The Story

The Lord was leaving Galilee for the last time, and turning toward Jerusalem through the country east of Jordan. The seventy disciples were sent into the cities and villages of this country, which He soon would visit on His journey. It was a region where many made Him welcome, to which He turned when rejected by the Jews in Jerusalem. (John 10:40-42)

The story of sending out the seventy is much like that of sending out the twelve, which we have read in chapter 9. Now there are seventy, then there were twelve. The twelve were sent into the towns of Galilee, these through the country east of Jordan. The Lord calls them laborers and their work that of harvesting. It reminds us of parables which have likened the Lord's kingdom to a garden and a vineyard. See also John 4:35-38, where the Lord also speaks of the disciples as harvesting, gathering and reaping the fruits which others have sown.

There are nearly the same instructions for the journey as before, teaching the disciples not to trust in their own ability and strength but in the Lord. The charge to salute no man by the way expresses forcibly the duty of attending only to the Lord's business, not allowing themselves to be diverted from it. They are to bring peace where it will be received, and to shake off the dust of cities that give them no welcome. Several cities are named with a Woe! because they had given so little heed to the Lord's word. Chorazin was on the hills above Capernaum, Bethsaida and Capernaum were on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where so many of the Lord's works had been done and so many of His words had been spoken. They were more guilty than Sodom and Tyre and Sidon, because their opportunities had been so much greater. It is impressive to look today upon the ruins of Chorazin, a waste of stones; and Capernaum has so completely disappeared that its exact place is uncertain.

The seventy returned again, as the twelve had done, this time rejoicing in the power which they had from the Lord. He gave them promise of further power, and bade them also to look forward to heaven.

1. Compare the sending out of the twelve and the seventy. What likenesses do you find? What differences?

2. To what did the Lord compare their work?

3. Where were Sodom, Tyre, Sidon?

4. Why were Bethsaida and Capernaum rebuked?

The-sending of the seventy represents a fuller reception of the Lord than the sending of the twelve. This is especially suggested by the numbers twelve and seventy. Twelve suggests fullness, but seventy what is peculiarly complete and holy. (A. 9404) Who can be called sheep? Who wolves? (A. 10132; E. 314)

The disciples were sent into every city and place where the Lord would come. Compare verse 16. It is a beautiful reminder that the Lord works with us in all that we do for Him. It is little that we can do for anyone, but it may give the Lord the opportunity He needs to do His Divine work.

The Lord's saying, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," explains the power over the devils in which the disciples rejoiced. The Lord's victory over the hells gave the disciples their power and gives us all our power to resist evil. The power to tread on serpents and scorpions you know is the power to overcome temptations of sensual kinds and to put the pleasures of sense in their right subjection. The Lord bade the disciples to rejoice rather that their names were written in heaven. The casting out of devils is the negative and lesser part of the work. We should rejoice rather in the development of heavenly life for which this opens the way. (E. 544; A. 2009)

to next Lesson