And it came to pass on the following day, when they came down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.
On the mountain, three disciples had just seen Jesus in His glory. The next day they came down to a crowd — and to a father's grief, a boy in torment, and their own failure.
What comes next is not more of the vision. It is the opposite. One writer reads the whole scene as a picture of man under Satan's power, and of servants who could not help.
The next scene plunges us at once into the realities of the world as it is. We feel it all the more painfully because of the bright vision of the age to come on the mount of transfiguration... Here, by contrast, we have the world as it now is through the power of Satan... It was a picture, indeed, of Israel and we may say of man... The most distressing fact was that the disciples were quite unable to meet the case. They were men of God and His most honoured servants, already sent out with power and authority by the Lord Jesus, and yet they could not cope with this severe case of demon possession.
The Lord did not stay where the glory was, and neither can those who follow Him. Coming down meant walking straight into what was waiting below.
In what follows we find the Lord coming down into the crowd of this world, not remaining on the mount. We may listen and enjoy, but we have to come down and pass through this world. The Lord comes down and meets three things — a throng of men, Satan's power, and the disciples' unbelief. There was no seclusion here for Him, but He comes to a crowd. What a picture of distress this is! Here is the son of one man in the crowd, possessed by a demon, and the father's heart racked more than the son's body. The world will weep till it is tired of weeping, and then go on with the same thing again.
Luke says a great crowd met Him. One writer asks what those people saw, and what the Lord did with their welcome.
I suppose the glory was still lingering around Him in some measure. It was like the face of Moses, which shone when he came down to the foot of Mount Sinai and stood among the people again. This might have brought the Lord into a place of honour and notice. Instead it only shows Him more perfectly as a Servant, who would empty Himself and make Himself of no reputation... The Lord turns from the greeting of the crowd to the sorrow of the poor child, whose father had brought him with a cry for mercy. He was so perfect in the spirit of service that nothing could weaken or interrupt it. Not the glory at the top of the mountain, and not the greetings at the foot of it.
These men were not unbelievers. One writer weighs what their failure cost the heart of Christ.
It grieves the Lord deeply. There was faith in the disciples, but that faith lay dormant before difficulties. It barely knew how to draw on the power of Christ on the one hand for the deep distress of man on the other. Oh, what a sight this was to Christ! What feeling to His heart! Those who had faith valued so little the power of Him who was its object and resource.
One writer widens the picture. This unbelief was not the disciples' alone; it had spread "like a leprosy" through the whole system (The Bible Treasury).
What happened at the foot of the mountain is a small picture of a day still ahead.
While the glory shone on the holy mountain, a painful scene was taking place below... The coming down of the Lord Jesus changed everything. Satan's power was overthrown, and tears gave place to thanksgiving and joy. Even so will it be in the great day for which we wait, and for which the whole creation groans.
- Down. The Lord did not stay on the mountain of glory. He came down into the crowd, and everyone who follows Him must come down and pass through this world too.
- Met. At the foot of the hill He met three things at once — a throng of men, Satan's power, and the unbelief of His own disciples.
- Unbroken. Neither the glory above nor the welcome below could interrupt His service. He turned from the crowd's greeting straight to a father's cry for mercy.
- Dormant. The disciples had real faith, but it lay asleep in front of a hard case. They valued too little the power of the One who was faith's object and resource.
- Preview. His coming down overturned Satan's work and turned tears into joy. It is a small picture of the day the whole creation still groans for.
And lo, a man from the crowd cried out saying, Teacher, I beseech thee look upon my son, for he is mine only child
Jesus has just come down from the mountain where His glory was shown. A crowd meets Him, and one voice rises above the rest: a father pleading for his only son. Those few words hold the whole contrast between the glory above and the misery below.
The Lord does not stay where the glory is. One writer lists what met Him below:
In what follows we find the Lord coming down into the crowd of this world, not remaining on the mountain. We may listen and enjoy, but we have to come down and pass through this world. The Lord comes down and meets three things — a crowd of men, Satan's power, and the disciples' unbelief. There was no seclusion here for Him, but He comes to a crowd. What a picture of distress this is! The son of one, possessed with a demon; and the father's heart racked more than the son's body.
