A study of old and/or unique words from the Bible that are worth knowing
“And when He had called all the people unto Him, He said unto them, “Hearken unto Me every one of you, and understand…”” (Mark 7:14 KJV)
hearken (härkən) verb: to hear,
give audience to, come to the ears, understand, give self wholly to listening
The now archaic word, “hearken” is used
five times in the King James Version of the New Testament, six times if you
include the alternate use of hearken that is ‘listening as a subordinate, be obedient, and obey’ as found in
Acts 12:13 when Rhoda hearkened to the door when Peter knocked.
N.T. uses of the word ‘hearken’: Mark 4:3, Mark 7:14-23, Acts
4:19, Acts 7:2, Acts 15:13, and James 2:5, translated as “listen.”
When we read/hear the word hearken it should alert us to pay
attention to what is about to be said. It is an instruction telling us to give
our full attention to the words, to
not only hear them, but listen to them so that we may understand what is being said.
Do
we hearken unto Jesus’ words as we should? Do we try our best to listen as we read the Bible so that we may
comprehend His Truth? Do we truly hear the words spoken by His apostles, those
sent out by Him to teach people to observe all things that He commanded them (Matthew
28:20), to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15)? Do we hear attentively so that we can obey the
instruction?
Let us hearken unto Jesus, and let us
hearken unto the apostles – every word in the Bible is important! Let’s determine
to listen in such a way that we may properly understand and wholly obey God’s
instructions and commands (Ephesians 5:8-10,
15-17)! It is a worthwhile endeavour to make every effort to truly hearken unto God’s word and will!
