Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills. – Genesis 14:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 5, 2018): Genesis 14

Repetition in language is interesting; it reveals so much about what we are thinking. And that is something that I need to remember as I speak and listen to those around me. Repetition reveals what we think is important. The age-old adage for speakers is simple; tell your audience the message you are about to deliver, deliver the message, and then close by reminding them about what you just said. (Or, tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.) Repetition is a way of marking what is important.

Another reason to repeat is when we are trying to commit something to memory. Some people have asked me how I remember lines for a role that I might be playing, or even for a teaching moment for which I might be responsible. How do I remember? The answer is repetition. In a recent dinner theater role that I played, memorization meant walking in circles around a meeting area repeating the lines that I need to remember.

Hebrew has long involved repetition. One of the reasons and there are a few, that I believe that the Genesis 1 Creation Story was originally intended as a poem is because there is a subtle repetition between Day 1 and 4, Day 2 and 5, and Day 3 and 6. It doesn’t make the central point that God created the Heaven and the Earth any less true, which is sometimes the reason why people do not seem to want to believe that Genesis 1 is poetry. Much of the Bible is written with a Hebrew poetry structure in mind, and yet it is still true.

Another reason in the Hebrew thought is to increase the magnitude of something. So God is not said to be “Holy,” he is “Holy, Holy, Holy” or extremely holy. The Song of Solomon is often referred to as the “Song of Songs” – of all the songs it is the best. The message we are to receive is from repetition

Here the literal phrasing from which the translation of “full of tar pits” is “pits pits tar,” the repetition indicating that there were a number of them in the valley. Evidently, these pits were not always recognizable, and therefore the armies, in their haste, lost a number of soldiers.

Life is still full of unseen dangers, and maybe sometimes it is the repetition that we need to hear. Life is amazing, but it is also full of hidden dangers, and too often we walk into those dangers without realizing that they are there. We are the soldiers in the valley surrounded by tar pits. And we need someone to remind us of the danger repetitiously.

Can I do that? Danger, Danger. You know what I mean.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 15