The "seventy-two others"

Names unknown to us, but known to God and "written in heaven"

I am going through a phase, you might say, in which I am particularly sensitive to the proper use and application of Scriptural texts. In this age of social media, hardly a day goes by when I do not come across some Facebook or Twitter post that takes a snippet of a Bible verse and applies it, out of context, in a way it was never intended.

Perhaps the most egregious example is “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12a). We hear that one a lot during an election year. The implication is that if a nation, any nation, honors God and exalts him as Lord, it will be blessed.

In its entirety, however, Psalm 33:12 reads, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” The full context gives the passage an entirely different meaning. It is not the nation that chooses God, but God who chooses the nation; and that nation, namely Israel, is blessed uniquely because it is “the people whom [God] has chosen as his heritage.”

So, Psalm 33:12 cannot be applied to any nation, but only to one nation, Old Testament Israel, whom God blessed in order that his name might be made known to all the nations.

Another example of this kind of misapplication is that favorite of the big box mega-church “vision casting leader,” Proverbs 29:18, which is not only taken out of context and misapplied but even mistranslated in order to fit the misapplication: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

The implication is that, in order to thrive, a community needs a leader who is in touch with God and can “cast a vision.”

Correctly translated, however, the text says something entirely different: “Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

The vision, the “prophetic vision” is a guide for the people, a safeguard against them “cast[ing] off restraint” (and, thus, perishing). The source of this “prophetic vision” is not some “leader” who is particularly in touch with God but, ultimately, God himself who has given “the law,” and in keeping it, there is blessing.

That blessing, it should be pointed out, is fulfilled only in Christ, who alone was able to “keep the law” perfectly. (But that is a subject for another day.)

Context is also important in reading Luke’s account of the sending out of the seventy-two (Luke 10:1-20) As these messengers, commissioned by Jesus, return from their mission, they report, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”

That sounds like exciting news, punctuated by Jesus’ initial response, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

“Satan” literally means “accuser.” In numerous Old Testament accounts, he appears as the prosecutor in the heavenly court. He is, as we all should know, not a fair or ethical counselor. Not only does he make baseless accusations, he incites people to do things for which he can then accuse them. This, we usually call “temptation,” and Satan used it to great effect, beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden.

Eventually, the whole world in general, and Israel in particular, ended up under the spell of his deception. So, it was the task of Jesus, Israel’s true Messiah, to defeat Satan, to break his stranglehold on power, to win the decisive victory in order to pave the way for God’s new order, his new creation in which there would be no more evil, no more suffering, no more death.

In the wilderness, Satan resorted to his tried-and-true tactic of temptation. Jesus, however, would have none of it. Unlike the leaders of Israel, he would not be distracted by false promises of provision, popularity, and power.

From the wilderness, Jesus emerged, going about the countryside, declaring that the time was at hand. The people must repent because the kingdom of God was near, backing up his message with signs and wonders, healings, even raising the dead.

The climactic showdown, however, still lay ahead—and the journey toward that showdown began when “he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). There, he would take on Satan on the grand scale, on his home turf (death itself), and utterly overthrow his dark domain.

Along the way, he chooses “seventy-two others” (in addition to the twelve Apostles) and “[sends] them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.”

Seventy-two messengers, ambassadors chosen by Jesus, declaring in every town the message Jesus has been proclaiming from the beginning, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near!”

Here, again, Luke has cast his story against an Old Testament backdrop. During the Exodus, Moses chose seventy elders of Israel and gave them a portion of God’s Spirit in order that they would be equipped to help lead the people. These seventy were not the only ones upon whom God’s Spirit fell. Two more, who were not part of the selected group, also received the Spirit. That made seventy-two.

This is the significance of Jesus choosing “seventy-two” or, in some manuscripts, “seventy.” Luke is presenting Jesus, as one greater than Moses, choosing leaders who will assist in a new, and greater, Exodus.

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. (Luke 10:17-19)

As the seventy-two were carrying out their mission, in “every town and place” where Jesus himself was about to go, Jesus saw the heavenly, eternal reality that corresponded with the earthly accomplishments of the seventy-two. So, when they returned, he assured them that what they were doing was a participation in the final victory of God over the realm of Satan, which began in the wilderness, was continuing to unfold on the journey to Jerusalem, and would be consummated with the cross and resurrection.

All of that would sound to the seventy-two like a reason to rejoice. We, likewise, would like for the story to end right here. Jesus has given us authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, over all the power of the enemy. Nothing can hurt us!

Of course, we are being rather presumptuous if we think all this power and authority Jesus gave specifically to seventy-two persons can now be applied universally to every one of us. Like some of the other passages previously cited, however, I have heard this passage used many times to make precisely that argument—and, as you might guess, the words of Jesus that immediately follow are conveniently omitted.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)

Remember, Jesus told them, none of this is about you! Remember who you are, and whose you are!

Who, after all, were these “seventy-two others?” We can speculate, perhaps, that Stephen the martyr and Philip the evangelist were among them. Possibly, also, Agabus the prophet. But we really cannot know for sure any of their names. They are forever remembered, at least until we meet them in heaven, merely as the “seventy-two others,” nameless, faceless, lost to history except for this one obscure mention by Luke.

Nevertheless, their “names are written in heaven” and their deeds are known to God.

In baptism, we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.” To each of us is given a manifestation of the Spirit. We are all equipped, by the sheer grace of God, for the task of discipleship. But whatever power or authority he may give us over adversaries in the spiritual realm, that is not our reason for rejoicing.

We rejoice because, like the “seventy-two others,” our “names are written in heaven.” And that is enough to make the demons tremble and flee in fear at the coming of God’s kingdom.