What did Jesus mean when He said, "I give you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions" (Luke 10:19)?

The seventy came back, when their mission was ended and their testimony given, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us through thy name." This was a great witness to Messiah's power. Men in Israel always looked, and of course especially the faithful, for the manifestation of Divine power through Messiah over Satan in the world. It was not so much God as such to act directly, as through man in Israel, the Seed of the woman, the Son of David. And now what a sign and a seal was given, seeing that not only did He cast out demons, but they, His servants, through His name, did the same! Nevertheless, the Lord marked this the more to be a conclusory mission to the people and land, and that His Messianic glory, the object of promise, however true, was in no way the great truth that was beginning to unfold itself. Heavenly things were about to come in through His rejection and death. "And he said to them, I beheld262 Satan as lightning262a fall 262b out of heaven." It was quite true. The exaltation of Satan through man's fall was gone, as it were, before His eyes, and the Lord had the full vista of God's counsel in sight, the total destruction of the enemy's power. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall out of heaven." But while this was true to the Lord's vision who sees things that are not as though they were, suggested by His disciples' casting demons out of men, there were things even better than these, though He fully owned what there was then. "Behold, I give† unto you the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall in any wise injure you." He openly confirms what He had given. There was thus authority to trample upon the well-known symbols of Satan's craft and torment for man, and over all the power of the enemy, whatever it might be. They were delivered from all calculated to injure; "nothing shall in any wise injure you." They belonged to the Saviour. "Yet in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you; but rejoice rather‡ that your names are written in the heavens." To belong to heaven, to be called to that seat of Divine light and blessing, was a far greater prize: the rest was Satan's power broken on the earth, a sample of the earthly kingdom, and the powers of the age to come. But a rejected Christ opens the door into the presence and glory of God. This was a matter of far more real and profound joy — that their names were written in heaven. To this the Jews were utterly blind, as man is still; for his cool assumption of heaven, as if it were a natural end for man, is even more evil and presumptuous. Present power and authority are great in his eyes; heavenly things are little, because they are distant and unseen. Nevertheless they are nigh to faith which beholds them, knowing that they are the great reality, and that present things are only the arena of sin and folly and distance from God. But the disciples must learn this; therefore the Lord would lead their hearts into this deeper joy: "but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens."263 "The seventy": BD, etc., read "seventy-two," as above (verse 1). †"Give": so Blass, following ADΔ, etc., most cursives (33, 69), Syrr.-Tisch., W. H., etc., adopt "have given," after ℵBCpmLX, 1, Old Lat. Amiat. ‡A few copies have "rejoice rather"; but the additional word is not in ℵABCD, etc., 1, 33, 69, Old Lat. Syrr. (Edd.).

We are not told what length of time elapsed before the seventy returned (v.17), but when returning they were filled with joyful enthusiasm, reporting to the Lord that even the demons were subject to them through His name. Actually, they should have expected this since the Lord had sent them for this. He did not encourage their excitement over the work, though He spoke of beholding Satan fall from heaven as will occur when the Great Tribulation is about to begin (Rev.12:9-14). Divine power alone will do this at the appointed time. Meanwhile the Lord said He gave the disciples authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, referring to the enmity of demons (v.19). The disciples too would be protected from the harm that satanic power would desire to inflict. But this was not for the purpose of drawing attention to the messengers, but to Him, the blessed Lord of glory, who Himself gave this authority.

The fact of their having this authority was not a matter to rejoice over, for the spirits who were subject to them would be consigned to the darkness of eternal judgment. They, on the other hand, had cause of eternal rejoicing: their names were written in heaven. The grace of God is the true reason for our rejoicing. Yet there was no earthly inheritance in view for these messengers. If they thought the power then present would mean the introduction of the kingdom to Israel, He corrected this thought by the assurance that their names were written in heaven. Little did they understand His words.

Joys. — Without purse, wallet, or shoes the seventy went forth; and they returned to the Lord with joy, for even the demons, they found, were subject to them in Christ's name. There was power to deal with those spirits which tyrannised over men. The name of the Lord Jesus was omnipotent in that warfare, and His messengers could use it effectively. Joy filled their hearts, and they told it out to the Lord. "Subject to us," they said; not going in thought beyond themselves. But the Lord took at once a comprehensive view of it all. He knew what that presaged — the downfall of the enemy. They spoke of the demons. He spoke of Satan. "I beheld," He said, "Satan as lightning fall from heaven." The subjection of the demons to His name was the earnest of complete victory over all the power of the enemy. As yet men might not, did not see that. It was as the cloud like a man's hand, which Elijah's servant saw. But, as that cloud increased till it overspread the whole heavens, so the power of the enemy, which had begun to give way, would be completely annulled, and his final overthrow was certain. In the meantime the Lord would give His servants power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: "and nothing," He added, "shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice, because your names are written in the heavens" (10:20). The grace they shared in, of which that power was a proof, and not the exercise of that power, should be their cause of rejoicing. Man naturally values power; and covets to wield it. The greater thing, the more blessed thing, is to be a partaker of divine grace, and to belong to heaven, from which Satan will be expelled (Rev. 12:7-8).

