02-26-2022, 05:25 PM
The Feast of Tabernacles is over in mid-October; winter is coming. In five months or so comes Passover in the spring. It's been at least a year, and perhaps two, since Jesus sent out the Twelve on a preaching and healing mission. Here He chooses seventy other disciples among those who have become faithful followers. It's not likely the Twelve could have covered much territory in six pairs, so this new mission of thirty-five pairs would do a much better job of preparing a path for Jesus to follow before His final work.
This is still under the Covenant of Moses, so His instructions are very nearly the same as He gave the Twelve in Matthew 10. Jewish communities were expected to host traveling preachers. Such preachers should not have to travel with full luggage, but Jesus pushes this protocol to the limit. It's almost as if they are supposed to leave right away after being recruited during the feast.
They should have no expectations about what they would encounter, make no demands ("lambs among wolves"). Carry nothing but the message. The point about greetings is to avoid the extravagant eastern style greetings common among those who are politicking for something. They were to fully trust in the power of God to supply and bless. It's all about walking in faith and blessing the faith of others. Just accept what they offer and don't try to upgrade to nicer accommodations, since those who first exercised the faith to receive the preachers as guests should receive all the local honor. Bless that household fully. Perform the rituals that speak so loudly and watch the Father fulfill them.
Most importantly, these seventy were emissaries of the Kingdom of Heaven. They were to remind themselves and their listeners often. Make sure the miracles are clearly connected to that. If things don't go well, perform the Ritual of Foot Dust, which is tantamount to denouncing the place as pagan.
This triggered something in Jesus' mind. Right in the middle of this, He lays a curse on the cities that saw so very much of His preaching and miracles: Capernaum, Chorazin just a short distance to the north, and Bethsaida a few miles east along the shore of Galilee near where He fed the 5000. Think of how they saw the crowds healed and delivered off and on for nearly two years. But they didn't believe. We know this because archaeology shows that their synagogues tolerated pagan symbols inside their very meeting places.
Those three cities in and around Jesus' hometown at the time saw more of His presence and miracles than any other place on this earth, but they rejected His teaching, His call to restore Covenant obedience. So, Jesus reminds the mission teams that whoever receives them was receiving Jesus, and whoever embraced Jesus was embracing the Father.
We don't know how long they were at this work, but they came back celebrating the miraculous things they had experienced. Jesus rejoiced with them, mentioning how He could see the Kingdom of Darkness beaten back. They had the authority to walk peacefully through anything on the earth that Satan might use against them. It was thrilling beyond words, but Jesus reminded them that this was just a temporal situation. What really mattered was that they had an eternal home in Heaven. This life would soon be over for Him, and He was going to prepare a place for them.
Then He addressed His Father in their hearing. He gave thanks for how revelation didn't come to the pretentious and proud, but to the real children of Heaven, those who put full trust in the Father. The rest of the world would never understand, much less accept, His claim to be the Son of God. But the few who were ready to receive that revelation would receive in such abundance that no one could comprehend.
He then turned to His followers and said they probably didn't begin to understand just how richly blessed they were. They experienced directly the things prophets and kings had longed to see.
This is still under the Covenant of Moses, so His instructions are very nearly the same as He gave the Twelve in Matthew 10. Jewish communities were expected to host traveling preachers. Such preachers should not have to travel with full luggage, but Jesus pushes this protocol to the limit. It's almost as if they are supposed to leave right away after being recruited during the feast.
They should have no expectations about what they would encounter, make no demands ("lambs among wolves"). Carry nothing but the message. The point about greetings is to avoid the extravagant eastern style greetings common among those who are politicking for something. They were to fully trust in the power of God to supply and bless. It's all about walking in faith and blessing the faith of others. Just accept what they offer and don't try to upgrade to nicer accommodations, since those who first exercised the faith to receive the preachers as guests should receive all the local honor. Bless that household fully. Perform the rituals that speak so loudly and watch the Father fulfill them.
Most importantly, these seventy were emissaries of the Kingdom of Heaven. They were to remind themselves and their listeners often. Make sure the miracles are clearly connected to that. If things don't go well, perform the Ritual of Foot Dust, which is tantamount to denouncing the place as pagan.
This triggered something in Jesus' mind. Right in the middle of this, He lays a curse on the cities that saw so very much of His preaching and miracles: Capernaum, Chorazin just a short distance to the north, and Bethsaida a few miles east along the shore of Galilee near where He fed the 5000. Think of how they saw the crowds healed and delivered off and on for nearly two years. But they didn't believe. We know this because archaeology shows that their synagogues tolerated pagan symbols inside their very meeting places.
Those three cities in and around Jesus' hometown at the time saw more of His presence and miracles than any other place on this earth, but they rejected His teaching, His call to restore Covenant obedience. So, Jesus reminds the mission teams that whoever receives them was receiving Jesus, and whoever embraced Jesus was embracing the Father.
We don't know how long they were at this work, but they came back celebrating the miraculous things they had experienced. Jesus rejoiced with them, mentioning how He could see the Kingdom of Darkness beaten back. They had the authority to walk peacefully through anything on the earth that Satan might use against them. It was thrilling beyond words, but Jesus reminded them that this was just a temporal situation. What really mattered was that they had an eternal home in Heaven. This life would soon be over for Him, and He was going to prepare a place for them.
Then He addressed His Father in their hearing. He gave thanks for how revelation didn't come to the pretentious and proud, but to the real children of Heaven, those who put full trust in the Father. The rest of the world would never understand, much less accept, His claim to be the Son of God. But the few who were ready to receive that revelation would receive in such abundance that no one could comprehend.
He then turned to His followers and said they probably didn't begin to understand just how richly blessed they were. They experienced directly the things prophets and kings had longed to see.
