IDENTIFICATION SATISFACTION AND INJUNCTION

IDENTIFICATION SATISFACTION AND INJUNCTION

Matthew describes the cloud which overshadowed the mount as a bright cloud. Darkness glorified, shadow illuminated! Wherever there is a bright cloud, the bright­ness is proof of the light behind. Who has not seen the clouds piled mountain high on the horizon, lit with gorgeous splendor? Only the clouds are seen, but the lights upon them speak of the sun shining in power behind them. A bright cloud overshadowed them, a symbolic cloud. The transfiguration is passing, the outshining of the splendor of His presence is to cease, and the clouds are gathering over the green hill far away, but they are enamored through and through with light. It is impossible to hide the glory again from these men. They will never again wholly forget the radiant vision. James will pass to his martyr baptism with that glory still upon his mind, and that holy mount will abide with Peter until, his work ended, he, too, shall enter the cloud, and beyond it, find the never-fading light.

It was indeed a bright cloud, but it overshadowed them while yet Peter was speaking. It interrupted and silenced the speech of earth, that the speech of heaven might be heard. What Peter would have said had he been allowed to proceed, none can tell. While he was yet speaking the cloud came. This blundering speech of men must be in­terrupted, this gross misunderstanding of the Divine will must be corrected, this incoherent prayer of a disciple but half awake, must be hushed.

Out of the bright cloud came the heavenly voice, and there are THREE MATTERS OF IMPORTANCE to notice in the words spoken. First, THE IDENTIFICATION OF THIS MAN Who has been seen in resplendent glory, "This is My beloved Son"; secondly, the ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DIVINE SATISFAC­TION—"In Whom I am well pleased"; and thirdly, THE INJUNCTION LAID, UPON THESE MEN, AND UPON THE CHURCH and all the ages through them—"Hear ye Him." (Matt. 17:5) The Lord and Master (John 13:13).

First, IDENTIFICATION—"This is My beloved Son." Moses and Elijah were servants, this is the Son. The messages of the economies of the past were for the unfold­ing of the law, He and His message constitute the epiphany of grace.

Then THE STATEMENT OF DIVINE SATISFACTION—"In Whom I am well pleased." God had said this before at the bap­tism in Jordan, when the private life of Christ drew to a close, and His public life was beginning. And now that the second stage had come to an end, when the  public life was closing, and the sacrificial and atoning work beginning, as He was about to pass from the culminating glory to take His way into the shadows and into death, again God said "I am well  pleased." Satisfied with the private life in Nazareth, with the honest toil of the carpenter's shop, with the years of public ministry, with the deeds of love that had been scattered over all the pathway, the whole life of Jesus from beginning to end had given satisfaction to the heart of God.

Then THE INJUNCTION—"Hear ye Him." Moses and Elijah have passed. Let there be no tabernacle built for Moses; his mission is ended. "This is My Son." Let there be no attempt to retain the fiery reformer; Elijah's work is over. "This is My Son." "God, having of old, time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son,” (Heb. 1:1, 2) “Hear Him.” No other voice is needed. Let them be hushed in silence. Let Moses and Elijah pass back to the upper spaces. The dwellers upon earth have the speech of the Son and noth­ing else is needed—"Hear Him,"

It was a word of rebuke silencing the blunder of Peter. It was a word of comfort by which God attested the value and virtue of Christ. It was a word of encouragement, for if the speech of Moses and Elijah were over, and their presence had passed within the veil, the Son is to abide, and through all the exigencies and intricacies of the coming days His voice, sweet as the music of heaven, clear as the voice of a brother man, shall lead through the mists to the dawn of the eternal light.

What wonderful effect was produced upon these men by this scene. James died sealing his testimony with his blood, a martyr. Nothing more is recorded of him. John takes his way to long life, and in his writing, says, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) The parenthesis follows as a flash of glory from his pen, as he remembered the mount, he wrote, "We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father." John can never forget. Peter in his last epistle wrote, "We did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to Him by the Majestic Glory, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount." (2 Pet. 1:16-18)

Thus Peter and John to the end of their ministry were influenced by the vision of that wonderful night, and in­fluenced completely by the speech of heaven and the bright cloud that overshadowed them.

To many there comes no Mount of Transfiguration, but there is for all the speech of the Son. If the majority are not called to some mount of vision where they may behold the glory as these three men beheld it, yet to every soul amid the multitudes of the redeemed He speaks in every passing day. God forbid that the babel of earth's voices should drown the accents of His still small voice. To His children He speaks softly and sweetly in the innermost re­cesses of the heart day by day, saying ever, "This is the way, walk ye in it," (Isa. 30:21) and out of God's heaven God's mes­sage forever speaks, "This is My Son, hear ye Him." (Matt. 17:15)