The mountain showed glory. The plain shows the world as it is:
These sorrows of the plain come out in the pitiful case of the man who begs the Lord to look upon his only son. The father's heart racked with distress, his son's body torn by the devil, the crowd unconcerned, and the disciples of the Lord helpless! What a picture is this of the world in which we are! A needy but callous world around us, the devil against us, and the flesh within us. Yet, like the disciples, we have the Lord with us in all His grace, and the Lord with His coming glory before us. It is as if He said, "I have shown you on the mountain the glory to which I will bring you; I will now show you in the plain the grace that can keep you every step of the journey on the way to the glory."
The father does not just say "my son." That word "only" has appeared twice before in Luke:
A pitiable case! an earnest appeal — "my only child!" The widow of Nain had her only son raised up (7:12). Jairus had his only daughter brought back to life (8:42). Now this afflicted father makes a moving plea for his only child, whose case had until then been thought hopeless. Even the disciples could not heal him by casting out the demon. The father's appeal was not rejected. "Bring your son here," were the words of encouragement to the parent.
The father had already brought his son to the disciples. Their failure, not the demon, is the hardest part of the scene.
It was a picture, indeed, of Israel and we may say of man. Such was the power of the demon over him. The most distressing fact was that the disciples were quite unable to meet the case. They were men of God. They were His most honoured servants, already sent out with power and authority by the Lord Jesus, as we saw at the beginning of this chapter. Yet they could not cope with this aggravated form of demon possession.
They had the authority. Something else was missing:
It was for want, not of power but of faith, that they could not cast the spirit out. Faith always supposes two things. First, a sense of the weight and yoke of evil that presses on man. Second, confidence in God as always superior to evil in His gracious power and supreme. There may be failure, but never final defeat where room is left for God to come in, and the heart holds to the certainty that His glory is bound up in the matter. The lack of this was what grieved the Lord Jesus; their inability came from a lack of faith and of self-judgment.
One writer names the state of soul that such faith grows in:
Prayer is the expression, in confidence in God, of a sense of complete dependence. Fasting will mean that separated state which refuses lawful things and lawful enjoyments, so that we may be more entirely devoted to the Lord's service. It may sometimes include going without food, but to limit it to that is to miss its main point. A fasting soul is one so filled with the richness of heavenly joys that it rises above the pleasures of earth and does not depend on them. Whether in the Lord's service or in deep personal need, faith is what brings in divine power for help and deliverance. Faith looks past every difficulty and obstacle and takes hold of the arm of Almighty God.
- Descent. The Lord does not stay on the mountain. He comes down into the crowd and meets distress, Satan's power, and His own disciples' unbelief.
- Cry. One father's plea rises out of the crowd, and his own heart suffers more than his son's body.
- Only. "My only child" is Luke's third such case, after the widow of Nain's only son and Jairus' only daughter, and the Lord answers each one.
- Failure. The Lord had already given those men power and authority. What they lacked was faith and self-judgment, not equipment.
- Supply. The mountain showed the glory He will bring us to; the plain shows the grace that keeps us the whole way there.
and behold, a spirit takes him, and suddenly he cries out, and it tears him with foaming, and with difficulty departs from him after crushing him.
The day after three disciples saw His glory on the mountain, Jesus walks into a crowd. A father is describing what a spirit does to his only son. His words raise two questions. What does this suffering tell us about the world we live in? And why could the disciples, who already had authority over demons, do nothing?
The scene at the top of the hill and the scene at the bottom could not be more different.
How great the contrast when the next day they came down from the hill! Above, all had been glory, the power and glory of Christ, and with it order and peace. Below, all was under the power of Satan, with disorder and distraction. A child held by an especially vicious demon put the nine disciples at the foot of the hill to the test, and they failed. Jesus acted at once to free the child. The majestic power He showed among the disorders at the foot of the hill matched the glory shown on its top the day before.
Each phrase of the father's account names a separate act of cruelty.
This case brings out how cruel and vicious the demon was. He attacked the boy without warning, so that the boy cried out in terror. He convulsed him inside until he foamed at the mouth, and crushed him on the outside when, it seems, he was about to leave the boy for a time (vs.38-39). It looks like a case where the demon could come in and go out at his own will.
Some have argued the boy was only mentally ill, and that Jesus played along with the family's belief. The wording in Matthew, Mark and Luke says otherwise.
