Matthew 17:1–3

So, "After six days" (a type of the ordinary span of work down here), "Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves" (v. 1). That is, He takes chosen witnesses. It was only a testimony to the kingdom — the sample of what He had referred to when He said, "There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

The glory of the kingdom, as we saw, depends on His being the Son of Man. He is the exalted Man who had once suffered, and all glory is committed into His hands. He had at every cost retrieved the honour of God, and He is to make the blessing of man effective.

Matthew writes from a Jewish point of view, where the seventh day is the day of glory. So he says "After six days". Luke looks at things from another angle, the resurrection aspect that the eighth day shows. So he says "about eight days". Both are correct. Matthew does not include the two end days, while Luke does. Exactly six days — complete days — came between the prophecy and its fulfilment. There is no discrepancy or mistake in this, or in any other Scripture.

The "after six days" that opens the account, here and in Mark, points, I believe, to the final character of what this scene pictures. It comes after the time of work and of overcoming is finished.

John, Peter and James were the three witnesses Peter has in mind — they were on the holy mount, the mount of transfiguration. These three disciples were the eyewitnesses whom Satan tried to remove. He wanted to stop any divine and perfect testimony about the prophetic word, for that is the point before us.

What I said about the transfiguration was that those three men were going to be pillars (see Gal. 2), and that this was to clear and strengthen their faith.

The other word is ἀναφέρω, 'to bring up', and so 'to offer up'. In Matt. 17:1, Jesus 'brings up' Peter and the others; and in Luke 24:51 the Lord was 'carried up' into heaven. Hebrews 7:27 uses this word both of the high priest 'offering up' sacrifices and of Jesus who 'offered up' Himself.

The Lord takes only three disciples up with Him to witness it. They show us that if we want such disclosures, we need a closeness to Him that only a few have. The "high mountain" was most probably Hermon, near Caesarea Philippi. But it is not named, and even if we were sure, we could base nothing on it. Earth in fact has no knowledge of the heights where such visions of the future may be enjoyed.

The Lord Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John with Him. He brought them up into a high mountain apart, to show them a sample of His future glory. That sight would strengthen their spirits against the trying scenes through which both He and they had yet to pass.

When He went up the mountain with His disciples, He was, to all outward appearance, only a man among men. To the natural eye there was nothing to distinguish Him from Peter, James, or John... But on the mountain this amazing change (called transfiguration) happened. What was its nature? May we not say this? It was His essential purity or holiness breaking out and flooding the vessel that held it. So He stood before His disciples as a being of light. For "his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light." This vessel — His body — screened these rays of His beauty and glory at other times. But now nothing held them back. They shone through and lit up both His body and His clothes, so that He stood there truly glorified before their eyes.

In the middle of His service of humiliation our Lord was for a little while transfigured. It was not like Moses, whose face shone because he had been near the divine Presence. Our Lord was with His own here below... "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him." It is a small picture of His kingdom. In that kingdom there will be risen and changed saints, along with others in their natural bodies, and the Lord at the centre of it all.

"His face shone like the sun" would suggest a place of supreme power and authority. "And his clothes became white as light" would refer to His intrinsic purity. He had always moved in the light, and there was no darkness in Him at all.

The Saviour's face shone like the sun. As the Sun of righteousness He will yet rise upon this poor earth (Mal. 4:2). The sun is the emblem of supreme authority, which God will before long put into the hands of the Crucified. His clothing, too, became white as the light. It suggested the absolute purity of His coming rule.

If that is so, Christ, as He was in His transfiguration, is the presentation of what believers will be when they are glorified with Him... Christ on the mountain shows us what His people will be when He comes to receive them to Himself; but this mighty change is morally begun in them while here. So in Rom. 12:2 the apostle says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (transfigured) by the renewal of your mind"... This Scripture shows that our transfiguration must begin from within... But how is this to be done? Passing now to 2 Cor. 3:18, we find the answer... "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord"... it is by beholding that we "are being transformed (transfigured) into the same image from one degree of glory to another."

The whole purpose of the vision was to show the church her portion in the glory. The God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, and that is what this scene showed. So the transfiguration passed on the Lord, on Moses and Elijah — they all appeared in the same glory. Moses and Elijah were no longer what they had once been on earth, and neither was the Lord Himself. Their lowly bodies had been made like His glorious body. He appeared for a little while in glory, and they appeared in glory with Him.

Moses was the man through whom God gave the law. Elijah was the great example of the prophets, who called the people back to the law of Jehovah. They were the pillars of the Jewish system. Every true Israelite looked back to them with the deepest reverence. One of them was the only Jew taken to heaven without passing through death. The other had a singular honour: Jehovah Himself buried him, so that he should not become an object of worship after his death.

The law and the prophets are the two great witnesses. They come in here for this reason: everything was about to disappear, and Jesus would be left alone. At the end everything goes. Moses is gone, Elijah is gone, and Christ alone is left, and remains for evermore.

It is a miniature of His kingdom. In it will be the risen and changed saints, along with others in their natural bodies, and the Lord the centre of all.

Elijah represents the saints who have been caught up to heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11). Moses represents those who have died and been raised again — though Moses himself had not been raised. In what body he appeared we do not know. Peter, James and John illustrate the earthly side of the coming kingdom.

They "spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." Just before the scene on the Mount, and again just after it, the Lord speaks of His death, but we read "they understood not." On the plain the disciples are dull of hearing. On the Mount there is divine intelligence in the mind of heaven and the heart of Jesus. There Moses and Elijah share with Christ what fills His heart. They lose sight of the enmity of men; they no longer think of the death of Christ as something wicked hands brought about, but of "His decease which He should accomplish."

Surely this will be our joy for ever, when we are in glory with Christ — to dwell on this theme: His decease accomplished at Jerusalem.

And of course Moses and Elijah were known. Their individuality was not swallowed up by death, or by removal from the earth without death. This should settle the question people often ask: shall we know each other in resurrection glory? Of course we will. The disciples easily recognised Moses and Elijah; in the same way every saint will be known.

The moment anyone puts Moses and Elijah on a level with Jesus, they both disappear. A voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son; listen to Him." It does not say, "Listen to them," but "Listen to Him." Christ in His wondrous grace shows Moses and Elijah as His companions in the glory. But the moment Peter speaks the thought that would place them on an equality with Christ, they must both vanish from the scene.

Moses loses Canaan through speaking rashly with his lips. But does that change God's intention to bless him for ever?... We afterwards see Moses on the mount of glory, with the Lord, at the transfiguration. There he could surely look back and see the path along which the goodness of the Lord had led him, and the links of the chain that we cannot see.