Some adult assembly required. Here is some genuine insight for Dads buying Christmas gifts for their young children: Some adult assembly required is translated, Don’t buy this! Experience proves not all instruction writers are equal. I learned this on numerous Christmas Eve nights as the children slept! That’s not the case with Jesus. His instructions are informative and insightful.

Consider His instructions when He sent out the 70 (Luke 10). Jesus sent them to the cities He would soon be visiting. Think about that. John the Baptist ‘prepared the way’ for Jesus. The 70 were given that role.

Jesus sent them out in pairs. Jesus had the Twelve. Paul had Barnabas. Then Paul had Silas and Barnabas had John Mark. Jesus’ model for missions doesn’t look promising for the Lone Ranger!

Jesus’ next instruction concerns prayer. His 70 missionaries are commanded to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest. Every farmer knows a harvest has a window of opportunity. There is an urgency to the harvest. If a harvest is great and laborers are few, then every available laborer is going to be very busy. A faithful harvester is too busy to be a busybody. There are multiple points of insight here!

Once commanded to pray, Jesus commands them to Go. We often pray for God to send someone and never entertain the idea He might want to send us. God could do either, or both. These 70 missionaries were being sent in answer to their own prayers. There is a great deal of insight here as well.

Jesus sends us as He was sent, (John 20:21). Luke 10 says He sent the 70 ‘as lambs among wolves.’ That is also how He was sent. God sent Him to a world that did not know Him, did not receive Him, and did not love Him.

There is much more insight to be gained from Jesus’ instruction and we’ll look at that this week. But the insight for today should keep us busy! We need to remember to prepare others to receive Him. Our mission is not for Lone Rangers. Together, we are to pray for God to send laborers and then be willing to be the answer to the prayer we prayed. Then we Go in the same manner as Jesus. We could stop there, but we won’t!

Soli Deo Gloria!