Some have argued that the people said to be possessed were really mentally ill, and only imagined they were possessed... But this is just an attempt to deny the power of Satan and his agents over man, and also God's power in the miracles... Scripture names the mentally ill alongside those possessed by demons, and treats the two as different. Matt. 4:24. It is true that in Matt. 17:14-16 the father of a boy possessed by a demon called him mentally ill, and said the disciples could not cure him. But in Mark 9:17 he said his son had a mute spirit, and in Luke 9:39 "a spirit seizes him." This was a case of possession: the Lord rebuked the demon, and it left him.
The boy had suffered like this since childhood. One writer reads that detail as a picture of the whole human race.
This is an all too accurate picture of our race, which fell into Satan's hands in its infancy — in the days of the garden of Eden... The suffering child was in constant danger of his life. His father said that the unclean spirit inside him had often thrown him into fire and into water to destroy him. In the same way, every sinner who has not been delivered is in danger — not only of disaster in this life, but of eternal destruction.
The suffering did not stop with the child. Christ steps down from the mountain straight into it.
The Lord comes down and meets three things — a throng of men, Satan's power, and the disciples' unbelief. What a picture of distress this is! One man's son was held by a demon (v. 39), and the father's heart was torn more than the son's body. The world will weep till they are tired of weeping, and then go on with the same thing again.
The disciples had already tried and failed. The reason lay in them, not in Christ.
They could not cast the spirit out for want of faith, not for want of power. Faith always assumes two things. First, a sense of the weight and yoke of evil that presses on man. Second, confidence in God, who in His gracious power is always supreme over evil. There may be failure, but never final defeat where there is still room for God to come in. Their inability was due to a lack of faith and of self-judgment.
Another writer points to the disciples' own hearts, and to two things missing from their practice.
Why could they not deal with it? Because the spirit of their own greatness and importance was working in them! The only power that could deal with the matter came by prayer and fasting, and these were missing... prayer brings God in, and fasting keeps the world out. Faced with the weakness and helplessness of the disciples, Christ speaks the word and routs the enemy.
- The grip. The spirit seized the boy without warning, convulsed him, and crushed him as it left. It came and went at its own will.
- The picture. A bondage that began in childhood pictures our race, which fell into Satan's hands in its infancy. Everyone not yet delivered is still in danger.
- The powerlessness. The disciples already had authority, yet they stood helpless. Christ did not lack power; they lacked faith and self-judgment.
- The presence. Christ came down from the mountain into the crowd. He met Satan's power and His disciples' unbelief, spoke a word, and routed the enemy.
- The proof. The power He showed among the disorders at the foot of the hill matched the glory shown on its top the day before.
And I besought thy disciples that they might cast him out, and they could not.
Jesus comes down from the mountain where His glory had just shone. He walks straight into a crowd, a desperate father, and a boy held by a demon. The father's complaint is not against Jesus but against His followers. These were men already sent out with authority. Why did real power sit unused in the hands of real believers?
Where this scene stands matters. The bright vision on the mountain sits right beside the misery at its foot.
The next scene throws us straight into the world as it really is. We feel it all the more sharply because of the bright vision of the coming age on the mountain of the transfiguration... Such was the power of the demon over him. Worst of all, the disciples were completely unable to meet the case. They were men of God. They were His most honoured servants. The Lord Jesus had already sent them out with power and authority, as we saw at the start of this chapter. Yet they could not cope with this severe form of demon possession.
The disciples were not short of power. They were short of the faith that lays hold of it. That failure is a second form of unbelief — unbelief inside a believer.
Here we see another form of man's unbelief, the unbelief of the believer himself. He cannot use the power that is, so to speak, at his disposal in the Lord... The disciples should have used this power. They ought to have known how to take hold, by faith, of what Jesus had shown on earth. But they were not able to do it. Yet what good was it to bring this power down here, if the disciples had no faith to use it?
If faith was the missing thing, what does faith hold? One writer names two parts, and both must be present.
They could not cast the spirit out for lack of faith, not for lack of power. Faith always involves two things. One is a sense of the weight and yoke of the evil that presses on man. The other is confidence in God, who in His gracious power is always above evil and supreme. There may be failure, but never final defeat. That is true wherever we leave room for God to come in, and the heart holds to the certainty that His glory is bound up in the matter.
The disciples' failure could have ended the father's hope. Instead it drove him one step further.
The distressed father did not despair. He turned from the failing disciples to the One who never fails. How humbling, when believers dishonour their Lord like this! ... Did He not give the twelve apostles, and more than the twelve, authority over the unclean spirits? How was it, then, that these put shame on His name by failing to draw on Him?
