Luke 10 Bible study: Go and do likewise

"Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come." (10:1) (tap sent). Luke has just told that Jesus "intently set his face to go to Jerusalem" (9:51) "and sent messengers before his face" (9:52). Here is what almost everyone misses: in the Greek, ahead of him (10:1) is the same three words as before his face (9:52), with the same verb for sent. Jesus tells the seventy, "The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest." (10:2) (tap harvest, laborers), and goes straight on, "Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves." (10:3). He tells them, "Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’" (10:5) (tap peace), and in a city that receives them, "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’" (10:9). In a city that doesn't receive them, they are to say, "‘Even the dust from your city that clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’" (10:11). The last words are the same for both cities. Then Jesus says, "I tell you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city." (10:12) (tap tolerable), and he names Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (10:13-15) (tap Woe). He says this of those cities, as the text names them, and these notes apply it to no place or people today. He ends, "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me. Whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me." (10:16).

Leviticus 7:34→leads toLuke 10:7

The breast and thigh are given "to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their portion forever" (7:34). Paul points to the priests' share: "those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar" (1 Corinthians 9:13), and goes on, "Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News" (1 Corinthians 9:14). When Jesus sent out seventy, he told them to stay in one house, "eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages" (Luke 10:7), and 1 Timothy 5:18 sets the same words, "The laborer is worthy of his wages", beside "You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain" (1 Timothy 5:18). Paul doesn't say which of Jesus' words he means, or name Leviticus 7; reading Jesus' words with the priests' portion is an interpretation.

πλησίονplesionsay play-SEE-on

Strong's: "(adverbially) close by; as noun, a neighbor". The lawyer says "your neighbor as yourself" (10:27), and asks, "Who is my neighbor?" (10:29). After the story Jesus asks him, "Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?" (10:36). It is the same word all three times, and Luke's Greek has it nowhere else (counted in RP2018, the Byzantine text the WEB translates). The lawyer asked who his neighbor was; Jesus asks which of the three seemed to be a neighbor to the man. The New Testament has the word 16 times, and once it is plain near: "near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph" (John 4:5).