Repetition

Elder Bednar recently said, “Repetition is a vehicle through which the Holy Ghost can enlighten our minds, influence our hearts, and enlarge our understanding” (see here).  I think we see as we read the scriptures that they are indeed filled with repetition, and this is not a sign of inefficiency but of the fact that the Lord indeed teaches with repetition.  An example that Elder Bednar used was that of Moroni’s visits to Joseph Smith in September 1823.  The angel came to Moroni four times and each time repeated the same thing as before with some small additional instruction.  With each visit after the first he “related the very same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least variation” (JSH 1:45).  The message had to be correctly understood and remembered, and Moroni used repetition to ensure that this was the case. 

                Other scriptures also show how the Lord repeats His message to ensure that we learn it.  For example, in our dispensation He gave two revelations which were identical besides one word: D&C 15 and 16 were given to two different individuals but they contain identical language.  In the New Testament we have four gospels, all of which give us an account of the life of Christ.  Even though they have much in common among them, the Lord saw fit to include all of them despite the potential repetition.  After the Jews returned to Jerusalem at the end of their captivity in Babylon and Persia, we have an interesting account of what Ezra did to teach the people.  He brought to them “the book of the law of Moses” and they “read in the book of the law of God distinctly” to the people.  They came each day for seven days to hear the word of God read to them out loud: “Day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God” (Nehemiah 8:1, 8, 18).  He thought it was important enough to read and repeat to them the scriptures for at least seven days straight.  We have lot of other similar examples: Nephi and Jacob quoting large portions of Isaiah so that we basically have duplicated text, three accounts of the Creation containing much of the same material, two versions of the Sermon on the Mount that are essentially the same (Matthew 5-7 and 3 Nephi 12-14), and the words of Malachi that are in the Old Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.  These and other examples show us that indeed the Lord teaches by repetition and that the repetition of messages in the scriptures should alert our attention that the message must be particularly important. 

                This reminds me of what President Hinckley once said as he spoke in general conference: “Now, my brothers and sisters, we live with an interesting phenomenon. A soloist sings the same song again and again. An orchestra repeats the same music. But a speaker is expected to come up with something new every time he speaks. I am going to break that tradition this morning and repeat in a measure what I have said on another occasion” (The Stone Cut Out of the Mountain).  In that same spirit, we should not expect to hear something drastically new in going to Church or the temple or even in reading the scriptures.  But if properly received with the influence of the Holy Ghost, the repetition can help us to gain our own revelation and better understand what the Lord really cares about for us in our lives.