Luke 10:1 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. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves. 4 Do not carry a money bag, a traveler’s bag, or sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whenever you enter a house, first say, ‘May peace be on this house!’ 6 And if a peace-loving person is there, your peace will remain on him, but if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the worker deserves his pay. Do not move around from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and the people welcome you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in that town and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come upon you!’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and the people do not welcome you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this: The kingdom of God has come.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town!

13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you! 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be thrown down to Hades! 16 “The one who listens to you listens to me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

17 Then the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!” 18 So he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Look, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and on the full force of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names stand written in heaven.”21 On that same occasion Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. 22 All things have been given to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.”

In sending the 72 on the mission, Jesus gives several instructions that I’d like to focus on.

1. Go and work as sheep among the wolves.
2. Do not carry a money bag, or travelers bag, go to the towns I send you.
3. Do not wander and be distracted by those that you see on the road.
4. Greet the people with “may peace be upon you.“
5. Stay put in the house that welcomes you and eat what is given to you, don’t wander around.
6. Heal the sick, cast out demons, and tell everyone that it’s the kingdom of God that is healing you and coming upon you.
7. Shake the dust off your sandals as a testimony against those who reject you, let me know.
8. The kingdom (which everyone was eagerly looking for) comes to those who welcome my workers. To the children and to foolish it comes, but to the so-called “wise and intelligent” it is hidden due to their rejection of my workers.

Jesus also said he “saw Satan fall like lighting“, perhaps the Lord had seen a vision, when the 72 were sent. This scene was like the beginning of an invasion. God taking back the nations from Satan, that he had lost and had split up, and then given over to the other Elohim (fallen spirits/ angels), at the tower of Babel and described in Deuteronomy 32. Its as if Jesus was saying “Your time of owning my lost sheet is over Satan, I am taking them back, and whoever among them who will welcome my ecclesia are mine now.”

Deuteronomy 32:8 When the most-High divided to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people According to the number of the sons of God (Elohim). 9 For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 10 He found him in a desert land, And in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, he instructed him, He kept him as the apple of his eye.

it is common in Deuteronomy 32:8 that Elohim gets interpreted as ‘sons of Israel’ as in the KJV. But this translation is poor and is not true to the word ‘Elohim’, the best translation for Elohim in English is ‘spiritual being’. It was likely translated this way because of the difficulty of translators accepting there being numbers of Elohim, which was thought to mean God. This would have meant to translators that this was a polytheistic translation. But Elohim is best translated as ‘spiritual being’ so the modern understanding of angel would also fit into this context as Elohim. Lesser, created spiritual beings were also called Elohim in the original Hebrew.

God entrusted the nations to angels as overseers and He was taking for himself Abraham and his offspring that became Israel. But when Jesus sent the 72 he was reversing this directive and was taking them back into himself and whoever was willing was welcome back to the family and management of the Most High Elohim, embodied in the God-Man Jesus Christ.