Luke 10
Luk 10:1
SEVENTY: Cp 70 palm trees in Marah (Exo 15:27). Cp Luk 9:1,2: “12” and “70” together.
Luk 10:3
I AM SENDING YOU OUT LIKE LAMBS AMONG WOLVES: The disciples should not have been unsure as to who the “wolves” were, since Eze 22:27 depicts faithless Israel’s “officials” or “princes” as wolves, and in Mat 7:15 Jesus warns of “false prophets” who look like sheep but are, in fact, wolves.
Luk 10:4
DO NOT GREET ANYONE ON THE ROAD: Cp 2Ki 4:29. Do not be detained on your important mission. Oriental greetings were long, tedious, distracting, deceitful, flattering, insincere, and wasteful (LB 346).
Luk 10:7
Cp 1Ki 17:9-16: Elijah and widow of Zarephath.
THE WORKER DESERVES HIS WAGES: “Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him… Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight” (Lev 19:13).
DO NOT MOVE AROUND FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE: Strict Oriental etiquette: to visit a round of houses for meals, etc. Such was another means of being distracted from mission, leading to leisure and laxity. Disciples were sent, not to be honored and feasted, but to preach the gospel (LB 346).
Luk 10:9
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR YOU: Near through the preaching of its plan (Luk 8:1; 9:2). Near when offered for man’s acceptance (cp Mat 3:2). “In what way had the kingdom come near? To the eastern mind a kingdom is not a kind of constitutional pyramid with a king at its decorative apex; the kingdom emanates from the king, it is the extension of his kingly power” (SMk 21).
Luk 10:11
Cp Luk 9:5: the charge to the 70 is the same as the charge to the 12.
Cp Luk 10:9.
Luk 10:12
MORE BEARABLE… FOR SODOM: Israel likened to Sodom (Deu 32:32; Isa 1:10; 3:9; Rev 11:8), and worse (Lam 4:6; Eze 16:46-49).
Luk 10:13
There is comfort in this — that the finest preacher who ever lived — backed by Holy Spirit power — could achieve nothing in some of the cities he visited.
KORAZIN… BETHSAIDA: These cities of Galilee were homes of some of Jesus’ disciples.
SACKCLOTH AND ASHES: Eze 27:30,31. See Eze 3:6: “Surely if I had sent you to them…”
Luk 10:14
Allusions to Isa 14: Luk 10:14 // Isa 14:13,15. Luk 10:18 (lightning) // Isa 14:12 (Lucifer). Luk 10:19 // Isa 14:29.
TYRE: See Act 21:3,4; cp Mar 3:8.
Luk 10:15
YOU WILL GO DOWN TO THE DEPTHS: Cit Isa 14:15: “But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit” (cp with Luk 10:18 here: falling from heaven).
Luk 10:16
Spoken to the 70 (vv 1,17). The “authority of church”: Mat 16:18n.