The disciples, and most of the people in Israel during the first century, were of
the opinion that when the Messiah came, He would establish His kingdom. They thought
that He would defeat the Romans and send them back to Rome.
Yeshua, in Matthew
chapter 16, tells His disciples something quite different.
Beginning in verse 21:
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to His
disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of
the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed
and on the third day be raised to life.”
Matthew 16:21
Yeshua’s disciples, who were expecting Him to establish God’s
Kingdom, hearing instead that He was going to die, would have certainly
received this as a terrible blow because it was not at all what they expected.
And then, as Yeshua is aligning their expectations with the truth of what will
happen, He seems to fuel their false expectations when, in verse 28, He adds:
“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here
will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His
kingdom.” Matthew 16:28
Mark, in his account, adds that some would see Messiah come
in power as recorded in chapter 9:
“I tell you the truth, some
who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God
come with power.” Mark 9:1
Both statements would have been encouraging news to the
disciples after having received the devastating declaration that He had just given
them. After all, they hoped for His kingdom to be established on the earth.
They expected the Son of Man to come with power and glory and angels as
attested to by the Scriptures and by many Jewish writings of the day.
But, imagine how Yeshua’s words must have left the
disciples wondering. They must have
been thinking, “ When will this happen? And, how soon?” Would He die and then,
after three days, rise up and establish His Kingdom?
Why would Yeshua be so vague with His disciples? Sensing
their wonder, Yeshua responds with an even more troubling answer.
Why would He
give an answer that would almost certainly fuel their misgivings? What did the
Rabbi mean when He said, “Some who are standing here will not taste death
before they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom”? How could Yeshua fulfill this prophecy?
Not long after Yeshua spoke of these things, it is
recorded that, from the twelve, He called aside “the some” – Peter, Jacob
(James), and John. These three disciples were taken up on Mount Hermon where
they see Yeshua in the glory of His kingdom. This was not a vision. They
actually saw Yeshua in heavenly glory and they actually saw Moses and Elijah
with Him. These three disciples were granted a foretaste of the “Son of Man,
His glory and His Kingdom” – they saw the Messiah in His glory:
“After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, the brother
of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His
face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses
and Elijah, talking with Jesus.”
Matthew 17:1-3
Why did Yeshua wait six days to take them up on the mountain? Why would Matthew and
Mark both be so specific in recording this fact? Could it be that Yeshua was
actually letting them know when this would happen in its fullness?
Yes – and it was something that Peter would realize later.
For, he writes:
“with the LORD a day is as a thousand years and a thousand
years is as a day” 2 Peter 3:8
Yeshua tells His three disciples, and us, when He will actually
come in the fullness of the Kingdom – after six thousand years. At the start of the
seventh millennium, He will reign.
But, why does Yeshua appear with Moses and Elijah? Moses, who is recorded in the
Torah, as having died? And Elijah, who is recorded as having been taken
directly to heaven in a chariot of fire? Why these two?
The Apostle Paul explains why Yeshua, coming in His kingdom, would appear with the
living Elijah and the resurrected Moses.
At the time of His coming, Paul says
that it will be:
“In a flash, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself
with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”
1 Corinthians 15:52
And,
“According to
the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the
coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
Yeshua is going to return in His Father’s Glory with the Clouds of Heaven – those who
are the righteous. Those who like Moses, have been resurrected, and those who
are caught up alive like Elijah.
In Peter’s response to all of this, we are told even more about the event:
“Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi,
it is good for us to be here. Let us put
up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’” Mark 9:5
Peter, amazingly suggests, that they should build three temporary shelters or booths
(sukkot) – one for each of the men. Peter’s request speaks of the
Festival of the LORD that teaches us about this period of time when Yeshua will
come into the fullness of His kingdom – the Feast of Sukkot or the Feast of
Tabernacles.
Now remember, these disciples are not having a vision. They are actually seeing and
experiencing the event. And, six days earlier, they heard Yeshua say that they
would not taste death before they saw these things. They must have surely
thought, “This is it! Messiah will go down from this mountain in power and
defeat all of Israel’s adversaries!”
Then they hear a voice from heaven:
“While He was
still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said,
‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!’” Matthew 17:5
A Heavenly Voice calls out, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” The
message is almost identical to the words that John the Baptist heard when
Yeshua was baptized. After Yeshua had been immersed, a voice from Heaven
declared to Him, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
The message from Heaven, in both cases, is clear. “My Son” is a reference to the
Messianic title given to the Davidic King. For:
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will
make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule
them with an iron scepter; you will
dash them to pieces like pottery.”
