Luke 10:2

The Discourse.

It falls into two parts: Instructions for the mission (Luke 10:2-12), and warnings to the cities of Galilee (Luke 10:13-16).

The instructions first explain the reason of this mission (Luke 10:2); then the conduct to be observed on setting out and during the journey (Luke 10:3-4), at the time of arrival (Luke 10:5-6); during their sojourn in the case of a favourable reception (Luke 10:7-9); finally, on their departure in the case of rejection (Luke 10:10-12).

Ver. 2. “ Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest. ” Matthew has this utterance in chap. 9, in presence of the Galilean multitudes, and as an introduction to the sending of the Twelve. Bleek himself acknowledges that it is better placed by Luke. “ The field is the world,” Jesus had said in the parable of the sower. It is to this vast domain that the very strong words of this verse naturally apply, recalling the similar words, John 4:35: “ Look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest,” uttered in Samaria, and on the threshold, as it were, of the Gentile world. The sending of the new labourers is the fruit of the prayers of their predecessors. The prep. ἐκ in ἐκβάλλειν, thrust forth, may signify, forth from the Father's house, from heaven, whence real callings issue; or, forth from the Holy Land, whence the evangelization of the Gentiles was to proceed. Following on the idea of prayer, the first meaning is the more natural.