CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 10:17. Returned.—The mission may not have occupied more than a few days: probably a time and place of rendezvous had been appointed. Even the devils.—Their success had exceeded the promise; for the power over evil spirits had not been formally given to them. Perhaps in their words to Christ they laid more stress upon “subject to us” than “in Thy name.”
Luke 10:18. I beheld.—It seems rather inadequate to understand by these words that Christ had witnessed with exultation the victories over evil spirits gained by the seventy during their mission. The comment of Alford on the passage is more in harmony with the remarkable character of this utterance of our Lord’s: “The truth is that in this brief speech He sums up proleptically, as so often in the discourses in St. John, the whole great conflict with and defeat of the Power of evil, from the first even till accomplished by His own victory. ‘I beheld Satan,’ etc., refers to the original fall of Satan when he lost his place as an angel of light, not keeping his first estate; which fall, however, had been proceeding ever since step by step, and shall do so, till all things be put under the feet of Jesus, who was made lower than the angels. And this ‘I beheld’ belongs to the period before the foundation of the world when He abode in the bosom of the Father. He is to be (Luke 10:22) the great Victor over the adversary, and this victory began when Satan fell from heaven.” As lightning.—The suddenness of the fall, and the brightness of the fallen angel.
Luke 10:19. I give.—Rather, “I have given” (R.V.). Power.—Rather, “authority” (R.V.); and this forbids our taking “serpents and scorpions” in a literal sense. The words doubtless are a reminiscence of Psalms 91:13.
Luke 10:20. Rejoice not.—Success in doing Christ’s work is less a ground of rejoicing than the consciousness of being His servants and of being saved by Him. Written in heaven.—Cf. Exodus 32:32; Psalms 69:28; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 20:12.
Luke 10:21. Rejoiced.—Or, “exulted”: this element of joy in the Saviour’s life is but little touched upon by the evangelists, and this notice of it here is therefore all the more precious. In spirit.—Rather, “in the Holy Spirit” (R.V.). The vast preponderance of MSS. is in favour of this very peculiar phrase, which forms a notable addition to the classical passages in which the doctrine of the Trinity is referred to. That thou hast hid.—The idea of the passage is, “That though thou didst hide from the wise, thou hast revealed unto babes.” The joy is not on account of truth being hid from some, but on account of its being revealed to those of susceptible hearts. Cf. Romans 6:17; Isaiah 12:1, for similar expressions which demand the same kind of interpretation. In Matthew 11:25-27 we have the same words as here in Luke 10:21-22. It seems probable that Christ used these words on more than one occasion. Alford, who is not at all in favour of suggestions of the kind when used by harmonists to overcome difficulties, is emphatically of the opinion that the method in question is to be adopted here. The Johannine character of the passage, especially of Luke 10:22, is well worth noticing.
Luke 10:22. All things, etc.—As the margin indicates, some ancient MSS. preface the verse with the words, “And turning to His disciples He said.” This reading is not followed by the R.V.
Luke 10:24. Many prophets and kings.—Jacob, Genesis 49:18; Balaam, Numbers 24:17; David, 2 Samuel 23:1-5.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 10:17-24
The Joy of the Disciples and the Joy of their Lord.—It is not easy to say whether it is for the convenience of his narrative that St. Luke omits various intermediate events and connects the return of the seventy directly with their sending forth, or whether some of them returned so speedily that the historian found nothing important to record as having happened in the interval. But, whether sooner or later, these ambassadors of Christ returned again with joy.
I. The cause of their exultation.—Our Lord had not given them, as He had given the twelve, a commission to cast out devils; but some tentative efforts of theirs, some ventures of faith in this direction, had been crowned with success. An acknowledgment that this surpassed at once their commission and their hopes seems to lie in their words: “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us.” Such exultation was most natural; yet was there in it something of peril for those who entertained it, and for their own spiritual life. They lay, it is evident, more stress upon “are subject unto us” than upon “through Thy name.” There is no more perilous moment for any man than that when he first discovers that he too can wield powers of the world to come—that these wait upon his beck; lest he should find in this a motive to self-elation, instead of giving all the glory to God. The disciples at the present moment were exposed to this temptation, as is evident from the earnest warning which the Lord presently addresses to them, suggesting to them a safer and a truer joy than that which they were now too incautiously entertaining.
