“The story of the Bible is God’s will for, and rule of, the realms he has created, visible and invisible, through the imagers he has created, human and nonhuman. This divine agenda is played out in both realms, in deliberate tandem.” –Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, p. 38.

BATTLE plan (Luke 10:1-20)

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Battle plan 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 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 “And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” Luke 10:1-9 *some manuscripts seventy

Teamwork Battle plan tactics 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 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Luke 10:1-4 Teamwork

1. Prepare the way for Jesus. Battle plan tactics 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 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Luke 10:1-4 1. Prepare the way for Jesus.

Battle plan tactics 2. Pray for laborers. 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 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Luke 10:1-4 2. Pray for laborers.

Battle plan tactics 3. Beware of wolves. 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 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Luke 10:1-4 3. Beware of wolves.

Battle plan tactics 4. Depend on God. 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 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Luke 10:1-4 4. Depend on God.

Battle plan tactics 5. Pursue people of peace. 5 “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.” Luke 10:5-8 5. Pursue people of peace.

Battle plan tactics 6. Deed AND Word ministry. 9 “Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive 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, that the kingdom of God has come near.’” Luke 10:9-11 6. Deed AND Word ministry.

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 mighty works 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 in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. 16 The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”  Luke 10:12-16

17 The *seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 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. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20 *some manuscripts seventy

“Some translations read seventy-two instead of seventy “Some translations read seventy-two instead of seventy. Greek New Testament manuscript evidence for both readings is divided among very ancient manuscript traditions. The difference arose on account of the Septuagint, which has ‘seventy-two’ for the number of nations in Gen 10. The traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text has the number of nations as seventy. Consequently, either number points to a correlation back to the nations divided at Babel and the cosmic-geographical worldview of Deut 32:8-9.” –Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm, p. 280.

Table of Nations in Genesis 10

Mission to Reclaim Israel (Lk 9)

Mission to Reclaim the Nations

Deut 32 worldview 7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the *sons of God. 9 But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. Deuteronomy 32:7-9 *Compare Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint; Masoretic Text sons of Israel

The divine council Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. Job 38:4-7 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

The divine council Psalm 82:1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment… Psalm 82:6 “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you…” Psalm 89:5-7 5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the *heavenly beings is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? *Hebrew the sons of God

The divine council “The connection of the gods of the nations installed in Deut 32:8-9 with the demons (Hebrew: shedim) of Deut 32:17 can be traced by comparing Deut 32:8-9 with Deut 4:19-20; 17:3; 29:25-26; 32:17. The interconnections of these passages is why Deuteronomy 32:17 refers to the shedim (“demons”) as elohim (“god”). Many English translations obscure all this, sometimes in very awkward ways that require ignoring grammar and syntax.” –Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, p. 280. “…the term shedim comes from Akkadian shadu, which describes a guardian spirit. The word choice is appropriate to Deut 32:17 given the context of Deut 32:8-9 and cosmic geography: the nations are the domains of other gods who are, in turn, their guardians. Instead of administering Yahweh’s just rule in these nations under his authority, preparing them for their return to Yahweh via Israel and the terms of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:3), these divine beings lured Yahweh’s children to worship them and abused their charge (Psa 82).”

The divine council Deuteronomy 4:19-20 19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. Deuteronomy 17:3 …and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden…

The divine council Deuteronomy 29:25-26 25 Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. Deuteronomy 32:16-17 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods (NIV—which are not God), to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.

“The story of the Bible is God’s will for, and rule of, the realms he has created, visible and invisible, through the imagers he has created, human and nonhuman. This divine agenda is played out in both realms, in deliberate tandem.” –Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, p. 38. Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

17 The *seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 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. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20 *some manuscripts seventy

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Luke 10:20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.   Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Tallgrass Church Mission: Because God first loved us, we exist to love God and to love our neighbors.