Just in Case You Missed It

Deuteronomy 4: 44-49

Moses is entering prologue work here at the end of chapter 4- which is a pretty odd thing to do partway through book five of your bestselling series.  

He says- what follows is the law Moses (and I know, since I am Moses and all) laid before the Israelites.  He then gives a bit of a history lesson that seems a bit self serving.  When did this happen?  Remember when Moses (once again, Me) defeated the King of the Amorites?  Yeah, that was when Me-oses handed out the law.  Then he adds in some geography.  After all the fussin' and feudin' we had land that stretched from Aroer to Mount Sirion, to the Dead Sea, to Pisgah.

It might seem odd that Moses is rehashing all this again.  And while ego might be part of the equation, it might be influenced even more by the oral nature of this culture.  I'm guessing most didn't read, fewer still were alive when it happened, and no one had their own personal copy of Moses' greatest hits on their Ipods.  So this repetition makes sense when people didn't have the luxury of re-reading (or even reading for the first time).  

Tedious for us.  Perhaps necessary for them.