091. Moses--Transfiguration
Moses--Transfiguration
Luk 9:28-35. And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was while and glistering. And behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him. In the narrowness of their conceptions and the presumptuousness of their pride, men are apt to consider themselves as the only, or, at least, the chief inhabitants of the creation of God. A false patriotism, or rather a spirit of insolence and selfishness has gone farther, has ascribed the consequence of a whole universe to some insignificant little region or district of this little globe, and has represented the men who breathe on such a spot, and converse in such a language, as the only persons who are worthy of consideration. We reflect not, what a speck our own country is, compared with the whole earth; what a point the earth is, compared to the vast solar system; and how the solar system itself is lost in the contemplation of infinite space. We reflect not on the myriads of “just men made perfect,” from the death of “righteous Abel,” down to the expiring saint, whose disengaged spirit is just now on the wing to the bosom of his God; of those who, lost to us, yet live to their Creator. We reflect not on the myriads of, probably, more glorious beings, who people the greater and more glorious worlds which surround ours. We reflect not on the myriads of pure spirits who never left their first estate, that innumerable company of angels who “excel in strength,” “the least of whom could wield these elements”
Sound reason and “the wisdom which is from above” correct our narrowness of thought and pride of heart; and teach us to say, in the words which our immortal bard puts in the mouth of Adam, first of men, addressed to his fair consort--
----“Nor think, tho’ men were none,
That heaven would want spectators, God want praise,
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth,
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep;
All these with ceaseless praise his works behold,
Both day and night.”
If our ears were not dull and limited as our spirits--
----“How often, from the steep
Or echoing hill or thicket should we hear,
Celestial voices to the midnight air,
Sole, or responsive each to other’s note,
Singing their great Creator? Oft in hands,
While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,
With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds,
In full harmonic number join’d, their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven.”
We foolishly imagine the world of spirits to be at a vast distance, whereas in truth we are upon its very confines. We consider its inhabitants as entire strangers to us, whereas they are constantly about our path and our bed, attending our going out and coming in, our lying down and rising up. If our eyes were not held, we should even now behold them joining in and assisting our praises, rejoicing together, when, by the ministry of the word of divine grace, sinners are converted, and saints edified. Little did the three disciples think, when they ascended mount Tabor, that they were so near to an interview with Moses and Elias. Moses, and Elias, and Christ are not far from us; it is our folly and infirmity to think ourselves far from them. When we look back to the latter end of Moses, the man of God, we attend him up to mount Nebo, and behold him taking from Pisgah a last look and a last farewell of the glory of this world. We see his eyes closing in peace, and breathe a sigh over his tomb, and bid him a long farewell, and think we have lost him for ever. But it is not an everlasting adieu. On Tabor we have found him again, after a lapse of fifteen centuries; we find not only his name, his memory, his writings, his predictions, his spirit, alive and in force, but his very person, still employed in ministering to the salvation of the Israel of God; and hence we look forwards to the lapse of a few years more, at the expiration of which we hope to meet him indeed, not armed with that fiery law which condemns and consumes, but a minister and a fellow-partaker of that grace which redeems and saves.