Another writer sets the father beside the twelve.
There was more faith in the man who brought his child than in them, for his sense of need drove him to the remedy.
Not all evil spirits are alike, and this one asked for more than the disciples brought.
There are differences among the evil spirits, and the kind in question yielded only to prayer and fasting. That lack was grievous in the Lord's eyes.
So what do prayer and fasting mean in practice?
Prayer is the expression of complete dependence on God. Fasting means the absolute refusal of ourselves and all human gratifications. In practice we set the natural man completely aside, and walk in simple dependence on God alone. This will mean death to myself as a man here in every way.
The Lord's grief went past this one case. One writer sees the same failure reaching far beyond that day.
It grieves the Lord deeply. The disciples had faith, but that faith lay asleep in the face of difficulties. It barely knew how to draw on the power of Christ on the one hand for the deep distress of man on the other... This is the very thing that will ruin Christendom. It was also the ground on which the Lord closed all His dealings with His ancient people, Israel.
- Power given. The Lord had already sent the disciples out with authority over unclean spirits. He took nothing back.
- Power unused. Their failure was not a shortage of power but an inability to draw on it — unbelief in believers, not in the world.
- Faith defined. Faith feels the full weight of the evil and still counts on God as greater. Leave room for God, and there may be failure but never final defeat.
- Condition restored. Prayer owns our dependence and fasting sets self aside. That is the state in which the power works.
- Stakes named. Sleeping faith in those who bear His name shames Him. On that same ground the Lord closed His dealings with His ancient people.
And Jesus answering said, O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring hither thy son.
Jesus comes down from the mountain where His glory had shone out, and walks straight into a scene of Satan's power over a boy. His own disciples cannot help, and His words here are aimed not at the demon or the father, but at a whole generation.
The scene at the foot of the mountain stands against the glory just seen above.
The next scene throws us straight into the world as it really is. We feel it all the more sharply because of the bright vision of the coming age on the mount of transfiguration... Here, on the contrary, we have the world as it now is through the power of Satan... It was a picture, indeed, of Israel and we may say of man. Such was the power of the demon over the boy. The most distressing fact was that the disciples were quite unable to meet the case. They were men of God, His most honoured servants. The Lord Jesus had already sent them out with power and authority... and yet they could not cope with this severe form of demon possession.
"Faithless" and "twisted" name two different faults. (Older versions read "perverse.")
The Lord's words here imply that the spiritual state of His disciples caused their failure to drive out the demon. He called them faithless, that is, lacking positive faith; and perverse, which points to an abuse or misuse of the power the Lord had given them... We too should take to heart a solemn warning. The Lord may give us a gift and special grace to do fruitful work for Him, yet we may abuse these things for selfish or self-willed ends.
The Lord had already given them authority. Something else was missing.
They could not cast the spirit out for lack, not of power, but of faith. Faith always assumes two things. First, a sense of the weight and yoke of evil that presses on man. Second, confidence in God, who in His gracious power is always supreme and above evil. There may be failure, but never final defeat where the heart leaves room for God to come in and holds to the certainty that His glory is at stake in the matter. The lack of this faith is what grieved the Lord Jesus. Their inability came from a lack of faith and of self-judgment.
The question sets a limit on His stay. One writer notes who Christ asks it of — and who He does not.
The Lord does not say, "O needy world, how long am I to be with you?" The need of the world is what brought Him into it. He asks it of unbelieving disciples: "How long am I to be with you and bear with you?"... God opened this age of grace by His power and goodness. It will close because those who have professed the Name of Christ cannot use His power and grace.
The words are a rebuke, but they also show what living among sin cost Him.
Sin itself must have been a constant source of sorrow to the Lord's mind... His perfect love brought relief here, but it did not prevent the sorrow it relieved. "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?" was met by, "Bring your son here." But He felt the unbelief just as much... The holier and more loving He was, the more dreadful was the sin to Him.
The rebuke is not the end of the verse. What comes next opens the Lord's heart.
After speaking of our faithlessness and perversity, the Lord at once adds, "Bring your son here." The first part of the verse exposes our hearts; the second part reveals His heart. It is as if He said, "However much you fail, you will find in Me an unfailing resource. Whatever is in your hearts, and whatever your needs, come to Me. Bring them all to Me."... as long as the Lord was present, His grace and power were available to all who brought their needs to Him.
