• Luke 10:1
  Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
  After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
• Luke 10:17
  The Return of the Seventy-Two
  The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”

In chapter 9 Jesus sent out the twelve named apostles. Here in chapter 10 he sends out 72 un-named disciples, not the named apostles. These 72 did not receive the same notoriety that was given to the 12 apostles. 

Do we serve the Lord to gain a reputation? Is it important that our names become known to the masses? Do we seek fame? Do we seek followers of our own? Is our hope to turn our home into a place of worship from thousands?

Or is it that we struggle glorifying God without being seen?

John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Jesus got to say that because He was with the Father from the beginning. We were not. We came into this world as sinners born of sinners and when we become born again, we become the children of God by adoption.

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

And yet we find that having the right to call God the Father “Daddy” in the joy that is to be chosen, not birthed, is somehow not enough.

Romans 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

While we have been adopted, we discover that our bodies have not been glorified, to be like the One who saved us. While His Spirit abides in us, we are nothing but empty vessels with no control over where He goes or what He does.

Mark 9:35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

• Exodus 16:26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
• Exodus 16:29 See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
• Exodus 31:14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
• Exodus 35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

It is very easy to get the wrong interpretation of scripture. In 31:14 they were commanded to put a violator out from their midst. Four chapters later it commands a violator to be put to death.

Which is it? Banished or death? How do we come to a proper understanding when scripture seems to be a contradiction in instruction itself. How do we clarify God’s intentions?

• Genesis 2:2 ; 2:3 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

God the Father lives in the eternal realm. What God has done in creating everything for all eternity is a finished work. Because God rests from all His work in the eternal, nothing that God has done can be undone. His Sabbath Rest is an eternal rest.

John 5:19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

The Son was sent to be a witness in time of what the Father had completed in the eternal. We live in time. Jesus admits He can do nothing himself. It is the Father that does the miracle.

When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, it was God the Father that did the miracles. Since the Pharisees could only see and know Jesus as a man, they accused Him of working on the Sabbath and condemned Him to death. The error was in condemning God the Father for doing the work. One might say that accusing God the Father for doing His own will is a form of heresy.

Here is the lesson. Do not accuse God for our inability to understand rightly.