II. The exultation of Jesus.—As Christ drew proofs of a victory over Satan, which must have been accomplished by Himself, from His own expelling of devils (Matthew 12:28-29), so He found proofs of the same victory in like works done by His disciples. The power of the strong man could not but indeed be broken, when not merely the Stronger Himself could spoil his goods at His pleasure, but the very weaklings among His servants could do the same. These successes of theirs were tokens, but nothing more, of the triumphant progress of the work This great triumph of the kingdom of good over the kingdom of evil in their respective heads, which Christ evermore in the spirit saw, at certain moments of His life He realised with intenser vividness than at others. And this moment of the return of the seventy was one of these solemn and festal moments of His life. He employs the imperfect tense, to make clear that He had foreseen the glorious issue even when He sent them forth. This which they now announce to Him is even as He had surely expected: “I saw, as I sent you forth, Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Already He beheld the whole idol worship of the heathen world, whereof Satan was the soul and informing principle, giving way, its splendour departing, its oracles dumb, and its temples forsaken.
III. The enlarged commission.—“Behold, I give unto you power,” etc. Hitherto He had not given them this power: they, as we have seen, had in faith anticipated some portion of it; and He, finding they were the men to make the right use of it, now imparts it to them in all its fulness, according to that law of His kingdom, “To him that hath shall be given.” The poisonous adder and stinging scorpion are symbols and representatives of all that has most power and most will to hurt and to harm—of all forms of deadliest malice exercised by Satan and his servants against the faithful. Amid all this deadliest malice of the enemy they should go, themselves unharmed; and, shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, should tread it all under their feet; “and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
IV. The word of warning.—“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not,” etc. They were not forbidden altogether to rejoice in these mighty powers as exercised by them—forbidden only to make them the chiefest matter of their joy. The reason is obvious. These a man might possess, and yet remain unsanctified still: for was there not a Judas among the twelve? These at best were the privilege only of a few; they could not therefore contain the essence of a Christian’s joy. There was that wherein they might rejoice with a joy which should not separate them from any, the least of all their brethren—a joy which they had in common with all. There was that in which they might rejoice without fear—namely, in the eternal love of God, who had so loved as to ordain them unto everlasting life.
The Lord has administered, where He saw this was needed, a wholesome rebuke to that pride of which He detected the germs in His disciples; but this does not hinder Him from rejoicing in this new victory of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness—a matter of the greater joy, that it was these “babes” by whose hands this victory had been won; they of the household were dividing the spoil. Christ here thanks His Father for two things: first, that He has hidden from the wise and prudent; and, secondly, that what He has hidden from them He has revealed to babes—the hiding and revealing being recognised by Him as alike His Father’s work, and the judgment and the grace alike matters for which He renders thanks. For a moment, as His thoughts carry His mind up into heaven into the eternal counsels of the Father, He remains in rapt but serene meditation, and words break from His lips concerning the ineffable relations of the Father and the Son. Then turning to His disciples, He confides to them the secret that He Himself is that perfect revelation of the Father for whom all the sages and saints of the Old Testament had longed.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 10:17-24
Luke 10:17-19. The Return of the Seventy.—A beautiful and monitory conclusion to the history, full of warning, full of encouragement, for Christ’s ministers of this generation.
I. I know not if we are in any danger from the particular feeling which was their snare.—Some few of us may have been privileged to see fruits of our ministry. There have been times when it was impossible to disguise the consciousness of something really done in the great war of good and evil, of Christ and Christ’s foe, when the minister would have been an ungrateful rather than a humble man if he had not paused to thank God and take courage.
II. Christ recognises the blessed achievement, and sees in it a sure token of future triumph.—He does not correct their exultation by pointing to the small extent or the precarious nature of such successes. His word of correction takes a different turn.
