Tag: Receive God's Word - Don't Just Read it - Jeremiah 32-36

Jeremiah 32:33-34

They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.

Tag:  Receive God's Word ... not just read it. 

In the above passage Jeremiah is telling the leaders of Israel and all the people of Israel why God is sending the armies of the Babylonians to destroy their city and to take them captive.  He is telling them that they did a great job of "hearing" God's Word and even "read" it.  But, they never "received" it.   The word "receive" in the above text means to "take hold of something."  It is used in Genesis to describe what Noah did on the ark when the dove flew back to him. Note Vine's comment on this:

Primarily this word means “to take, grasp, take hold of,” as when Noah reached out and “took hold of” the dove to bring it back into the ark (Gen. 8:9). A secondary meaning is “to take away, remove, take to oneself,” as when the invading kings “took away” and “took to themselves” all the movable goods of the cities of the plain (Gen. 14:11). Sometimes this verb implies “to receive something from someone.” So Abraham asks Ephron the Hittite to “receive from” his hand payment for the field which contained the sepulchre (Gen. 23:13).

Later in this same book, Jeremiah writes out the book and sends the scroll to the king.  Note what the kind did as he "read" the scroll:

Jeremiah 36:23-24

As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.

They "read" the book of Jeremiah but did not "receive" the book of Jeremiah.  We can often do the same things.  We can "read" the Bible.  But, the Bible is not a magic potion.  The Bible is God's Word and needs to be "received" and mixed with faith to obey it.   God's word, mixed with faith can bring about change.  Receive it, don't just read it.