Daily Bible Reading 20th 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.”
We must consider now the contrast between unbelief and faith shown in these verses and in those that follow (17ff). In 13ff, it is not merely the fact of unbelief, but its unreasonableness and inexcusability, that is in view. And there is always a price to be paid for this as the woe pronounced on Chorazin and Bethsaida makes clear. These were places where many of Christ's mighty works had been wrought; and He means that the works done in them were an invitation and a summons to them to repent and believe in Him, for these miracles were, as we have said before, the credentials of His Kingship and bore testimony to it. Here, as earlier with John the Baptist, Jesus points to His mighty works as the way to faith. Chorazin and Bethsaida had had the way to faith opened to them and they had refused it. Hence the pronouncement of judgment. What could there be left for them but judgment? We should not miss what is being said here: every work wrought by Christ in a soul, every man born again of the Spirit, changed and transformed by His grace, is a witness to others to the gospel, and an invitation to faith. When we refuse the gospel in face of this kind of evidence, we are in big trouble indeed. Why did these cities refuse to believe? We may have an indication of the answer to this in 15. Capernaum was exalted to heaven and lifted up in pride. This, ultimately, is always the issue. The gospel challenges the basic pride in every man, and this is what causes the trouble, for it tells men that they are in the wrong, that they are all wrong, and that they must humble themselves, confess that wrong, and take the lowly place. And to so many, this is a death that they just will not die; it is too humbling, too hurtful to human pride. And what a terrible verdict on a human life - lost eternally because he is too proud to repent! This is why the gospel is regarded as the ultimate enemy, to be resisted at all costs: because it intends to replace self with Christ on the throne of life. And, as has been said, 'if you refuse the King, can the Kingdom be yours?'