What does it mean that we have a more sure word of prophecy (2 Peter 1:19)?

The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was not only a special and particular confirmation of the reality of His coming kingdom, but it also in a general way was a confirmation of the whole prophetic testimony of the Old Testament. This is what the opening words of verse 19 state, "and we have the prophetic word made surer" (N.Tr.). This is not difficult to understand if we search the Old Testament and observe how all its glowing predictions centre in the Messiah's Kingdom on earth, so that to establish the reality of His glorious coming Kingdom, was to establish the whole prophetic witness of the Old Testament.

These early Jewish Christians were perhaps somewhat inclined to ignore Old Testament prophecy, as though it were superseded by the developments as to the sufferings of Christ, so unexpected by them. The Apostle Peter here assures them of its value and importance for it is as a 'light' [or, lamp] that shines in a dark place." The word in the original translated "dark" is one which means "squalid" or "filthy." This world with all its clever inventions and elegant splendour is only a squalid place in God's estimation, as also in the estimation of every Christian who is taught of Him. The only real light shed in the squalor is that which comes from the lamp of prophecy. Men indulge in vain imaginings as to the "millennium" which they will evolve from the present filth. Such imaginings are just a Will-o'-the-wisp. The lamp of prophecy brings us into the light of God's purpose and God's coming work of both judgment and salvation, and it enables us to see the squalor of the world that is, as well as the glory of the world to come.

Typically, the transfiguration is a perfect and lovely picture of the future kingdom. This cannot be disputed, for we have the Lord's word for it (Matt. 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27). It starts with the coming of the Lord in power and glory. So we read in 2 Peter 1:16-18, "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables," says the apostle, "when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount." Here we have an over-abounding testimony — that of three men, each of them, I need not say, fully worthy of credit. They saw and heard: it was no dream, no fanciful picture. And the apostle shows how it bears upon, and agrees with, the prophetic word, of which it is a confirmation, making it, as it were, more sure, by adding the testimony of three trustworthy disciples to that of holy men of God moved by the Holy Ghost.

There are several points to be noticed in this striking scripture if the mind of the Spirit is to be apprehended. The first is that the subject which the apostle is desirous of establishing in the souls of these believers to whom he is writing (and also in ours) is that of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. To certify them of this, he reminds them that he had been an eye-witness of this on the mount of transfiguration, and that he had heard the voice from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In one word, he had seen and heard, and this is the qualification of a competent witness. (1 John 1:3.) This accords, moreover, with the historical accounts of this event in the gospels. The Lord had said to them on the eve of taking them up with Him into the "holy mount," "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Matt. 16:28); and we also read, that the three chosen disciples for this privilege "saw his glory." (Luke 9:32.) Peter was therefore, we repeat, a competent witness of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the scene in the holy mount was, as the Lord Himself has said, an anticipative display of that glorious event — a sample of what will be manifested when the Lord will come, as Son of man, in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26.)

The next point to be observed is that the prophetic word, which had told of the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, was made surer, or confirmed (for this is undoubtedly the sense of the apostle's words), by what was seen when the Lord was transfigured before the eyes of His disciples. No careful reader of the Old Testament could fail to notice the glowing predictions and descriptions of the coming Messiah's kingdom. Thus, for example, David speaks: "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him." (Ps. 72:7-11; see also Isa. 9 - 12, Isa. 25 - 27, Isa. 51 - 59, Isa. 60 - 62, and many other passages in the prophets.) Now the purport of Peter's statement is, as already said, that all these prophecies were confirmed to the three chosen eye-witnesses of the glory of Christ, and to those who received their testimony, by the honour and glory which our Lord received from God the Father, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The testimony of the prophets was, and is, sufficient as a foundation for faith; but just as God was pleased, out of regard to the weakness of His servant, to add an oath to confirm His promise to Abraham (see Heb. 6), so, considering the weakness of Peter, James and John, and the weakness of His people, He allowed them to behold the Lord in His transfigured condition, and to hear the expression of God's delight in His beloved Son, together with the proclamation that all authority was entrusted to Him, that they might be established in the certainty of the future display of the glory of Christ in His kingdom.

Remark also, that the light of prophecy was, anterior to this, the only guide as to the kingdom in display; and indeed the only light as to it now, unless the day has dawned, and the Morning Star has arisen in our hearts. It is on this account that Peter says that, until this has taken place, we do well to take heed to prophecy as to a light that shineth in a dark place.

The power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ so long foretold in prophetic testimony, is, however, no "cunningly devised fable," and Peter is able to bear such a witness to its substantial reality as is conclusive. In verses 16 to 18 he says to us, in effect, "The prophetic testimony is true and the kingdom foretold is a substantial reality to be displayed in its season, for we have seen it already in sample form. He alluded, of course, to the transfiguration scene recorded in three out of the four gospels, and witnessed by himself, James and John.

For the value of it is eternal and precious, not the mere emptiness of cunningly devised fables, such as are multiplied in the world today. The apostles were together eyewitnesses of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And specifically was this so of Peter, James, and John, when they saw the Lord transfigured and the voice of God the Father from the excellent glory, declaring Him to be His beloved Son, in whom He had found pure delight. To this great revelation then there were three reliable witnesses, whose testimony fully agrees, and reported by three of the Gospel writers.

From verse 12 to 18 "present truth" is emphasized now verse 19 speaks also of a more sure word of prophecy, truth as to the future being absolutely certain, and therefore a solid basis of encouragement for the saints, just as is present truth. We do well therefore to take heed to prophecy, not only intellectually, but in our hearts. For the phrase beginning "as unto a light," and ending "day star arise" is a parenthesis. Prophecy is a light that shines in a dark place until the light of the day dawns with the arising of the morning star. Of course the morning star speaks of the coming of Christ for His saints. It is not that the morning star arises in our hearts, but to prophecy we do well to take heed in our hearts.

