After their deliverance from Egypt the children of Israel encamped at Elim, “where were twelve wells and seventy palm trees” (Exodus 15:27). The twelve wells nourished the seventy palm trees and made Elim a welcome oasis. So when Matthew (who wrote for Jewish readers) records the appointment and sending out of the Twelve — “to cast out unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases” — the twelve wells and seventy palm trees of Elim come to mind.
“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
The mission of the Twelve was a symbolic one. Jesus warned them of what would happen to them. In fact, after giving them instructions on what not to take on their journey, Jesus spelled out in detail the kind of opposition they would face from their own people (Matthew 10:16-42). But they did not face such opposition during that first mission. The words of Jesus are prophetic and refer to their witness after his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
“But when they persecute you in [one] city, flee into another; for verily I say unto you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.” (Verse 23) Obviously this coming does not refer to the literal Second Coming but to the AD70 coming by Jesus in judgement through the instrument of the Roman armies (as foretold by Jesus in his parable of the King’s Son). The forty years between the crucifixion and the destruction of the Temple did indeed prove hard on the Twelve.
Matthew does not record the sending forth by Jesus of the Seventy, which is a pointer to the fact that their mission is symbolic of a wider one. Luke records both but in his account Jesus does not prohibit the Seventy from visiting Samaritan or Gentile cities; and omits Matthew’s emphasis on persecution.
Instead, he emphasizes the joy of the Seventy on their return, and the Lord’s caution that they should rejoice in the fact that their names were “written in heaven” (Luke 10:18).
There is a prophetic element in the statement by Jesus: “I beheld Satan like lightning fall from heaven.” (He said this after the Seventy had rejoiced over the demons being subject to them through his name.) The NT Greek has “the Satan”: the definite article. This enigmatic statement may refer to their small victories being portrayals of what would be his far greater victory over Satan through the triumph of his resurrection.
Peter, one of the Twelve, was later appointed apostle to the Jews. We are not told the names of the Seventy. But since they symbolize the wider mission of the church and its countless victories over evil spirits, we can rejoice as they did whenever and wherever we see “Satan fall like lightning” when we cast out demons! (Genesis 10 records the original 70 nations on earth, so to me 70 speaks of worldwide ministry.)
I see in the apostolic mission of the Twelve a clear picture of the ministry of the first apostles to the Jews, which was limited to their own people and which concluded with the destruction of the temple in AD70. (We know that some apostles, notably Matthew, travelled far and wide after that terrible event.) The mission of the Twelve emphasizes the immediate and in so doing explains those texts that are otherwise inexplicable.
I see in the mission of the Seventy a clear picture of the ministry of others to the nations, an unlimited mission, one that emphasizes victory over evil spirits rather than over the persecution that comes from one’s own people. I see their mission as a precursor to the Great Commission of Matthew 28, which speaks of “making disciples of all nations” – not “out of” nations but “of” entire nations.
The concentric circles of evangelism that began with the mission of the Twelve and continued with the mission of the Seventy, have enlarged to become today’s global missions – on the Net as well as on foot. We need to make a difference between Peter’s condemnations of the Jews for murdering their Messiah, and Paul’s encouragement to the Gentiles who, although sinners who needed to be saved, knew nothing of the awful crime that had been committed in Jerusalem.
I look back to the time when the Lord Jesus came in victory, time and time again, by the Spirit of God (and still does). But I look forward to the day when he will appear “without sin” for our final salvation in his promised Second Coming!
These two views are not mutually exclusive — each view relates to different events: the first to the figurative coming of Jesus in God’s judgement on Jerusalem, in AD70, and the second to the final, literal, physical Second Coming of Jesus, which is still future.