This was the mind of the blessed Lord on now sending out His messengers; and on their return with a report of their labours, He anticipates the fall of Satan. A little sample of power in the hands of the Seventy hints this result to Him. But, after expressing it, He turns to check in His disciples the looking chiefly at power, telling them there was something for them richer than that, even a name in heaven, a memorial with a Father there; and however excellent authority over devils might be, or power in the earth, yet that memorial was happier still. It is not that He undervalues power, or withdraws it from them. Nay, He rather rejoices in it, and confirms it in their hands, saying, "I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions." But the home in heaven of the children is to be still more precious than the power on earth of the heirs of God.

We may well pause in the presence of such a statement, and exclaim, Who is sufficient for such a mission? Lest any, therefore, should be overwhelmed at the thought of what they might deem to be a tremendous responsibility, let it be remembered that He who sends us out to act in His name, sustains us in the mission with all His power. No one goes to warfare at his own charges at any time. His name, indeed, when rightly borne and used, carries omnipotence with it. Thus when the seventy returned to the Lord, they said, "Lord, even the devils are subject, unto us" (not "through," as rendered, but) "in Thy name." "Yea," replied the Lord, "behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." The mission and the power for its accomplishment are thus intimately connected; only faith, faith in activity, is the essential condition for the use of the power. This truth needs to be earnestly insisted upon at the present time, if there is to be a revival, or recovery, before the Lord's return. It is written, "all things are possible to him that believeth"; we read the words, do not doubt them, and yet we seldom think of the possibility of their being verified in our own experience. A saint of olden time knew the secret when he wrote, "Lord, give what Thou commandest, and then command what Thou wilt." Even so, for it is only by the Lord's own power that the smallest of His precepts can be translated into practice; while it is equally true that His largest behests are as easy of performance as the smallest, inasmuch as adequate power is ever at the service of faith. This is seen in the case of the man with the withered hand. How could he stretch forth an arm that was dry and dead? He believed, and divine power flowed into his dead arm; he stretched it forth, and lo! it "was restored whole as the other."

Luke 10:17-19.

The mission of the seventy follows upon, as that of the twelve preceded, the transfiguration; and it brings out very distinctly the rejection of the Lord in the midst of Israel, and the consequent postponement of the establishment of the kingdom which had "come nigh" to His people in His own glorious Person, and in the power displayed through the seventy as His messengers. They returned to their Master with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy name." This gave occasion to the Lord to reveal that the power He had delegated to them was but an earnest of the final expulsion of Satan from heaven (see Revelation 12) and his complete overthrow; and, moreover, He, in anticipation of this, invested them with power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. But they were not to rejoice in that the spirits were subject unto them, but they were to rejoice rather because their names were written in heaven. A twofold application may be made from this instruction. The first is the obvious one - and one which is characteristic of this Gospel - that heavenly things could only be revealed consequent upon the rejection of Christ, and that to have part in these, through the sovereignty of grace, was to enjoy a portion far transcending that of being messengers of the kingdom, and, as such, depositaries of the powers of the world to come. It is, in fact, that better thing which God has provided for believers of this period, and which will be possessed by those who are identified with Christ in His rejection. The second lesson is that it is a far higher thing to be the objects of God's sovereign grace, to be linked with His eternal purposes, than to be the vessels of His power in service. And yet how the servant is tempted to rejoice when he is taken up as a channel for the power of the Holy Ghost! But we may learn from these words of our blessed Lord that the time when a servant is most used is the time when he should be most hidden; and it will be so in proportion as he is impressed with the magnitude of the grace which chose him in Christ before the foundation of the world. This may, and should, fill his heart with overflowing joy in the presence of God.

