Moses in Syndication

Exodus 35:1-3

Moses gathers the Israelites together and proceeds to... tell them exactly what we've already read about God telling him to tell them. So essentially it looks like we may be in reruns for awhile.

Here, Moses repeats laws about the Sabbath- work for six, rest on the seventh. You work, you die. And do not light fires in your dwellings on the Sabbath.

This is at least the third time we've gone through variations of sabbath laws which makes me wonder... why do we need so much repetition. It's certainly not to make the prose more compelling. In the film version, at least one of these sections gets left on the cutting room floor.

I understand why Moses had to tell them, why does he have to tell us... again?

Is it to stress the importance of these sabbath laws? Maybe- except that it looks like the other laws are about to be repeated too.

Is it to give these Israelites ever opportunity to learn these laws? Third time's a charm. Preview statement, body, review statement? Perhaps, but it seems like only Moses is privy to all of these tellings (and retellings).

Is it to show Moses' faithfulness? God told him to do these things, and here he is doing them. Go Moses.

Or is Moses just not a good writer? We get all the content that we need to understand what's going on, but he's not getting into the Pushcart collection this year. And maybe our culture's view of narrative is different than that culture's. While it may not fit our desired plot development- we do see Moses' faithfulness, we are reminded of the laws, and we aren't left wondering if the Israelites ever got the word.

However, I'm ready for the new season to start... and for sweeps week.