Dear fellow travelers,
Many parts of the Bible can seem repetitive and hard to read for that reason. Did the Bible really need to be written this way? Couldn’t we have been given a shorter version, covering everything we need, but only once? A shorter Bible would be easier to read, right?
It turns out that Isaiah the prophet’s audience had similar complaints. In Isaiah 28:9-10, they complain about Isaiah’s messages from God:
“To whom will he [Isaiah] teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”
The people mock Isaiah, saying he is repetitive, and is treating them as children. Can’t Isaiah get to the point and then move on? Why repeat the same lines and precepts? The context of the quote above is that Isaiah was telling the people that they were about to be conquered and sent into exile because they wouldn’t listen to God. The message was repetitive because their obstinacy required it, and therefore their discipline will also be repetitive. They were acting like disobedient children, so maybe they needed to be treated as children.[1] Isaiah next writes that God’s people will learn from a people “with a foreign tongue” (their conquerors):
“And the word of the LORD will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,
that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken.” – Isaiah 28:13
They wouldn’t listen and follow or obey God, and their discipline would be as repetitive as the message they failed to receive. As is often true, God’s punishment fits the crime as shown by the parallels in the two quotes above.
To an unbeliever God’s words will always seem like nonsense, as we see from 1 Corinthians 2:14,
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” However, believers can also get annoyed at the repetition of God’s word. We may ignore it, as if it was nonsense to us. But like the people of Isaiah’s time, maybe God is being repetitive because that’s what we need. Often, it’s hard for us to listen otherwise.
In his letters, the apostle Peter recognized the need for this. He knew that his readers needed to be reminded of things they should already know:
“I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder” – 2 Peter 1:13
“This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder” – 2 Peter 3:1
Peter knew from experience that Jesus had to repeat many things to him before he understood (for example, John 21:15-17) and therefore knew the importance of reminders. The phrase “stirring up” means “to wake fully.” In a sense, encouraging reminders are like spiritual caffeine, awakening us to basic truths we may drift away from. Like caffeine wears off over time, unfortunately so can the effect of God’s word in our lives. So, we need to be “stirred up” again and again.
Sometimes we let Christ sink below our other thoughts and feelings instead of keeping him at the forefront, directing them. When this happens, we need a reminder. Sometimes we read the Bible and think “I already know that” but fail to see that we aren’t changed by the truths we read, nor are we acting upon them. When this happens, we need a reminder. We need God to nudge us “here a little, there a little,” as Isaiah said.
Until we have achieved complete obedience to God in thought and deed, until we have achieved holiness, God will continue to repeat His messages to us. Even Christians can find it hard to listen.
If we find that God’s message is seeming very repetitive, we should ask ourselves why and pray that we can be better listeners.
[1] See also 1 Corinthians 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12-14
