything the pastor was going to say. My very wise mother made the point that it was a good thing that the pastor was preaching the passage accurately and that being reminded of things could be good. I left that church soon after despite her advice, but I have later tried to remember that sometimes we do need repetition, whether we like it or not.

And, really, we don’t always dislike it. I, personally, love rereading favorite books. I used to read Pride and Prejudice once a year. Other favorites I would read whenever I got the chance. I remember staying up all night rereading The Lord of the Rings as a teenager because my family was spending a weekend at the house of friends who owned the trilogy when I didn’t yet.

We seem to be born with a love for repetition. Infants and toddlers will do the same thing over and over as they figure out the world. Rereading is a must for them. I remember sitting with my first son on my lap reading the same book over and over. He used to grab the book when I finished, turn it over, and say “‘gain” most emphatically. His record was 10 times in a row for the same book.

Children want and need the repetition as part of their learning process. As adults we often become less tolerant of repetition, especially of things we know, or things we think we know. Nonetheless, repetition is still something we need. As we read the Bible passage again, we often glean new insights, whether because we read more carefully, because God helped us reach an understanding that we haven’t had before, or because our experience has made something more relevant.

I’m currently in Deuteronomy for my Old Testament reading. Of course, the book is a repetition as Moses tells the Israelites who are about to enter the Promised Land about everything that has happened as he led them out of Egypt to Mount Sinai and then to Canaan and then out into wilderness for 40 years of wandering and finally back to the Jordan River.

Why? Why include this book that is largely a rehash of Exodus and Numbers?

I think there are a number of reasons, but I’m going to offer two for consideration. First, as I reread the opening chapters this time, I was struck at how much the voice and personality of Moses come through in this book in a way that they don’t in the previous books. Moses tells it like it is from his perspective. It’s kind of entertaining, and I think it’s a reminder that God made us all as unique people with personalities. He’s not interested in a bunch of robots. Walking closely with God won’t erase who we are: it will make us the best version of ourselves.

The other reason I want to offer is that Deuteronomy is a reminder that we do need to hear it again. The Israelites knew all of the stories. Most of them had been children or not yet born during the initial exodus, but they had heard the stories. However, they need this formal big reminder of all that God had done for them (and all that they had done wrong) as they prepared to take the next big step and to lose the only leader they had known during this forty years. This should serve as a reminder to us that we need to re-hear truth, that we need to re-visit the story of God’s work in our lives. We should never get tired of hearing the gospel, because it is the center of what God has done for us.

So how am I doing these days? Better. I won’t claim that I never get bored with a sermon. And I certainly don’t prefer sermons where the pastor tells you what he’s going to tell you, then he tells it, then he tells you what it is that he just told you. However, I am doing much better about having an open mind and trying to hear the truths that I didn’t get before or that I have forgotten or that I just need to be more focused on.