One writer lines up those disciples at the foot of the mountain with believers now.
There are three points of likeness between ourselves and these disciples. First, the Lord is absent in both cases. Second, we, like them, live constantly in the presence of Satan's power — sadly, sometimes among Christians, and always in the souls of those who are not converted. Third, God gives us power greater than all the strength of the enemy (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 John 4:4), as much as He gave the disciples, if not more.
- Contrast. The glory on the mountain and the demon in the valley stand side by side. Together they show the world as it now is under Satan's power.
- Cause. The disciples failed from lack of faith, not lack of power. Faith feels the weight of evil and still counts on God as greater.
- Charge. "Faithless" means no positive faith; "perverse" means power given by Christ turned to self-willed use.
- Cost. The world's need is what brought Him. What ends His stay is the failure of those who bear His name to use what He supplies.
- Cure. In the same breath as the rebuke comes "Bring your son here." The first half of the verse exposes our hearts; the second reveals His.
But as he was yet coming, the demon tore him and dragged him all together. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child and gave him back to his father.
Jesus comes straight down from the mountain where His glory had shone. He walks into a crowd where a demon is throwing a boy to the ground. Three moments follow: the enemy's worst attack, one rebuke from Christ, and a son given back to his father.
The disciples had just seen glory above. Below they find distress, indifference, and helplessness.
The father's heart is racked with distress. The devil tears his son's body. The crowd does not care. The Lord's disciples are helpless! What a picture this is of the world we live in! A needy but callous world around us, the devil against us, and the flesh within us. Yet, like the disciples, we have the Lord with us in all His grace, and His coming glory before us. It is as if He said, "On the Mount I have shown you the glory I will bring you to. In the Plain I will now show you the grace that can keep you every step of the way to that glory."
The demon throws the boy down while he is still on his way to Jesus. The attack comes at the moment of rescue. Commentators see a pattern here.
At times the Lord Jesus was about to set a poor captive of Satan free. At that very moment the enemy would put out some fresh energy of evil, and his captive would seem to be in his worst state.
The verse uses two names in one sentence. A demon throws the boy down. Jesus rebukes an unclean spirit. Are these two different beings?
In the Gospel accounts the terms "unclean spirits" and "demons" often refer to the same case. Take the boy at the foot of the mount of Transfiguration. We are told that as he was coming to Jesus, "the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy" (Luke 9:42). Without citing other instances, this is enough to show that the two terms mean the same thing.
One rebuke ends the attack. But the way Jesus uses that power is itself the lesson.
The Lord had before Him a fresh and, if possible, mightier effort of Satan. But His power rose above every effort of Satan — or rather the power of God, which He wielded as the self-emptied Son and obedient Man… The blessedness of Jesus was this: He never did anything simply as God, but as the Man who was dependent on God. If He had not kept that place, and worked as man by the power of the Holy Spirit, He would have failed to keep the perfect place of man and servant in the world.
Luke gives the cure in a single line. The shortness is itself the point.
As the tormented son was brought to the Lord, the evil spirit, as if in defiance, threw him down and convulsed him. The Lord Jesus simply rebuked the evil spirit, healed the child and delivered him to his father. Luke stresses the simplicity and ease of His work. Yet we know from Mark 9:20-27 that more was involved than this. Mark shows the detailed service of the Lord in the work He does for His creatures.
The healing is not the end of the sentence. Christ hands the boy back, and one writer notices the word "only" running through this story and two others like it.
The Spirit does not use this touching word in these three lovely stories by accident. He uses it to prepare our hearts, so that we may enter more deeply into what it meant for God to give His only-begotten Son for you and for me… The father in this story did not have much faith. But the Lord rebuked the unclean spirit, and it came out, and He gave the boy back to his father. In each case He gave the child back to the parent, though indeed He might have claimed them.
("Only begotten" is an older phrase for an only child — a father's one and only son.)
This small scene at the foot of the mountain points ahead to something much larger.
While glory was displayed on the holy mount, a painful scene took place below. The coming down of the Lord Jesus changed everything. Satan's powers were overthrown, and tears gave place to thanksgiving and joy. Even so will it be in the great day we are waiting for, and for which the whole creation groans (Luke 9:37-42; Rom. 8:17-22).
