Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 10-11.

Yesterday’s passage began with the account of  Jesus sending out the Twelve, now today’s passage begins with Jesus sending out the Seventy-Two.  His instructions to the Seventy-Two are almost identical to those He gave the Twelve.  Between sending out the Twelve and sending out the Seventy-Two, we had Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Transformation, and Jesus beginning to tell His disciples that He would die and be raised from the dead.  All of that happened after the Twelve returned and reported to Jesus what they had experienced while on the mission He had given them.  It really tells us something about mission, about spreading the word of God.  Jesus took His closest followers, those who were the most enthusiastic, and sent them out to preach.  When they came back and reported on their experiences, He taught them, and the larger group, more, especially about the things which those outside of the group of His disciples would push back against.  Then He sent out a larger group, a group which had heard what the first group experienced.  When the Seventy-Two returned, they were excited by what they had experienced, by the way in which they were able to heal and the way in which evil spirits submitted to the authority Jesus had given them.  Jesus reminded them that while He had given them power, that power was not an end in itself.  That power derived from their surrendering their will to Him, to God, but that power was not the reason for surrendering their will.  We do not bow down to Jesus, do not bow down to God, in order to receive power.  Rather we bow down to Jesus in order to come into a better relationship with Him and with the Father.  Power over evil spirits is just a side effect.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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