III. He corrects the joy of success by the joy of safety.—Is there anything of selfishness here?—as though He said, “Care not for the sheep; think only of the shepherd: if his name is safe in the writing of the house of Israel, let the wolf wander at will, let the wolf come and seize and scatter”? Such a question may answer itself, and leave us free to read the gracious heart that spoke thus to His own. Is it not too true that these hearts and souls of ours are easily hurt and spoiled by the contemplation of even that which Christ Himself may have wrought by us? There is an enfeebling action in all standing still to erect trophies. Therefore, while his Lord recognises the work done, and goes beyond His servants in estimating its significance, He soon interposes His “notwithstanding,” and with it His gracious reminder of a joy entirely wholesome—the joy of the personal safety, and of the name written in heaven. The reproof here is not for the thinking too much, but for the not thinking enough of the self’s self of the man. It can never do us harm to dwell on what Christ has done for us. “He has written my name in heaven”—there is no self-righteousness, there is no self-complacency, in this thought. It is He who has written the name—it is He who bids me read it.
IV. But is my name written in heaven?—How am I to know it? These seventy were common men. But one thing they had, and it was their all. They had given themselves to Christ; they had left their all to follow Him. Our names were written in heaven when Christ shed for us His precious blood—when He caused us to be separately incorporated in His Church—when by the secret working of His Spirit He convinced us of sin and aroused us to flee from it. These were real acts. In all those ways the names were written. Rejoice in that writing, and it is written for you. Rejoice in it, and it is there still. Rejoice in it, and walk warily as well as thankfully in that joy.—Vaughan.
Luke 10:17. “Returned with joy.”—Had they to report that their message had been everywhere favourably received? Alas! they were not thinking so much of that as of the glory they had won. Christ had given them power to heal the sick, without specially mentioning the casting out of devils. Apparently they had exceeded the letter of His instructions, and He had graciously given them success in their enterprise. The joy of the disciples, though it almost verged upon spiritual pride, is communicated to the heart of Jesus, where it takes a nobler and purer form.
Luke 10:18. “I beheld Satan … fall.”—The victories of the disciples over Satanic power was a presage of the complete overthrow of the kingdom of evil. In the deliverance of the possessed Jesus beheld the beginning of the end, and spoke of the end as already in view. Not only would individual souls be delivered from oppression, but the nations sunk in bondage to the usurped authority of the evil one would be freed from the yoke.
“As lightning.”—Wonder not that the devils are subject to you, for their prince is fallen from heaven. Although men saw not this, I saw it, who see what is invisible. He fell as lightning, because he was a bright archangel and Lucifer, and is plunged into darkness. If then he is fallen, what will not his servants (the inferior spirits) suffer!—Theophylact.
“From heaven.”—I.e. from high estate.—Cf. Isaiah 14:12; Matthew 11:23; Revelation 12:4.
Luke 10:19. “Serpents and scorpions.”—These are ever connected in Holy Scripture with what is noxious to man. Cf. Genesis 3:1; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2; Numbers 21:6; Acts 28:3; Psalms 91:13; Revelation 9:3-10, etc.
Luke 10:20. Two Kinds of Joy.—1 That inspired by a sense of power, by attainments in the spiritual life—a joy liable to be mixed with pride and self-seeking—and therefore dangerous.
2. That inspired by a sense of God’s mercy and love in Christ—a joy in which there is no danger.
“Names written in heaven.”—This mode of speech is often found in Scripture. It occurs in the law (Exodus 32:32), in the Psalms (Psalms 69:28), in the prophets (Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1), and in the writings of the apostles (Philippians 4:3; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 13:8).
The Book of Life.—
1. There is a book of life: an election of grace.
2. There are names written in this book: it is an election of persons.
3. We may know that our names are written in it, otherwise we could not rejoice.
4. We should give all diligence to make sure of this cause of rejoicing.
Luke 10:21. “Hid from the wise.”—The meaning is that no man can obtain faith by his own acuteness, but only by the secret illumination of the Spirit.
