Repetition

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And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” — Isaiah 6:3

In our English language, whenever we want to emphasize written words, we have several ways to do it. We can underline, italicize, bold face, CAPITALIZE or use lots of exclamation points!!!!!

I remember receiving a letter one time from a disgruntled member of a church I was pastoring. It was three pages long, single spaced, and all done in capital letters, with multiple exclamation points, arrows, and anything else they could think of to make their point. Needless to say, that person was upset about something and wanted me to know about it!

The Bible has ways to highlight its truth, as well. One of those is through repetition. Often a phrase is repeated several times to make a point. Psalm 136 is a good example of this where every verse ends with the phrase, “His love endures forever.” It is repeated 26 times. Do you think God is wanting us to know that, “His love endures forever”?

Someone mildly complained to me one time about why we sing praise choruses so many times. I just referred them to Psalm 136 and said politely, “Maybe you should ask God about it—it was His idea!”

However, perhaps the premiere of all of the repetitive gems in Scripture is found in the book of Isaiah when the prophet became undone when he saw the glory of God in all His splendor. Who wouldn’t? The seraphim appearing over God’s throne were calling out to one another over and over in an antiphonal manner saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is filled with His glory” (Isaiah 6:3; also Revelation 4:8).

What you may not know is that the attribute of God’s holiness, is the only one in the whole Bible that is raised to the third level. Our LORD is ascribed as having many attributes but the one that is emphasized the most is His Holiness! — Maranatha!

To help us walk closer with God and to know Him better

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