Two other Scriptures present Christ as the morning star. The Apostle Peter writes, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy: whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as to a light (or 'lamp') that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts" (2 Peter 1:19). Prophecy is a light in the darkness; Christ is the star of the day. It is true that both shine in the darkness but there is this difference between the lamp and the morning star: the lamp tells me the darkness is here; the star tells me the day is coming. Prophecy warns us as to the condition of the world around, and the judgments to which it is hastening and, as the Apostle says, we do well to take heed to it. Thus the effect of prophecy is to close up all our hopes of this present age and to centre our hopes in Christ. He is seen to be the coming One, and when our affections are drawn out to Christ as the centre of all our hopes then, indeed, it can be said that the day star has arisen in our hearts.

So, in Peter, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts." The word of prophecy is a light shining in a dark place. The world is all dark, and prophecy comes in and tells me the end of a dark world, and of all that passes in it. It is going on down a full stream to destruction. I cannot go on with that; my affections cannot be engaged in it. But the night is far spent, and the day is at hand. We know Christ in heaven, we know Him as the morning star when the world does not see Him. We know Him above, where the church first was put in relationship with Him. It is said to the church of Thyatira, "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron," etc. "And," He adds, "I will give him the morning star"; that is, he shall be a king and shall rule; but, besides that, I will give him Myself. We shall have an inheritance, and this with Christ. But do you think supposing a person were going to be married, and said to the bride, You will have a fine estate, would that be what would most occupy her mind? Certainly not. If her affections were true and right, it would be himself and not the inheritance that she would be occupied about.

In Peter you have a "more sure word of prophecy," but it is literally "the word of prophecy confirmed," i.e., they had seen Christ in the glory, and that confirmed the prophetic word. And, he says, ye do well to take heed unto it, "as unto a light that shineth in a dark place," which shews what all around us is going on to.

But the prophetic word nowhere reveals those heavenly counsels which the mystery (hid from the ages) made known through Paul. Nor does Peter here do more than allude to it under the strikingly distinct figures of "day" and "morning star." The lamp is excellent to cast adequate light on this dark world, its evil and its doom; and they did well in paying it heed, "till day dawn and a (or, the) morning star arise in your hearts." That is to say, till they apprehend with enjoyment the bright heavenly relationship which Christianity fully understood gives us now in Christ, and the heavenly hope of His coming to introduce us into the Father's house. The prophetic lamp is good to help us against the squalid place; but how much more is "daylight" in Christ to lift us above the world in all our associations of faith, and the bright hope, Christ as Morning Star, which He not only is, but has promised to give the overcomer (Rev. 2:28, Rev. 22:16-17)!

The apostle adds an important caution to the commendation in ver. 19. They did well in taking heed to the prophetic word. God alone can speak with certainty of the future, for a world in confusion and change, prone to sin; and He has been pleased, not only to speak but to write by chosen instruments, that those who believe may profit by His communications, where otherwise they were liable to stray, but thereby were enabled by faith to enjoy the measure of light thus afforded. His people could not despise it, save to His dishonour and their own loss.

He and the other apostles had not followed cunningly devised fables when they made known the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had been eye witnesses of His majesty. But where and how? He speaks of the scene on the holy mount, when the Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured before them, when they heard the voice of the Father from the excellent glory. He stood upon that mount clothed with the glory of the Father; with Him Moses and Elijah, the one who had died, the other who went to heaven without dying. It was a foregleam of His coming glory and a fulfillment of the promise given in the last verse of Matthew 16. As He stood upon that mountain, so He will appear in His glory on earth again, bringing His saints with Him. It is His visible and glorious appearing to which Peter refers, and which was foreshadowed in the transfiguration, and not that coming promised to His own in John 14:1-3, to take them into the Father's house. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy" should be rendered, "We have the word of prophecy made more sure." The Word of prophecy is, of course, in the Old Testament. But is not this sure enough? Why should it be made more sure? It must be understood in the sense of attesting, or confirming the word of prophecy. The transfiguration confirmed the prophecies in the Old Testament. The prophets describe such a scene like the transfiguration, when the Son of Man comes from heaven in power and glory; hence the word of prophecy has been confirmed, made more sure, by the scene on the holy mount. Let it be stated again that the Old Testament prophetic Word does not reveal that coming for His saints, which is for the Church "that blessed Hope." When Paul speaks of it in 1 Corinthians 15 he speaks of it as a mystery; it was hidden in former ages (1 Cor. 15:51). Yet in the verse before us Peter alludes to it when he speaks of the morning star.

There is a difficulty connected with this verse, and some have read it as if it meant that the morning star must arise in the heart of the individual, as it has been stated in the following comment: "The day star arising in our hearts will be the inner premonitions which announce the coming, as the day star heralds the dawn; such premonitions might be occasioned by observing the various signs of the coming." But it does not mean this at all, nor does it mean that prophecy is only to be used for encouragement till we possess the proper Christian hope. The suggested rendering in the Numerical Bible removes the difficulty. "We have also the prophetic Word confirmed, to which ye do well in taking heed (as to a lamp that shineth in an obscure place, until the day dawn and the morning star ariseth) in your hearts." It does not mean that the morning star is to arise in the heart of the believer; it means that we should take heed to prophecy in our hearts. And how the entire prophetic Word, that blessed lamp, is needed in these darkening days!

The day dawn is preceded by the rising of the morning star, or day star, and the morning star is the blessed emblem of the coming of the Lord for His saints. He is both the morning star and the sun of righteousness. He appears as the morning star for His saints and afterward in full glory as the sun of righteousness.