The sending out of the Twelve

Matthew 10:5-10 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.

Jesus was sent primarily to the people of Israel because these people through their advanced spiritual development possessed the ability to fully understand Him. Later the people of Israel were to take the Message of Jesus and spread It among the Gentiles. This is the reason why Jesus would not be diverted from His insistence that the lost sheep of Israel were to hear His Message first. He directed His disciples to go to the lost sheep of Israel and to avoid going to the other peoples. This should not be taken to mean that the Word of God was not for these other people but that at that moment the focus of attention should be on the people who had for centuries been spiritually prepared to receive and to understand much more readily the Message of God.

When the Israelites failed in general, the Message of course went elsewhere but we must note that the Message in any case still primarily spread through the works and efforts of Jews like Paul and the other Apostles.

Jesus incarnated in the midst of the people who were the most spiritually advanced at that time as could not otherwise be the case, as One like Him who was the Son of God needed to incarnate in the midst of people whose degree of understanding of the Laws of God would make it easier to work among them.

He instructed His disciples to say that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Meaning that the time for the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth was at hand. The establishment of the Kingdom of God ushers in a time when only those human beings who voluntarily adjust to the Will of God will be allowed to live on this earth. Before the establishment of this Kingdom, however, the Judgement must take place.

This Judgement removes all those human beings who have been evil and who have no intention of adjusting their ways along with their works from this earth. These people are removed to where they properly belong which is the realm of darkness. They will be prevented from incarnating again on earth unless in the meantime while in the realm of darkness they had become better and have been able to rise through the results of their intentions to do better, to a level where they can again incarnate.

Jesus was trying to warn the people of Israel and also others to make haste and change now before they are overtaken by a terrible Judgement. If we do not make use of the allotted time now, we would not be able to free ourselves in time and we will pass away in the flames of the Judgment and will not be allowed to witness the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The evil that we do is dark, heavy and clings to our spirit bodies. This is the body that we are left with when we depart this earth. It is the body of medium or fine gross matter. It is still a material body. This body becomes heavy and weighed down by this impurity and the concerned soul is dragged to the region in the Beyond of likewise weight.

There comes a time in this Creation when every part of material Creation will have to go through its purification. When that time comes for the earth, its inhabitants and the surrounding ethereal regions of the earth and their inhabitants we have to be so pure and light as to find ourselves in lighter regions that do not have to face this purification. Those who are left behind in these darker regions because they could not free themselves from matter will have their fine or medium gross material bodies destroyed with the destruction which naturally occurs when the cycles closes for the realm in which they find themselves.

We should therefore work hard now so that when we pass into the Beyond, we do not find ourselves in places which are marked out for dissolution because we run the risk of also going through dissolution with the rest of these environments.

When Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, obviously He was not referring to it in earthly time concepts. In spiritual terms, a thousand years are as one day, which means that what takes a thousand years to accomplish on earth takes only one day to accomplish in the spiritual realm. But we must remember that that was two thousands years ago and that what He meant by “at hand” is being enacted at the present time.

He gave His disciples the spiritual power to heal diseases and to perform all kinds of miracles so that in the same way as with Him, the people’s faith may be fortified. He now felt that He could let His disciples be on their own after they had been understudying Him for a while.

He advised them not to take any gold or silver or food with them and that on their ways they would be cared for. They were not to preoccupy themselves about what they would wear or eat or drink. These needs as He had already mentioned with the lilies in the field will be taken care of. This is what He meant by “the workman is worthy of his food”. They have done what was spiritually required of them and that God seeing this will provide for them in ways that they could not even imagine.