04/08/2015 SOME THINGS ARE WORTH REPEATING AGAIN
Deuteronomy 29: 22-23: Then your children and the generations to come and the foreigners that pass by from distant lands shall see the devastation of the land and the diseases the Lord will have sent upon it. They will see that the whole land is alkali and salt, a burned over wasteland, unsown, without crops, without a shred of vegetation---just like Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, destroyed by the Lord in his anger. [Living Bible translation]
BIBLICAL COMMENTS
The Jewish bible, the Torah, is also called the Pentateuch, which refers to the Five Books of Moses. [“Penta” in Latin and Greek means five.] These books include: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—the first five books of the Christian bible. Deuteronomy, the fifth book, consists of three sermons or speeches where Moses recounts the law given to him by GOD. The book of Deuteronomy also constitutes the rededication of the people to GOD through the renewal of the covenant between GOD and the people of Israel. It is the repeating of the law and the repeating of the people’s vows to GOD.
The prefix “re” generally means “again” or “go back.” “Deuteronomy” means “second law”, because the book is Moses’ reproclamation of GOD’s divine law to the people a second time. Moses knew that some things are so important they need to be repeated.