Matthew 10:7 Commentary and Bible Study

The disciples are to go throughout the towns and villages of Israel, and they are to preach. Christ summarises what they should say, and it is the same message which he preached (Matthew 4:17) – ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ It is a message which is at the same time surprising and encouraging. It is surprising to any Jew who is not converted because he or she thought they were already inside the kingdom of heaven: they thought they were born into it. To be told they are near the kingdom seems to take away from them what they thought they already possessed. Are they not members of God’s kingdom because they are descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Are they not the special people of God, a people chosen by God ‘to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth’ (Deuteronomy 7:6)? Now this message is telling them they are outside when they thought they were inside.But on the other hand, this kingdom of heaven which is being preached to them is not far away. What is not far away, what is in fact near to us, is within reach. We are being encouraged to stretch out and take hold of it. If we were told it was far away from us, there would be little hope of obtaining it, but no, it is near. It was near because Christ had come down from heaven to earth to establish his kingdom on earth in the hearts of those who would receive it. It is near because, in order to enter that kingdom they are not required to do an impossible thing. In the language of Moses to their nation, ‘this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? ¹³ Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? ¹⁴ But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it’ (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). Just as Moses encouraged the people to believe, so too does Christ. But this time it is through his disciples. They are to preach the same message that he preached. He preached by his own authority; his disciples are to preach by an authority borrowed from him. Nevertheless the message carries the same force, even though it comes through his disciples rather than directly from him. It is what he has told them to say.