"What a Day!"

Luke 9:27–36 NKJV

27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.” 28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. 33 Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” 36 When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.

27- This statement from Christ without the next event would have been hard to reconcile. To see the Kingdom of God without seeing death to this point had been reserved to only two men in the scriptures. The first was Genesis 5 with Enoch, Then reaffirmed in Hebrews 11:5. The scripture says that Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. God took Enoch without him seeing death this makes suspended animation of the soul theology difficult to reconcile. I also view this first “calling up” a great baseline for the nature of God to “rapture” those who please Him through faith. The Holy scriptures begin and end with a wedding and the “calling up” of those who please God through faith in His salvation. The second example we are given in the Holy Scriptures is of course that of Elijah in I Kings 2:11 which is in the second part of these selected passages. Now we have instead of faithful followers being transported to the Kingdom here we are about to witness the Kingdom come to them. To see the Kingdom according to Jesus in John chapter 3 is reserved only for those who are “born again”. This super supposes that these three Peter, John and James have already been regenerated but have yet to have received the promise of the indwelling of God’s Spirit.

28- Now it came to pass in about eight days after these things, this differs from the other two accounts found in the synoptic Gospels. Both Matthew and Mark say six days, this is easily reconciled with Luke’s account of using the day of these sayings and the day of the transfiguration. Jesus took three to the mountain but left eight in the valley. This is a revelation for today’s church in that some may be headed to the mountain of worship others remain in the valley of ministry shown here. There must be worship balanced with ministry and ministry balanced with worship. If we only worship and never apply the servant nature of Christ then we will never become effective vessels to the lost world. Likewise if we only work and never spend time in worship where deep is calling unto deep we can grow dishearten and fatigued.

29- As He prayed, oh can you imagine the beautiful melody of the glory of heaven’s prayer must be. Here we see Jesus praying and these three sleeping, a reoccurring theme it seems! While He prayed and the utterances of His request were being made known Jesus become transfigured. We are not given in full detail what this transfiguration looked like but we see His garments become affected by this Shikinah glory. Luke records they were white and glistening, Mark says they were white as snow! To know that we too have this opportunity to be transformed in our callings to the Almighty is such a wonderful knowledge to possess. We in our moments of fellowship with our Heavenly Father become transformed as heaven comes to us in that the Holy Spirit makes utterances on our behalf.

30- Two men appeared and talked with Him. These were not angels or messengers of God but men. They are named also Moses and Elijah. When we consider the relevance of what this represented we can fully see the cannon of scripture come into focus. Moses is who the Law was delivered through and represented the old covenant which through the righteousness of God was revealed by. Paul tells us that the Law becomes our schoolmaster that teaches us that through the law we are found guilty before an all holy God and are without excuse. What a revelation to see the one who was given the Law would be speaking to the One in which delivered the old covenant about the total fulfilling of the Law. Secondly there is Elijah who represents the prophets who God used to speak to His people. All the miracles that the Father used Elijah to perform was signs pointing to the Messiah. How could this mountain top conversation be used to totally fulfill the very prophecies that was given for the Messiah? Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6 prophecy that Elijah will be sent before the terrible and great day of the Lord.

31- Here we see Jesus praying to the Father that these two men appear all three in glory both physically and spiritually conversing about something. The very subject of the conversation is also given! What an awesome insight to get to know what this heavenly conversation could be about! The passage says they were discussing the Lord’s decease that He would accomplish in Jerusalem. These two with their Lord were discussing the passion. The great mystery that Paul references in Colossians is being spoke about in this meeting place on Mount Hermon. Jesus tells us that Abraham also rejoiced in His day John 8:56.

John 8:56 NKJV

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

32- Once again we see these three asleep during one of the most intense times of the ministry of Christ. While we don’t know whether it was a physical sleep or some heaven induced sleep, we can imagine that he climb up what Matthew calls a high mountain would be enough to cause a nap to be in order. But how many times does the flesh win out and we choose sleep over survey? They could have experienced this conversation but instead they didn’t fully awake until the meeting was over.

33- Once they awaken and see Jesus and these two in full glory they start putting together the magnitude of what they have been invited to partake in. When these two begin to leave Peter speaks up not wanting this time to end and suggests to build three tabernacles to lodge there. Peter almost is saying “don’t go! We will build three tents so we can stay here and continue in this glorious moment! We can just sleep on the rocks (they already were comfortable doing this). I could imagine having the same response not wanting this awesome experience to be over. We too have moments when we see God’s glory manifested interjected into our lives and we don’t want that time to end. We will do anything to try and force a return of the mountaintop experiences. A time is coming when there will be no night or absence of being in the Glory of God. For now we must be satisfied with the words of Jesus.

34- A cloud appeared and over took them. This brought great fear on these three as they entered into the cloud. We may find it hard pressed to understand how they could possibly feel the emotion of fear after seeing Jesus in His glory but none the less the weakness and fear of the flesh won over once again and now instead of a fog of slumber, a cloud of fear has overshadowed them.

35- The Father spoke from the cloud and gave this advice to them as well to span the generations until it falls on our ears. “This is My Son, hear Him.” We might not get to remain on these mountain top experience but we can remain in Christ and let His words bring that wonderful life giving fount to flow from deep within our soul! We are wise to listen the eternal holy Son of the living God. Why are we so easy to forget or close our ears to our wonderful Savior?

36- As the cloud passed Jesus remained without the other two. While Moses and Elijah’s presence brought great awe and wonder the One left standing is true article of worship. If all others are stripped away, if never again we get to climb to the top of these glorious mountain experience, and are left with only Jesus then we have the fullness of God and His salvation! Lastly for a moment they kept these things with them and told no one. Only for a moment! Let us be found faithful in sharing the times when Heaven’s glory passes over us!