Daily Bible Reading 16th August 2026 // Luke 10:1-16
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 labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no money bag, 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 labourer 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.’ 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.’ 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 judgement 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.”
These verses give the reason for the radical and uncompromising stand and attitude on discipleship underlined at the end of the previous chapter. Nothing less, we are meant to see, will suffice for the quality of work that the situation demands. For one thing, there is harvesting work to do (2); this means that 'the time is at hand'. The farmer cannot just leave the harvest when it is ripe; it has to be cut and harvested in time, otherwise it will go to waste and be lost. By the same token - and this is the second point - there is no time to waste (4) on even normal civilities, because of the overriding consciousness of the urgency of the situation. Furthermore - and the lessons all belong to one another - those involved in the work of the kingdom must sit light to the things of the world (8). A spirit of detachment is essential, in order to give heart and spirit wholly to the things of God. Above all, eternal issues are involved in hearing the gospel (11-16). It is literally a matter of life or death; hence the need for disciples to be 'windows', not 'blinds'. One thinks, in this connection, of Lot's ineffective witness in Sodom, whose inhabitants regarded him as one who mocked when he spoke of God's coming judgment. His life was a 'blind', instead of a 'window' through which God's word could be seen.