Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 10

They were to go before Christ, and be his heralds. What a mercy it is when the preacher knows that his Master is coming after him, when he can hear the sound of his Master's feet behind him! What courage it gives him! He knows that, though it is very little that he can do, he is the thin end of the wedge preparing the way for One who can do everything.

The seventy were very few compared with the many that were needed. There were many loiterers about then as there are now; but the labourers were few. There were preachers of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they were not worth a penny a hundred; but the true labourers, who watched for souls, and preached Christ with all their hearts, were very few.

It is the same today; and therefore we are to pray for more labourers. A good minister always desires to see more good ministers.

In a trade, every tradesman would be glad if those of the same trade as himself would move to another parish; but in the profession of a Christian minister, the more the merrier.

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

"Defenseless, harmless, into the midst of those who would devour you if I did not send you. It would be foolhardiness to go on your own account; but I send you; and he who sends his lambs among wolves will take care of them." As I have often reminded you, the lambs and the sheep are very defenseless; and yet, after all, there are more sheep in the world than there are wolves; and although it looked as if the wolves would soon devour the sheep, the wolves are eradicated in many a country, and the sheep are still prized; and it will be so until the end.

Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes:

This time, when Christ sent out the seventy, he instructed them to take no provision, for they might depend upon the kindness of the people. Afterwards, when he was about to leave his disciples, he instructed them to take both purse and scrip, for they were going among an unfriendly people; but on this first mission he knew that there was a kindly feeling towards them, so he said, Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes.

And salute no man by the way.

Eastern salutations by the way took up a very long time, the people saying a lot of fine nothings to one another. Christian ministers ought to be excused from many of the lengthy courtesies of life; and if they are not excused, if they are faithful, they will take the liberty of excusing themselves. We have no time for all those pretty things that some people attend to. If we are to win souls, we must go to work like the king's couriers, who do not turn aside to attend to anything else, but devote all their energies to the mission on which they are sent.

So that it will not be wasted. Wish well, and your well-wishing will do you good, even if it does nobody else good. Our chickens come home to roost. If they are curses, they will come upon us; if they are blessings, they will bless us as well as others.