Dan Wallace teaches Greek and travels the world cataloguing ancient manuscripts. At the height of his career, he caught encephalitis, a disease that causes the brain to swell. Dan spent the next year in a wheelchair, traveling to five hospitals and the Mayo Clinic. He survived, though he lost most of his memory, including his knowledge of foreign languages. Yet he persisted and returned to the classroom. Dan says, “I had to relearn Greek, and I taught myself Greek using the textbook that I myself had published the year before!”

It’s strange to learn Greek from yourself, but it’s not unusual to learn the same truths over again. This is why God gave us Deuteronomy. Its name means “second law,” a fitting title for a book that reviews the laws and commands given by God in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy gives the Ten Commandments again (ch. 5) and repeatedly urges God’s people to remember how He delivered them from Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and brought them to the promised land. They needed to remember their salvation story, lest their success might make them proud and they’d “forget the Lord . . . [their] God, who brought [them] out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (8:14).

What wilderness has God brought you out of? How has He provided for you? When we pause to think, we have ample reason to thank and praise Him—again and again.