Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

A third reason Elijah was chosen for the transfiguration
Dec 11th, 2008
CommentaryMorning Meditation
Categories: Today's Headlines;Inspirational;Book Study

They had been originally sent to prepare for Christ. "We have found him," said Philip, "of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write" (John 1:45). "For he [Moses]," Jesus said, "wrote of me" (John 5:46). "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19;10). But the Jews were in danger of forgetting this, and of attaching more importance to the messengers than was justifiable. They clung to the stars even when the sun was steadily climbing up the sky. It was the death warrant of Stephen that he seemed to them to slight the Old Testament by hinting that it would be abrogated and superseded by the New. Peter himself was quite prepared to treat Moses and Elijah on an equality with his Master by building three tabernacles -- one for each. This could not be, and therefore Moses and Elijah were swept away by a cloud, and Jesus only was left, and the voice of God was heard insisting that Peter and the two other disciples should listen to Him alone. It was as though God had said -- uttering words that lifted a dispensation from its hinges -- "As ye have listened to the Law and the Prophets, so now listen to My Son. Do not put yourselves again under the law, or rest content with the prophets, however lofty their ideals and burning their words; but give to Him all the veneration and attention that you have been hitherto wont to reserve for them. Pass from the anticipation to the reality; from the type to the perfect fulfillment. They are taken; but all that made them helpful is left."

We too must sometimes climb transfiguration mounts and see our beloved caught away from our gaze, and then return toward an unkindly and wrangling world. But let us remember that our hearts are bereft of their supports to drive us to find all, and more than all, in Jesus. He is enough for any heart, however lonely and desolate. He suffices for heaven, and surely He can for {180} earth. All that is good in anyone was first in Him, and remains in Him forever without alloy. And as one after another is caught away, we are still rich with unsearchable wealth; we are still able to cope with all the devils that await us in the vales beneath, though we have "no man, save Jesus only" (Matthew 17:8).

Such may have been some of the reasons that led to the appearance of these two men on the transfiguration mount: standing there for a moment and then receding into the land of glory from which they came; attesting His dignity and then withdrawing -- that the interest excited by their presence might not be focused on themselves, but turned at once and more intensely on the person of Jesus Christ. - F. B. Meyer