Today’s readings are full of historical events that are anchored in provable history. These events are all God ordained and documented. We live in a world that likes to call us religious nutters and of following an imaginary sky daddy. Yet they say these things because they either willingly ignore provable historical events or are not even aware of these events. The readings that we have today, should be primarily talked about in History classes and not relegated to optional religious classes.
Exodus 24:12-18
– Three months after leaving Egypt, many visits to Mount Sinai.
Starting with Exodus. Three months after God sent plagues to Egypt to force Pharoah to set the Israelites free from slavery and out of Egypt, the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai. The whole book of Exodus records God freeing Israel from slavery then bringing them to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai Moses made many visits up to the top of the mountain. The start of Exodus 24 describes Moses taking a large group of the leaders of Israel to see God. God did this, in order it seems, to give the leaders no excuse to not know that God is with them.
– Joshua was his helper.
This particular passage is the start of Moses’ longest time on Mount Sinai. A time which God spent describing how Israel would worship Him. Most of the rest of the book of Exodus is God describing to Moses how He is to be worshipped. God was preparing Israel for what lay ahead of them. During this time Joshua, (who later was to become the successor of Moses), was Moses’ helper. It is not mentioned here what Joshua did. I imagine he attended to whatever needs Moses had. I would imagine that Joshua saw and heard everything that Moses saw and heard. God was preparing Joshua already to become the successor of Moses.
– Burned Mountain
At the start of the Israelites’ time at Mount Sinai, we read in Exodus 19:18: “All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord had come down on it in fire. The smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and all the people trembled violently.” In the north west of Saudi Arabia there is a mountain named Jabal Maqla which translates to burnt mountain.
These are not made up stories. These are actual events. What we are reading in the Scriptures is first and foremost true history. God has revealed Himself in history and He continues to reveal Himself through the lives of His followers and many many miracles which rarely are reported on by the media. We find truth in the Scriptures and the people we interact with that God works through.
2 Peter 1:16-21
– Not made up stories.
Moving on to 2 Peter 1. Peter, a fisherman, is an ordinary working man. He doesn’t have great speaking skills. Unlike Paul, Peter wasn’t taught in the finest schools of his time. So when Peter spoke he did not speak with big words. Peter never made up complicated arguments as you would find in theological or philosophical classes. Instead Peter spoke with excitement and energy of all the amazing events that he had personally seen. In John’s gospel we are told that many things were not recorded because they could not write everything down. Peter spoke of all the things that he had actually seen and experienced. (Hold Bible up) This book is documentation of actual real events, it is not made up stories. This book is not just a religious text. This is many accounts of God’s interactions with humanity.
– Peter was with him on the mountain of the Transfiguration.
Today’s gospel reading is about the Transfiguration. Peter was there on the mountain, and he repeats what he heard God say: “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased!” Peter exclaims “We ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” This is a real lived experience.
– So we are even more confident.
Peter here affirms: ”So we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets”. Clearly Peter is talking about the Old Testament writings. Peter had lived with Jesus and Jesus constantly referred back to the Old Testament. Therefore we also should be confident of the Old Testament. If someone tries to tell you the Old Testament is just made up writings, refer them to both Peter and most importantly Jesus’s confidence in the Old Testament.
– Be wary of those who explain prophecies.
Peter ends this passage with the strange reminder and warning about people who explain prophecies. Peter, who had spent the most time with Jesus, said, “Above all else, however, remember that none of us can explain by ourselves a prophecy in the Scriptures.” I agree with Peter there is more than enough for us to understand in the Scriptures without us speculating on things that have not been made clear like prophecies.
Matthew 17:1-9
– Before the Transfiguration Peter rebuked Jesus.
Moving onto the Gospel reading about the transfiguration where Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain and the voice from the cloud spoke, “This is My own dear Son, with whom I am pleased. Listen to Him!” Before this event, John the Baptist had been executed and Jesus had spent much time withdrawing to lonely places in order to pray. Then when Jesus was talking about His own imminent death to His disciples, Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Him about this. Jesus then had some harsh words for Peter saying, “Get away from me Satan!.” It is not stated but it is most likely the event of the transfiguration was an energy refuel event for Jesus. Jesus was troubled by the death of John the Baptist and was prevented on multiple occasions from getting away to pray by the people following Him. On top of that His main follower Peter had acted disrespectfully towards Him.
– Jesus was transformed like Moses in Exodus 34:29-35 clothes brilliantly white.
Up on the mountain Jesus was transformed and His clothes went brilliantly white. This is very similar to Exodus 34 when Moses came down from the mountain his face shone brightly after he had been talking to God. The difference being Jesus basically revealed His true brightness to the disciples. We read in Revelation 21:23 “The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God shines on it, and the Lamb is its lamp.” While on earth Jesus was veiled in flesh, just like we sing in the carol, Hark the Herald Angels sing. We sing “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel!”
– This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased. Listen to Him!
Up on the mountain the three disciples saw Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus. Peter again spoke out of turn saying, “Lord, how good it is that we are here! If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Why was this out of turn? We get the answer directly from the voice in the cloud repeating what was said at the baptism of Jesus. “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased. Listen to Him!” The idea that Jesus was just another prophet like Moses and Elijah is repugnant to God. As this is what Peter was saying when he proposed three tents one for each person Moses, Elijah and Jesus. We must exclaim just like God exclaimed from the cloud. Listen to Jesus! With Jesus everything has changed, God had entered human flesh. It’s a new ball game. It is not business as usual. No longer will God be confined to worship at a particular location. Instead, Jesus must be declared to all the nations and Jesus is to be worshipped throughout the world. Jesus entry in to the world represents a new agreement between God and humanity. An agreement that is not veiled in religious rituals and ornaments. The disciples fell to the ground in fear upon hearing the voice from the cloud. Then Jesus came and told them to get up. The cloud and Moses and Elijah had gone. The old ways of fear, and ritual have gone. Now there was nothing to fear. Now there is Jesus. This is as true today as it was when Jesus told the disciples to get up.
– The Messianic secret
In Matthew 17 verse 9, Jesus commands the disciples to not tell anyone about this event until He is raised from the dead. This command is found in all gospels except the gospel of John. This command is known as the Messianic secret. It seems that Jesus revealed His true nature to the disciples and He did not want His disciples to tell anyone else as His purposes included the crucifixion and the resurrection. Revealing Himself too early may have thwarted His purpose. What we understand is that Jesus’ purpose was to endure the cross and to be raised from the dead.
Conclusion
We started with Moses and Joshua going up the mountain known as the burnt mountain, after he had already taken the leaders up the mountain. Joshua went on to lead Israel after Moses died. On Mount Sinai, we have God talking with Moses and preparing Israel to follow Joshua. We saw the picture of the burnt mountain, a real place and a real testament to the real events that happenned on Mount Sinai. Then we moved onto Peter’s second letter where Peter is saying that he came not with fancy words and philosophy, but with real stories and real events. Peter did not need a fancy education or eloquent speech to recall the amazing miracles that he had seen. Peter was able to retell the events that he saw on the mountain of transfiguration. The transfiguration is where Jesus changed appearance before the disciples’ very eyes. Jesus revealed Himself as to who He really is, the light of the world. In heaven we will see Him as He really is and He will be our light. Our current light is the sun, but in heaven, Jesus will be our lamp. The Scriptures are real history. When we see the world through what we read in the Scriptures, we can make sense of our own existence, and our own purpose, and we are not tossed and turned by the noisy media and by those who do not follow God, and we can focus on what is important and that is to seek first the Kingdom of God.
