Matthew 17:4. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
If Peter had known that hymn by Dr. Watts, -
"My willing soul would stay In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away To everlasting bliss;" -
he would have thought it appropriate to sing at that moment; and whenever we get up on the mount, we have no desire to go down again. Our one thought is, "Oh, that this happy experience would last! Oh, that we might keep in this blessed company for ever!" Yet our highest religious excitements cannot continue, even as the sea is not always at flood tide. The talk between those three - Jesus, and Moses, and Elias, - must have been well worth hearing. I would like to have been one of the three untransfigured, unglorified apostles, to listen to the conversation of the three glorified ones. We know what they talked about, for Luke tells us that they "spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem;" and it is very singular that the Greek word which he used to describe Christ’s decease is the word "exodus." They "spake of his exodus which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Moses knew all about the exodus out of Egypt; and what a type that was of Christ’s departure out of this world; -the death of the lamb, - the sprinkling of the blood, - the slaying of the firstborn among the Egyptians, even as Christ smote sin, death, and hell; -the triumphant coming out of Israel, with silver and gold, setting forth Christ’s ascension to his Father with all his precious treasures captured from the hand of the enemy. How changed must the feelings of Elias have been since the day when he said, "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away;" for now he was seeing the King in his glory, and talking with him about his approaching departure. How did Peter, and James, and John know that these two men were Moses and Elias? They had never seen them in the flesh, yet they evidently recognized them; so, as they knew people whom they had not known on earth, I am sure that I shall know in heaven those whom I did know here; I shall have the advantage of them in that respect. I suppose they said to one another, as soon as they saw these men, "That is Moses, and that is Elijah;" yet they had never seen them; and shall not we, when we meet our dear kindred and friends, say at once, "That is So-and-so, with whom I took sweet counsel on earth when we walked to the house of God in company"? Surely, the mutual recognition of the saints hardly needs a better support than this passage supplies.
Matthew 17:4. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
If Peter had known that hymn by Dr. Watts, -
"My willing soul would stay In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away To everlasting bliss;" -
he would have thought it appropriate to sing at that moment; and whenever we get up on the mount, we have no desire to go down again. Our one thought is, "Oh, that this happy experience would last! Oh, that we might keep in this blessed company for ever!" Yet our highest religious excitements cannot continue, even as the sea is not always at flood tide. The talk between those three - Jesus, and Moses, and Elias, - must have been well worth hearing. I would like to have been one of the three untransfigured, unglorified apostles, to listen to the conversation of the three glorified ones. We know what they talked about, for Luke tells us that they "spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem;" and it is very singular that the Greek word which he used to describe Christ’s decease is the word "exodus." They "spake of his exodus which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Moses knew all about the exodus out of Egypt; and what a type that was of Christ’s departure out of this world; -the death of the lamb, - the sprinkling of the blood, - the slaying of the firstborn among the Egyptians, even as Christ smote sin, death, and hell; -the triumphant coming out of Israel, with silver and gold, setting forth Christ’s ascension to his Father with all his precious treasures captured from the hand of the enemy. How changed must the feelings of Elias have been since the day when he said, "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away;" for now he was seeing the King in his glory, and talking with him about his approaching departure. How did Peter, and James, and John know that these two men were Moses and Elias? They had never seen them in the flesh, yet they evidently recognized them; so, as they knew people whom they had not known on earth, I am sure that I shall know in heaven those whom I did know here; I shall have the advantage of them in that respect. I suppose they said to one another, as soon as they saw these men, "That is Moses, and that is Elijah;" yet they had never seen them; and shall not we, when we meet our dear kindred and friends, say at once, "That is So-and-so, with whom I took sweet counsel on earth when we walked to the house of God in company"? Surely, the mutual recognition of the saints hardly needs a better support than this passage supplies.