Question: Matt. 10:23, &c. The mission of the Twelve to Israel in Matt. 10 is generally inferred, from verse 23, to be now in suspense, and resumed (of course per alios) before the Lord’s appearing. How is this reconcilable with the total absence of the Father’s name in the Revelation? We see the name of the Father plainly revealed in the Lord’s ministry to Israel, and conspicuous in the commission of the Twelve in this chapter. See verses 20, 29.
E.J.T.
Answer: It may be observed that from ver. 16 our Lord goes forward from this primary Jewish mission while He was there to the time when the Spirit should be given and their Father consequently known. Then again ver. 23 passes over to the still future days when there will be the resumption of the mission in the land. Hence it seems that there is no sufficient ground to infer that “your Father” as in ver. 29 applies to the future messengers. Nor on the other hand can we speak of His Father’s name being absolutely absent, when we had such words as meet our eyes in Rev. 14:1. But it is nowhere implied that the Apocalyptic saints know the Father for themselves, as even the babes of the family do now.