- Descent — Christ comes down from the glory of the mountain into a plain where the devil is against us, the crowd does not care, and the flesh is within. The mountain shows the glory; the plain shows the grace that brings us there.
- Fury — the demon throws the boy down on his way to Jesus. The enemy strikes hardest at the point of rescue.
- Word — one rebuke ends it, and the two names in the verse, demon and unclean spirit, describe the same being.
- Manner — the power is God's, yet wielded by One who acted as a dependent Man, never doing anything simply as God.
- Gift — the cure is not the last word. Christ hands the child back to his father, and that points to a Father who gave His only-begotten Son.
And all were astonished at the glorious greatness of God. And as all wondered at all the things which [Jesus] did, he said to his disciples,
Jesus came down from the mountain of glory into a crowd where His disciples had failed to drive out a demon. He healed the child, and the people stood amazed at God's majesty — then Jesus turned their wonder toward His own betrayal.
The two scenes belong together. The same greatness appeared on the mountaintop and at its foot, in two very different settings.
What a contrast when they came down from the hill the next day! Above, everything was glory — the power and glory of Christ, and with it order and peace. Below, everything lay under the power of Satan, in disorder and confusion. At the foot of the hill the nine disciples faced a test — a child with a fierce demon — and they failed... The majestic power He showed in the disorder at the foot of the hill matched the glory He had shown on the top the day before.
The crowd's amazement went to God, not simply to Jesus. That matters, because of the way Jesus worked.
So the Lord now faced a fresh and even stronger attack from Satan. But His power — or rather the power of God, which He used as the self-emptied Son and obedient Man — rose above everything Satan could do... "And all were astonished at the majesty of God." Yet why should they have been? Jesus was God Himself made known in human flesh. But this was the blessedness of Jesus: He never did anything simply as God, but as the Man who depended on God.
Amazement sounds like praise. Here it exposed a fault. What surprised them gave them away.
"And all were astonished at the majesty of God" — older translations read "the mighty power of God." It is very humbling to see how amazed they were at this power. They did not wonder at the power of the evil. They should have counted on His power so fully that they would have been amazed only if He had not used it. Christ brings them back to the cross. He tells them to let His words sink into their ears: the Son of man will be handed over to men... It was as if He said, "I would rather you came now to own the rejected One than went looking for this power."
Jesus speaks to the disciples, not the crowd, and the timing matters. Public success is the moment when something in us wants to rise.
Then, having acted in power by casting out the demon, the Lord uses the moment to warn us about another form of the flesh — its pride. That pride would use the display of power to lift itself up (vv. 43, 44). A display of power might lead people to think that Christ is honoured in this world, forgetting that men reject Him... The disciples were looking for a kingdom in power; the Lord had crucifixion in weakness before Him... The Kingdom in power will come, as the scene on the mountain tells us, but the way to it runs through rejection by men and the suffering of the cross.
The One who had just freed a child from Satan's grip now says that men will take Him into their hands. The two look impossible together — and yet they are the heart of salvation.
He was the Deliverer from Satan's power... but what are we to say when we hear that the Son of man will be handed over to men? Here unbelief always fails. It never knows how to put these two things together. It does seem a moral and mental contradiction that the mightiest of deliverers should look like the weakest of all beings, handed over to men — His own creatures! But it had to be so. A sinner could be saved for eternity, and the grace of God could lay a righteous basis for justifying the ungodly, only if Jesus, the Son of man, was handed over to men.
Their excitement did not make them better listeners. It made them deaf, and one writer suggests fear lay underneath.
the Lord did not encourage excitement or high spirits among His disciples. He worked to calm them by pressing on them the sobering truth of the words He had spoken before... Yet the wonder of His miracle so filled their minds that the truth of His words seemed to leave them untouched... We may avoid truth because we fear it. We fear that it will restrict or change what we do not want changed or restricted.
- Majesty seen — the glory of the mountain went to work in the chaos below. Satan's strongest effort met the power of God in Jesus.
- Majesty veiled — He never acted simply as God. He acted as the obedient Man who depended on God, so the crowd saw God's greatness at work.
- Majesty misread — they marvelled at the power instead of counting on it. They should have been amazed only if He had not used it.
- Majesty redirected — at the height of the applause He speaks of His betrayal. That checks the pride which turns a display of power into self-importance.
- Majesty completed — the mightiest Deliverer is handed over to men. Only on that righteous ground can God justify the ungodly.