Jesus proceeded to elaborate on the dangers the apostles would face and how they should deal with them.
In His descriptions of the opposition His disciples would experience, Jesus looked beyond His death to the time of tribulation that would follow. Then the disciples would have the same message and the same power as they did when He sent them out here. The narrow road leading to the kingdom led through a period of tribulation and persecution for the disciples. They did not understand that Jesus would have to die and experience resurrection before the kingdom began, even though this is what the Old Testament revealed. Jesus was beginning to prepare them and their successors for these events and the persecution they would experience as His followers. If Israel had accepted her Messiah, He still would have had to die, rise from the grave, and ascend into heaven. Seven years of tribulation would have followed. Then Jesus would return to the earth and set up His kingdom. As it happened, Israel rejected Jesus, so the period of Tribulation, His return, and the kingdom are all still future.
"The King performed His ministry according to the Old Testament Messianic calendar of events. According to the Hebrew Scriptures the Messiah, after He appeared, was to suffer, die, and be raised again (Daniel 9:26; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53:1-11; Psalm 16:10). Following the death and resurrection of Christ there was to be a time of trouble (Daniel 9:26-27; Jeremiah 30:4-6). The Messiah was then to return to the earth to end this tribulation and to judge the world (Daniel 7:9-13, 16-26; 9:27; 12:1; Zechariah 14:1-5). Finally, the Messiah as King would establish His kingdom with Israel as the head nation (Daniel 7:11-27; 12:1-2; Isaiah 53:11-12; Zechariah 14:6-11, 20-21)."436
10:16 Jesus pictured His defenseless disciples in a dangerous environment. The Shepherd was sending His sheep into a wolf pack. They needed, therefore, to be as shrewd as serpents, a proverbial way of saying prudent. Their shrewdness must not be cunning though, for they needed to be innocent as well. Either characteristic without the other is dangerous. Innocence without prudence becomes naiveté.
The disciples were to be both prudent and innocent toward the objects of their ministry. Doves are retiring birds; they leave when other birds oppose them rather than fighting. This is how the disciples were to behave. They needed to be shrewd by avoiding conflicts and attacks where possible, but when these came they were to withdraw to other households and other towns.
10:17 "But"(Gr. de) does not introduce a contrast here but shows how the disciples should apply the warning Jesus just gave them. Opposition would come from the Jews. The courts in view could be either civil or religious.437The responsibility of these courts was to preserve the peace. The scourging in view would be the result of judicial action, not mob violence.438
10:18 This prediction has caused problems for many interpreters since there is no indication that the disciples appeared before governors and kings during the mission that followed. As mentioned above, Jesus was evidently looking beyond their immediate mission to what His disciples would experience after His death, resurrection, and ascension.439
10:19-20 Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to respond to their accusers. Some lazy preachers have misappropriated this promise, but it applies to disciples who must answer charges leveled against them for their testimonies. Jesus had not yet revealed the Spirit's relationship to these men after His departure into heaven (John 14-16). Here He simply assured them of the Spirit's help.
10:21-22 The disciples would find themselves opposed by everyone without distinction including their own family members, not just rulers. In spite of such widespread and malicious persecution the disciple must endure patiently to the end. "The end"refers to the end of this period of intense persecution, namely the Tribulation. The second coming of the Son of Man will end it (v. 23). The promise of salvation for the one who remains faithful does not imply eternal salvation since that depends on faith in Jesus. It is deliverance from the period of intense persecution that is in view. Entrance into the kingdom would constitute salvation for these future persecuted disciples.
Thus this verse does not say that all genuine believers will inevitably persevere in their faith and good works.440Rather it says that those who do during the Tribulation can expect God to deliver them at its end. Jesus was not speaking about eternal salvation but temporal deliverance. Temporal deliverance depended on faithful perseverance.
If the Jews had accepted Jesus, these 12 disciples would have taken the message of the kingdom throughout Israel during the Tribulation period that would have followed Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. Before they could finish their task, Jesus would have returned from heaven. Those of them who persevered faithfully would experience deliverance from further persecution by entering the kingdom following His return. Since the Jews rejected Jesus, God postponed the kingdom for at least 2, 000 years. During the Tribulation period yet future, the 144,000 Jewish disciples of Jesus living in Palestine and elsewhere in the world will be preparing people for Jesus' return to set up His kingdom (Rev. 7:1-8; 14:1-5). Those who remain faithful and withstand persecution will be saved from further persecution by Jesus' return to the earth to set up His kingdom.
"If those who fight under earthly commanders, and are uncertain as to the issue of the battle, are carried forward even to death by steadiness of purpose, shall those who are certain of victory hesitate to abide by the cause of Christ to the very last?"441
10:23 Jesus promised that He would return for His disciples before they had finished preaching the kingdom throughout the cities of Israel. If Israel had accepted Jesus as her Messiah, this would have happened at the end of seven years of persecution following Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. Since Israel rejected her Messiah, it will happen at the end of the Tribulation yet future from our perspective in history (Dan. 7:13).
Commentators have offered many other explanations of this verse. There is great diversity of opinion concerning what Jesus meant mainly because there is failure to take Jesus' offer of Himself and the messianic kingdom literally. Some interpreters believe Jesus meant He would return to the Twelve before they completed the mission He sent them on here. The problem with this view is that there is no indication in the text that that happened. Others interpret the Son of Man coming as a reference to the public identification of Jesus as the Messiah. However that is not what Jesus said, and it is not what happened. Some believe Jesus made a mistake, and what He predicted did not happen. Obviously this view reflects a low view of Jesus' person. Still others believe what Jesus was predicting was the destruction of Jerusalem, but this hardly fits the Old Testament prophecies or the context of this verse.442
"What was proclaimed here was more fully demonstrated in the apostles' lives after the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) in the spread of the gospel in the church (e.g., Acts 4:1-13; 5:17-18, 40; 7:54-60). But these words will find their fullest manifestation in the days of the Tribulation when the gospel will be carried throughout the entire world before Jesus Christ returns in power and glory to establish His kingdom on the earth (Matt. 24:14)."443
10:24-25 Jesus' point was that persecution should not surprise His disciples. They had seen the scribes and Pharisees, and even John's disciples, oppose Jesus. They could expect the same treatment.
Beelzebul was Satan, the head of the household of demons (12:24-27). The word "Beelzebul"probably came from the Hebrew baal zebulmeaning "Prince Baal."Baal was the chief Canaanite deity, and the Jews regarded him as the personification of all that was evil and Satanic. The house in view is Israel. Jesus as Messiah was the head of that household. However, His critics charged Him with being Satan (cf. 9:34). Therefore the disciples could expect similar slander from their enemies.