“Wise and prudent.”—This reference suggests the thought that these evangelistic efforts were regarded with disfavour by the refined, fastidious classes of Jewish religious society. This is in itself probable. There are always men in the Church, intelligent, wise, and even good, to whom popular religious movements are distasteful. The noise, the excitement, the extravagances, the delusions, the misdirection of zeal, the rudeness of the agents, the instability of the converts—all these things offend them. The same class of minds would have taken offence at the evangelistic work of the twelve and the seventy, for undoubtedly it was accompanied with the same drawbacks. The agents were ignorant; they had few ideas in their heads; they understood little of Divine truth; their sole qualification was that they were earnest and could preach repentance well. Doubtless, also, there was plenty of noise and excitement among the multitudes who heard them preach; and we certainly know that their zeal was both ill-informed and short-lived.—Bruce.
“Thou hast hid … hast revealed.”—This implies—
I. That all do not obey the gospel arises from no want of power on the part of God, who could easily have brought all the creatures into subjection to His government.
II. That some arrive at faith, while others remain hardened and obstinate, is accomplished by His free election; for drawing some, and passing by others, He alone makes a distinction among men, whose condition by nature is alike.—Calvin.
“Revealed … unto babes.”—There is no hard-and-fast line between the two classes; some of the “wise and prudent” may by humility become as “babes,” while some of those who are really poor and ignorant may, by being wise in their own conceit, shut themselves out from the revelation granted to “babes.” Pride of intellect is condemned to blindness, but to the simplicity of heart which longs for the truth a revelation is given.
“Hid … revealed.”—The first clause is a stepping-stone to the second. It is on the second that the Saviour’s mind rests, as exhibiting the object which He really had in view when He praised His heavenly Father. He would have rejoiced still more if the wise and intellectual, as well as the babes, had recognised His character and accepted His claims. The sense of the passage is: “I thank Thee, that though Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, Thou hast revealed them unto babes” (Morison).
Luke 10:22. “No man knoweth,” etc.
I. It is the gift of the Father, that the Son is known, because by His Spirit He opens the eyes of our mind to discern the glory of Christ, which otherwise would have been hidden from us.
II. The Father, who dwells in inaccessible light, and is in Himself incomprehensible, is revealed to us by the Son, because the Son is the lively image of Him, so that it is in vain to seek for Him elsewhere.—Calvin.
Knowledge of the Father and of the Son.—I. There is in His existence as Son a mystery which the Father alone comprehends.
II. The perfect knowledge of the Father is alone possessed by the Son.
III. No man can partake of this knowledge of the Father but by the Son.
“To whom the Son will reveal Him.”—The future conquest of the world by Jesus and His disciples rests on the relation which He sustains to God, and with which He identifies His people. The perfect knowledge of God is, in the end, the sceptre of the universe.—Godet.
Luke 10:23-24. “Blessed are the eyes,” etc.—Yet certain generations of Israel had seen very remarkable things: one had seen the wonders of the Exodus, and the sublimities connected with the law-giving at Sinai; another the miracles wrought by Elijah and Elisha; and successive generations had been privileged to listen to the not less wonderful oracles of God, spoken by David, Solomon, Isaiah, and the rest of the prophets. But the things witnessed by the twelve eclipsed the wonders of all bygone ages; for a greater than Moses, or Elijah, or David, or Solomon, or Isaiah, was here, and the promise to Nathanael was being fulfilled. Heaven had been opened, and the angels of God—the spirits of wisdom, and power, and love—were ascending and descending on the Son of man.—Bruce.
Luke 10:24. “Kings.”—Such persons as David, Solomon, and Hezekiah, some of whom were both prophets and kings. Cf. Genesis 49:18, and the last words of David, a royal prophecy of Christ; 2 Samuel 23:1-5, especially the close, “For this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow.” The blessing was not in what the disciples obtained, but in what they saw. The true knowledge of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ His Son, was the pledge of all other blessings.—Popular Commentary.