WE must refer our reader to our previous number for the beginning of this paper. We there saw our Lord as the Sor of Man shining in His glory, and with Him also in glory, Moses and Elias, who wen holding converse with Him upon the subject of His death, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
The three eyewitnesses of His honor and glory were oppressed with drowsiness: they did not fully see or comprehend the bright. tress of His countenance. When, however the three disciples were fully awake, Peter began to speak to the Lord.
The Lord’s glory and majesty had not so completely overwhelmed him that Jesus glorified was not Jesus to him still. But Peter wist not what to say, for he was afraid. How different were his thoughts from those of Moses and Elias! His were earthly, human, thoughts. It seems as if we are either drowsy as to the Lord’s glory, or, being awake and seeing it, we see it with mere natural eyes, and speak of it with human thoughts. Moses, Elias, Jesus—three glorified men: the lawgiver, the great prophet, the Messiah—each glorious, all alike—all to be placed, as it were, upon one platform; such were the thoughts of Peter. How hard it is for man to realize that Jesus is the sun, and that He is supreme! And harder still to believe that His death alone can bring in God’s kingdom and man’s blessing. More, Peter would have retained in three tabernacles on this earth, without the Lord’s decease, the three glorified ones. Divine righteousness would have been ignored, human sin made light of, and the very hearts of men left in their darkness. Had not the law of Moses been broken, and the prophets persecuted and slain? What could answer these questions to God, or what could give men’s souls liberty before God respecting them, save the death of Jesus, the Son of Man?
The misjudged thoughts of the disciple were at once answered from heaven, for “while he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.” Herein we have unveiled to us God’s thoughts. God made at once a fitting tabernacle for Jesus. He spread over Him the shekinah, the glory cloud. For long, long years this had not enveloped aught on earth in its folds of light. Sin had driven it away from earth, and the shekinah had retreated to heaven, but now it was spread as a tent over the glorified Jesus, and the two men who appeared with Him in glory.
As Peter and the two other disciples saw Jesus, Moses, and Elias enter this cloud they were afraid. It was a new thing that men should enter the glory of God, and, seeing this, fear in presence of the majesty of the Lord filled the hearts of the disciples. It was a very different thing men passing into the light of God in heaven, from the light of His presence shining upon this earth amongst men. No building made with hands—no earthly erection—was a fitting tent for the Lord to dwell in. The glory of God, the shining cloud, alone was a tabernacle suitable for Him, and the heavenly men with Him. Neither did three separate tabernacles consort with God’s thoughts, for Jesus and His glorified people are to dwell together in the same glory, though it is solely through the Son that the glorified shall enter and dwell with Him in the glory of God.
The Father’s voice from heaven was also heard. The glory of God and the voice of the Father are to fill our hearts. There is a rebuke to our poor thoughts about Jesus in the words “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.” It is a voice for us in our day, as it was for Peter and the disciples in theirs. “Hear Him” —Listen and attend to what He says. He hath declared the Father, dwelling in the Father’s bosom, He teaches us Him. Away with infidelities and the miserable speculation of our times— “hear Him” —He came from heaven, who is the Word of God. Hear Him, the Father bids you. We shall never know aught aright of God or of glory save as we hear Him. The thoughts of men cannot but misjudge God; philosophy must needs blunder concerning glory—hear Him!
Nor is it rebuke only that these words convey, for the love of the Father bids us hearken to Jesus. “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.” Moses and Elias had but one theme of which to speak to Jesus in that hour—His decease. It is Jesus who now speaks to us—hear Him. Listening to His words, life and peace shall be our portion. He has died, and in glory “He dieth no more,” and He tells us the words of salvation. We honor the Father by hearing the words of His beloved Son. Jesus is supreme; He is preeminent; fix your eye upon Himself as the Father’s voice from heaven bids you; beholding Him, it is impossible to be led astray from the Father’s thoughts. He would have His people look upon and listen to His beloved Son.
The evangelist, who portrays the Lord as man, and who notes His prayers, adds these words, which the first two, who treat rather of His ways than the workings of His heart, omit— “in Whom I am well pleased.” We heard similar words when He was baptized, when He began to preach the kingdom al God, and by miracles to evidence its healing power. We hear them again now, when as the sun, He shines in the midst of the bright heavenly tabernacle, which glows over the earthly kingdom represented by the three disciples. These words are strictly addressed to man. They are the unfolding of God the Father’s pleasure in His Son to us. Look upon Him, hear Him, in whom the Father is well pleased! Let us address these words to our readers in affectionate exhortation, and inquire, Have you thus regarded Jesus? Our eternal happiness depends upon our present pleasure in the object of the Father’s delight. To be pleased with our own works or religiousness is, in the contemplation of this glory, a base indignity to God’s purpose and pleasure. Of this we are sure, that when men’s eyes see Him in His glory, there will not be, by any possibility, one single thought of self-esteem left in their hearts. In the day of coming judgment every eye shall see Him and to those of our readers who do not know Christ in their hearts, we appeal at once to turn the gaze from every other object, and to look, in this day of grace, to the Lord.
With the voice from heaven the vision passed away. Moses, Elias, and the shekinah were seen no more. The confused spirits and trembling hearts of the disciples, as they lay upon their faces in their fear, were assured by the touch and the voice of Jesus. They lifted up their eyes. It was not the glory which they had been permitted for a moment to see that they then beheld; it was Jesus only. His heavenly attendants, His heavenly tabernacle, and the voice from heaven were passed away. The Son of Man stood alone before them, and in His presence they were at home. Here let our hearts rest. Fear flies before His face. “Jesus only” is joy to the heart of His disciples, whether in life, or death, or glory.
H. F. W.