Biblical Repetition…Meaning You Should Probably Pay Attention to This

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

--Mark 2:17

Why do we constantly make the same mistakes? There are lessons in our lives that we, for some reason, cannot seem to learn. We go down the same paths that we once swore to avoid, whether or not it was in the midst of blatant sin or passive submission. We fail all the time. Everything in history is consistent with this theory. Wars still breakout, economies still go through extreme ups and downs, and ruling empires ALWAYS fall at one point or another (the Romans had the longest reign even to this day!). Our whole worldly make up is constantly failing because of human error. How depressing! We try so hard to prevent and avoid the very things we don’t want to happen, and in that, we FAIL miserably. As Romans 7: 15 states, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” As humans, we are extremely good at putting Band-Aids on problems that need to be cured at the infected source.

We all want to know the solution to world hunger and sustainable living. We want to know how to avoid all suffering, difficulty, sickness, sadness, and hardship, because that is “our” idea of happiness and perfection. We idealize utopian thinking and place perfect political mixes on pedestals for change. We justify pain, suffering, and our actions based off of the worldly knowledge and experiences we have had. We look into our own personal schema to develop opinions and come up with our own diagnosis. And then, after coming up with all these reasons for why life is the way it is, we are still confused. This world and our human thoughts appear to be within a never ending cycle of disappointment.

Repetition in the justification of individual human thought, and we still don’t have answers. We, We, We, We…I, I, I, I…..Me, Me, Me, Me….

But can I mention one thing? What about HIM, HIM, HIM, HIM, HIM, and only HIM?

Over and over again the Bible repeats itself. It uses sayings, parables, words, stories, miracles, themes, concepts and so much more to illustrate repetitive truths. The Bible, is in fact, repetitive. Maybe this is something we need to pay attention to. Maybe this is something we need to not only believe, but act upon.

Unfortunately, because we enjoy making our own decisions and self medicating based on our own personal diagnosis, we often miss out on what God truly intends for us. We isolate ourselves from anyone or anything that can get in there and help cut out the infection. We are stuck in this repetitive worldly behavior because we are scared of going to the infected source and uncovering our wounds. And in a worldly sense, we sadly have a right to “justify” this. I mean, how many people have showed a sibling or a friend a giant bruise and ended up getting poked and punched in the sorest location?! I know I definitely have, many MANY times. I have two little brothers who love to terrorize me! It just goes to show how people, even those who are close to you, often take advantage of vulnerabilities; a repetitive theme in our world.

Because we get taken advantage of, we do not like to become vulnerable. It hurts! So, in a repetitive way, we try to deal with it ourselves and keep people and even God at a distance. We put Band-Aids on our wounds and allow the wounds to fester without proper treatment. Because they were not properly treated, they continue to become more painful and creep into other healthy areas of our body. Cancerous infection begins and spreads, attaching itself to our most vital organs. All of this, because we were scared of going to the Doctor and being placed in a vulnerable state yet again, because vulnerability has led us to pain in the past. Repetition.

But, the difference between THIS world and HIS world, is that the repetitive themes in the Bible point to deliverance and healing in the end, not to destruction and death. He doesn’t poke and prod without reason, and he doesn’t break without mending. Through the repetitive deliverance of our God, the never ending WORLDLY cycle of disappointment is broken. But in order for him to do this in our lives, we have to do something different. We have to take a long awaited trip to the Doctor. We have to focus on His treatments, not ours. We have to uncover our wounds and let him stitch us up. Something we cannot do without his touch.

The ultimate physician is our Heavenly Father. He cuts and breaks, but also patches and mends. He restores our health and then gives us an amazing assortment of soluble vitamins, nutrients that soak into our bloodstream and build and sustain our health. He gives us his word, full of repetition. Once again, he is a repetitive God. When will we decide to let him break the worldly cycles in our lives?