Psalm 2:7-9
“Whom I love” is an amazing reference to Yeshua’s mission as the Suffering Servant.
These are almost the identical words God spoke to Abraham when He told him to
offer his son Isaac – when He instructed Abraham to, “Take your son, your only
son, Isaac, “whom you love.”
This passage is called the Akeidah
or, the binding of Isaac, and it is an amazing picture of the death and the
resurrection of Yeshua.
“Listen to Him” is an obvious reference to Yeshua and the one standing with Yeshua –
Moses. For, in the wilderness, Israel
was told this:
“The LORD your God will raise up for you
a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to Him.” Deuteronomy 18:15
This “prophet like unto Moses” is, of course, the Messiah Yeshua. There are
literally hundreds of parallels that can be identified when comparing the lives
of Yeshua and Moses. These parallels are discussed in Ada Habershon’s book the
Study of the Types.
See pages 165-168.
So here, on a high mountain, in the presence of Moses and Elijah, the Heavenly
Voice commands that the disciples “listen to Him” alluding to and declaring
that Yeshua is the Messiah and “the Prophet.”
But, in order to literally fulfill the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15, it will take
more than a bunch of parallels between the lives of Moses and Yeshua. The
Messiah must speak the words of God directly. And, as we study the Gospels, we
find that this is, indeed, the case with Yeshua.
Yeshua testifies of Himself when He says in the Gospel of John:
“I do nothing on my own
but speak just what the Father has taught me.” John 8:28
And again when He says:
“I did not
speak of my own accord, but the Father
who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” John 12:49
Yeshua tells us, Himself, that He speaks only the words of the Father. But, that is
only His testimony. Scripture makes it very clear that “in the mouths of two or
three let all things be established.”
Matthew 18:16
And, the problems do not end here, because we are told this about Moses in Numbers
chapter 12:
“When a prophet of
the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in
visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not
true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak
face to face, clearly and not in riddles.” Numbers 12:6-8
In order to literally fulfill the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15, the Messiah must
achieve a level of prophecy equivalent to that of Moses. Messiah must be able
to hear the voice of God directly. No visions, no dreams, no riddles, but
clearly. Messiah must speak to God “face to face.” Who besides Yeshua can bare
witness to this? Well, here on the
mountain of Hermon, in the presence of Peter, Jacob, and John, the Voice from heaven
speaks to Yeshua “face to face” and declares He is a prophet like unto Moses -
that He is the Messiah. Peter, Jacob, and John bare witness to this.
Here, on the mountain of Hermon, the disciples are shown the time of His coming
“after six days” or, as Peter tells us, after six thousand years. They are
shown that He will return with the resurrected and those who are caught up to
meet Him. They are told by God, the Father, that Yeshua is His Son and the King
from the line of David – “this is My Son.” They are told by God, the Father,
that Yeshua is the lamb offered for Isaac – “whom I love.” And, they are told that Yeshua is the
prophet like unto Moses – “listen to Him.”
And then, after these amazing revelations, after this painstaking effort to convey
His mission, as they return and go down the mountain, Yeshua tells them that
they must not to tell anyone about their experience. They are instructed to
tell no one until after the resurrection. We must assume that this included the
other disciples, but why?
The answer lies in the Matthew chapter 16 from above: because the “Son of Man must suffer
many things and be rejected…,
be killed and after three days rise again.” It was this aspect of the Ministry
of Messiah that would secure the Kingdom they so longed to see. It was only in Messiah’s
unjust execution that the judgment of the rulers of this age and the reward of the righteous
could be attained. This becomes plain to John when, in exile, he receives
Yeshua’s Revelation years later. When he sees that the scroll with the seven
seals must be opened.
“Then I saw in the
right hand of Him who sat on the
throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I
saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to break the
seals and open the scroll?’ But no one
in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look
inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the
scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to
open the scroll and its seven seals.’”
Revelation 5:1-5
This scroll must be opened for the judgment of the wicked and the reward of the
righteous to begin. John weeps because no one is found to open it. The angel
tells John there is One who is worthy – the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” And
so, as John looks up from his weeping, he expects to see the “Lion,” the King,
but, instead, he sees:
“…a Lamb, looking as if it had been
slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living
creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll
from the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” Revelation 5:6