190 The exercise of this power fully verified the position of authority and grace from which it emanated; the devils were subject to the disciples through His Name. The Lord recognised, with the clearest sense of joyful power, the principle of power thus exercised by them. He saw prospectively - not His reception as Messiah simply now, but the secret cause of all His rejection broken, and man's deliverance wrought - Satan fall from heaven like lightning, the consequence of rejected power and mercy breaking forth in its higher sphere of exercise in the power in which He, Jesus the Lord, could delegate it to these simple ones. He sees the whole perspective display of this power; he who in heaven wrought the mischief, and rejection on the earth, fell before the display of power and the exercise of the dignity of that place into which He, Jesus, was cast by that rejection. The Lord breaks forth, as it were, for the comfort of the disciples, in the consciousness of this - comforting them, we may say, with the comfort wherewith He Himself was comforted of God - still here emptied in that the display of the power was through others, strengthening them in their faith on His rejection in the lower or Messiah sphere of His power and glory, in which He was to be rejected and crucified. He tells them strengthened by this experience that He will give them authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall wrong them. How completely we see here Jesus the Source of full power over, and setting aside all the power of Satan over the world, as in the heavens! This was true and blessed. It will be just the full blessing of the millennium, the full ample display of this, for he will be bound in the bottomless pit, and the world blessed by his exclusion from the heavens - they not to be regained. And this would be, in title and comfort to them, displayed in the disciples. But He carries their minds higher to where His heart - Blessed be His Name! - was above it all, and where He would carry in His rest of love theirs with Him, a place of rest and of holiness, a place of acceptance and favour, where it was not question of superiority over evil but enjoyment of good - the place of His Father's delight, where holiness and joy unhindered and unsullied had their dwelling place, their fulness and their home. There His heart was, whatever His service, and there He would carry theirs. And surely the Church's greatest joy and delight is not even dominion over a world restored from Satan's destructive and corrupting dominion, and being the instrument of blessing to it - most blessed as that is, for it is being given to participate in the exercise and administration of Christ's love, still less in the exercise of power over evil which is here the point - but in the delight in the Father's love, infinitely blessed as to Jesus Himself, and in Jesus' love full of the devoted tenderness in which He has brought us to Himself, for we are of God, in the highest heavenly sense partakers of the divine nature, children of the Father, the spouse of Christ, our communion even now with the Father and with Him. And all this higher than, as indeed the blessed source of our participation in the dominion of blessedness which He the holy, just, and mighty One exercises over the world. This is the display to others of the certainty of what we enjoy there; see John 17, "That the world may know." Holiness and love any way, and the Father's delight in us are more than the exercise of power. But note the unalterable perfection of Christ our blessed Lord.

171 What peace there is to our souls in seeing Christ's power over all creation, in connection with Satan's power being all broken! In the new age this will be fully manifested; and the working of miracles by the disciples was a sign of that energy and power of the Son of man which will be known in the world yet to come. "Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

(2) The return of the seventy with the joy of their success brings out the farther-sighted joy of their Lord, which plainly reaches on to where the "holy mount" has already carried us. They say exultingly, "Lord, even the demons are subjected to us by Thy Name;" and He replies, that He had beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven; the anticipation of that which Rev. 12 gives in its connection with still future history. It is when the man-child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron is caught up to heaven; that Satan is cast down to earth. The man-child is surely Christ, as the woman of whom He is born is Israel; yet as soon as Satan is cast down; the three and a half years of the great tribulation begin; which immediately precede the Lord's appearing (See Matt. 24 notes). The present period is thus passed over, as it is in the Old Testament prophecy, or where Israel is in the foreground, and thus the ascension of Christ and the taking up of saints of the present and the past are seen as one: they are identified with Him who shares with them His "rod of iron" (Rev. 2:27).

To this time the Lord is looking on here, the beginning of that complete abolishing of Satan's power of which the casting out of demons by the seventy was an anticipation. He goes on to confirm and extend the authority He has given: "Behold," He says, "I have given you to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." And then He adds, "Yet in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Thus already they are assured of a more blessed place than among the earthly people. They are enregistered in heaven (see Heb. 12:23), as citizens of that "better country."

They came back with joy, rejoicing mainly in what was more spectacular, the subjection of even demons through the Name of their Master: Now this was indeed a great thing, and a pledge of Satan's ultimate casting out of the heavens. The allusion in verse 18 is not, we believe, to the original fall of Satan but to his final dispossession, as predicted in Revelation 12:7-9. The past tense is often used in prophetic utterances to describe future events. It is used in those verses in Revelation, as also in Isaiah 53:3-9. So the Lord confirmed the authority which at that moment He had given them, exerted over all the power of the enemy, but at the same time He indicated something that went beyond all power exerted upon earth.

He said to them, "Your names are written in heaven." It is more than likely that at that moment they did not appreciate the wonder of that statement. Later on they must have done so, and we should appreciate it; since it applies also to us. The figure is a simple one. Our names are enrolled in the city or district, where we are domiciled. The Lord said to these men in effect, a heavenly citizenship is to be yours, and that is a greater cause of rejoicing than any power conferred on earth. Luke's Gospel specially gives us the transition from law to grace and from earth to heaven, and this verse is a distinct landmark on the way. It was the first intimation of the truth which comes fully to light in Philippians 3:20, "Our conversation [commonwealth] is in heaven."