We cannot consider ourselves therefore as having yet concluded the history of Moses, while that memorable event of it, which is the subject of this evening’s reading, remains unconsidered; and, as the evangelic page has exhibited him to us alive from the dead, let us devoutly attend to the reason and end of this glorious apparition. It naturally suggests to us the following reflections:
I. That Jehovah is, with undeviating, undiverted, undivided attention, carrying on the great plan of his providence, to full maturity, by every order of beings, in every possible state: by those who cheerfully enter into his views, and joyfully submit to his will; and by those who carelessly neglect or proudly oppose it. We have seen him serving himself of this Moses in the court of Pharaoh, in the pastures of Midian, in the wilderness of Sinai; as a prophet, as a legislator, as an historian. And, to fit him for a new field of action, behold him shining in a new and glorious form. The grave seems to have surrendered up its trust, heaven has yielded up one of its inhabitants, and Moses is now admitted into a land from which he was once shut out. In this world we have still to deplore faculties wasting, impairing, extinguished; usefulness interrupted, cut off in the midst, by the stroke of death, the earth impoverished by the premature departure of wisdom and worth. The history of mankind exhibits projects blasted, schemes abortive, instruments feeble and inadequate, concussions violent, revolutions sudden and unexpected; but far different the view which the Scriptures represent of the kingdom of God. In it, one generation passeth not away that another may succeed, but there is an eternal accumulation of citizens, eternally increasing in wisdom, goodness, and felicity; faculties ever improving, projects advancing in full certainty of success, means fitted to their end, and the one great scheme of the Eternal Mind proceeding in steady, uniform majesty, to its final consummation. Pleasing, awful thought! “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.”[*]Psa 33:11
II. We observe, from this history, The benevolent interest which celestial beings take in the affairs of men. They are no unconcerned spectators of what passes here below. They who have been raised from earth to heaven, have not lost all recollection of the world they have left, nor dropped all concern about their brethren in the flesh. Moses and Elias with joy revisit an inferior region, if thereby they can be instrumental in promoting the work of redemption; and exchange, for a season, the society of angels, and the delights of the paradise of God, for the company of simple fishermen, and a barren mountain’s top, that we might have strong consolation in contemplating “the sufferings of Christ,” and the glory that preceded and followed. O what an exalted, what a generous spirit does true religion breathe and inspire! It makes angels “ministering spirits to them who are the heirs of salvation;” it brings departed saints back to earth again; it converts Tabor into Heaven, and determines the choice of an apostle, when in a strait betwixt two; and to prefer abiding in the flesh, because more needful to his fellow-creatures, to the selfish joy, though far better, of departing and being with Christ. But Moses, and Elias, and Paul were themselves men, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, were instructed by sympathy to commiserate, and prompted by affection to relieve, human wretchedness. Behold an infinitely greater miracle of generous, disinterested love; “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[*]John 3:16 Jesus, “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”[*]Rev 1:5-6 “Verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.”[*]Heb 2:16 “As children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”[*]Heb 2:14-15
III. The history before us suggests, The sweet harmony, the perfect intelligence which subsist between glorified spirits. Moses and Elias, as they co-operated in the same design, though at different periods upon earth, much more concur in sentiment, in exertion, now they see more clearly and comprehend more fully the intentions of a wise and gracious Providence. Through ignorance, through pride, through jealous, through malice, imperfect men on earth will differ, will hate and oppose each other; but in celestial bosoms the dark, malignant, unsocial passions find no place: in them there ever prevails unity of intelligence, unity of design, unity in operation, unity of affection. Prompted by the same motive, aiming at the same end, Gabriel, a multitude of the heavenly host, Moses and Elias--angels single, and in bands, announce to the world the advent of the Savior, celebrate his birth, witness his transfiguration, relieve his agony, record his death, declare his resurrection from the dead, grace his ascent to heaven, proclaim his second coming. And O what must be that harmony and joy! the harmony and joy of heaven, where angels and archangels, the cherubim and the seraphim, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and the whole multitude of the redeemed, animated by one spirit, adore the same object, rejoice in the same grace wherein they stand, and join in the same triumphant song!
Connect with this, the idea of the quick and perfect intelligence which subsists between the children of this kingdom. The happiness of heaven is a social, not a solitary joy. But how can the poverty of our imagination, the coldness of our affections, conceive the intimacy of intercourse, the promptness of communication, the sympathy of feeling, in pure spirits wholly disposed to love, and free from all desire or design to disguise, to deceive, to conceal!
“Where friendship full exerts her softest pow’r,
Perfect esteem enliven’d by desire
Ineffable, and sympathy of soul,
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence.”--Thomson. With what promptitude and intelligence celestial beings converse, say, ye gentle spirits, who know what it is to soothe and relieve the lazy, lingering hours of absence by the friendly aid of letters; ye, whom the murmur of a sigh, or the tone of a single word can instantly instruct; ye, whose hearts the pressure of a finger can awake to rapture; ye, whose kindred, congenial souls the slightest glance of the impassioned eye, can, in a moment, quick, as the lightning’s flash, penetrate, kindle, inform, assimilate;--
“----Ye whom the sudden tear
Surprises often when you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss.”--Thomson. But the purest human affection is ever dashed with doubt, with apprehension, with suspicion; its communications are liable to be retarded by dullness, prevented by accident, or checked and blasted by a malignant eye, and therefore can at best convey but an imperfect idea of that “perfect love which casteth out fear,” of that divine sympathy which speeds the holy intercourse from soul to soul, of that mutual understanding which needs not the medium of sense to convey it. Though we cannot conceive, much less describe, in what manner angels and saints in bliss converse one with another, yet from the text we know, what is the one, great, darling theme of their conversation. Moses and Elias descend from their heavenly thrones, from before the fountain of light and life, appear in glory, revisit the earth, associate with men, to do homage at the feet of Jesus, and to “speak of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.” This leads to a
IVth, and the most important remark, on this passage of our Savior’s history, in connection with that of Moses, namely, That under every dispensation, before the giving of the law, and under its reign, when it was restored, and after it is abolished; to righteous men on earth, to just men made perfect, to the angels of God; in the eye of God himself,--there is one object of peculiar magnitude and importance, which is before all, above all, runs through all, and in which all shall finally terminate. It is surely not without a meaning, that the promises, the predictions, from first to last, point out a Savior that should suffer and die; that all the types, services, sacrifices of the law should represent a salvation that was to be wrought out, to be purchased with blood; that the whole doctrine of the gospel should be compressed into one point, the doctrine of the Cross; that the throne of God eternal in the heavens should exhibit at its right hand, and in the midst of it, “a Lamb as it had been slain;” that the song of the redeemed should celebrate Him who loved the sons of men, and “washed them from their sins in his blood!” O the infatuation of a careless, unbelieving world! That subject which the ransomed of the Lord dwell upon with ever new and increasing delight; that great “mystery of godliness,” which “angels desire to look into;” that object which the great God has marked with special precision as his own; the wonder of Heaven, the joy of the earth, the theme of eternity, was “to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness;” is to a faithless and perverse generation a thing of nought, the song of the drunkard, the jest of fools! If that blood has fallen and lies with such oppressive weight, both as a temporal and a spiritual curse on those who rashly imprecated it on themselves and their children, and then impiously and remorselessly shed it; “of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”[*]Heb 10:29 May that blood be upon us, and upon our children, to cleanse, not to condemn, to exalt, not to overwhelm us, and be it our determinate resolution, through the grace that is in Christ, to know nothing in comparison of Christ Jesus, and him crucified, “and to glory in nothing but his cross.”
V. Observe, the superiority ascribed, by a voice from the most excellent glory, to Christ the Lord, swallowing up and eclipsing all created excellency and perfection. “This is my beloved Son, hear him,”[*]Luk 9:35 proclaims the voice, and instantly Moses and Elias disappear, that Jesus may be all in all. They have brought their glory and honor and laid it at his feet; they have pointed out to mankind in whose light they shine, in what consists their chief eminence and distinction. They in effect say the same thing with John Baptist; “He that cometh after me is preferred before me, whose shoes’ latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”[*]John 1:27 “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”[*]John 1:29 They in us to look toward them, or to trust in them for salvation. Having given this testimony to their Lord and ours, they retire to that world of bliss into which they found admission through that blood which cleanseth from all sin, through that decease which Christ was ready “to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Let us joyfully bend the knee to Him, who, “for the suffering of death, is crowned with glory and honor, and has obtained a name that is above every name;” whom Moses and Elias acknowledge as their greater; whom all the angels of God are commanded to worship, as “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,” “by whom were created all things that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by him, and for him.”[*]Col 1:16
Finally, the passage exhibits to our wondering eyes a glimpse of that glory which all the faithful shall finally attain; in the person of one who had never tasted death; whose body, by a miracle of Almighty power, was fitted for heaven and immortality without seeing corruption in the grave; and of one, who, as we must, died and was buried, and by a similar miracle, was either ransomed from the power of the grave, or whose glorified spirit was fitted with a temporary vehicle of transparent flesh for the present grand occasion; but above all, in the person of the greatest of the three, who was pleased to clothe humanity, which had not yet, but soon was to suffer death, with a transitory glory, the forerunner of that which should quickly follow, and do away all the ignominy of the tomb, and become, the sure pledge of that glory with which he shall invest all them that believe, after “the fashion of his own glorious body.” While we contemplate mount Tabor, the immortal spirit looks through the frail tottering fabric of flesh and blood, in which it is inclosed; and while, from its present connection, it surveys with concern the inroads of disease, the wastes of time, the approaches of dissolution; from the visions of God, from the power of free sovereign grace, from the present attainments of the faithful, beholds with rapture the splendor of that vehicle in which it shall ascend “to meet the Lord in the air,” when “mortality shall be swallowed up of life,” when it shall be united to a body insusceptible of pain, undepressed by its own gravity, unfettered by the laws of dull matter, uncondemned to mortality. Glorious and blessed day, when the meanest of the saints shall resemble Moses, not in that green and lively old age which experienced not dimness of eyes, nor abatement of natural vigor, but in that renovated youth, that unfading beauty, that impassive strength, that immortal luster, wherein on the mount of the Lord he was seen; and shall resemble Elias, not by mounting with the help of a chariot of fire and horses of fire into heaven, but with native force, immediately derived from the great Source of life and motion, shall spontaneously ascend up to his native seat; shall resemble Christ, his divine head, not in that sinless infirmity to which he voluntarily submitted in the days of his flesh, but in that glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and which for a moment burst forth on the mount of transfiguration, when “his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Glorious and blessed gospel! which first taught the resurrection from the dead, which has “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light;” whose “exceeding great and precious promises” make men “partakers of a divine nature;” whose hallowed page represents saints and angels quitting their heavenly abode to minister to the necessities of wretched mortals; and wretched mortals rising to the everlasting possession of heavenly thrones. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory!” “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[*]1Co 15:57 But now the curtain is dropped, Moses and Elias have resumed their places in heaven, and the glory of Tabor is no more. Yet, though unseen, they cease not to instruct us. Though withdrawn, they are in the midst of us still; the distinction of past and future they feel no longer, and separation by space cannot keep celestial beings asunder. Providence brought together into one place the giver and restorer of the law; and the first harbingers of the gospel blending earth and heaven together in homage to the Son of God. And all distance between them too is now for ever done away. Remote as we are, we behold them together in a state of glorious perfection, but permitted to converse with us no more. But He is with us still, their Lord and ours; His voice we can still hear, after they are silenced, and Him we are commanded to hear. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever:” “To Him all the prophets gave witness,” and he is “the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” And thus have we finished our proposed delineation of the lives of the, patriarchs, from Adam, the father of the human race, down to Moses, the great legislator and prophet of the Hebrew nation; with the intermediate illustrious personages, whom the Spirit of God has preserved from oblivion, for our information and use; whom Providence raised up in the earlier ages of the world, to occupy distinguished stations, and to accomplish important designs; who, by their respective characters, offices, and declarations, predicted or prefigured the Messiah; who edified the world, while they lived, by their doctrine and example; and who, being dead, continue living monitors and instructors of mankind.
While we contemplate the progress of these venerable figures along the plain of existence, we feel ourselves in motion, we are hurrying down the stream, we begin to mingle with the assembly of the departed, we leave our place among men empty. Of those who entered with us on this career of meditation, “some are not;” their course is finished, they have fulfilled their day, they are gone to join the men who lived beyond the flood. The cold hand of death has frozen up some of the streams of friendship; the congelation is gaining upon our own vital powers, and marking us for the tomb, where the endearments of social affection, and the melting of sympathy, and the glow of love, are felt no more. But “we sorrow not” over departed worth “as those who have no hope.” God, and angels, and “the spirits of just men made perfect,” have gained what the world has lost: they move in a higher sphere; they perceive with purer intelligence, act with superior energy, enjoy with more exalted capacity; they die no more, they are as the angels of God in heaven: and Providence charges itself with the care of the forsaken, the helpless and the forlorn whom they have left behind. And we look forward together to that day, when we shall join Moses and Elias, Peter and James, and John, and all who have died before us, or shall die after us in the Lord, not in the glory of Tabor, which was to pass away, but of mount Zion which is above, and which endureth to endless ages--when we shall come together “unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel,”[*]Heb 12:22-24 and dwell in a tabernacle not erected by the hands of man, the habitation of an hour, but in “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Be ye therefore “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Purchase for yourselves a deathless name among the “ransomed of the Lord.” Consider yourselves as encompassed, observed, tenderly regarded by those to whom you were dear while they tabernacled among men, and who now love you with the ardor of immortals. Add to the consolation which they enjoy, that of marking your progress in wisdom, your growth in grace. Cultivate acquaintance with the language you are to speak, the spirit you are to breathe, the manners with which you are to conform, the persons with whom you are to converse, eternally. “Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”[*]Heb 12:1-2 “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself; even as he is pure.”[*]1Jn 3:2-3