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A VISION OF COMING GLORY
--MARK
9:2-13.--APRIL 17.--
Golden
Text:--"A voice came out of the cloud,
saying, This is
my beloved Son: hear him."
SIX DAYS after Peter's
confession that Jesus was the Messiah, and after our Lord had
explained to the apostles that instead of immediate honor and glory
in the world he would meet with contempt, persecution and death, and
that the conditions of discipleship were willingness to suffer with
him and joy in proclaiming his message, Jesus took the three leaders
of the apostles, Peter, James and John, up to a high
mountain--presumed to be Mt. Hermon. Luke tells us that he went there
to pray, and we may reasonably suppose that the three apostles joined
with him in prayer. This little prayer meeting, small in number, and
the glorious result or answer to the prayers --the vision of coming
glory in the Kingdom--may well be accepted as an encouragement to us
all, and stimulate us to a remembrance of the Lord's injunction that
we watch and pray lest we enter into temptation, and that where two
or three are met in his name he will meet with them, which will
insure a blessing. Frequently the blessings received are mental
visions of the glorious things which the Lord hath in reservation for
those who love him.
Luke
says that it was while they prayed that our Lord's features and
garments were transfigured: Matthew [R3345 : page 104] says
that his face shone like the sun. Two others appeared on the scene,
Moses and Elias, of radiant appearance, though evidently less so than
our Lord. It was a vision: our Lord was not actually changed to
spirit conditions until after his resurrection from the dead, but now
by a miraculous power he appeared so transformed--transfigured. Moses
and Elias (Hebrew, Elijah) were not actually present on the mount,
for their resurrection had not yet taken place, and, as the Apostle
very clearly points out, it will not take place until after the
resurrection and change of the Church, the body of Christ. His words
are, "They without us shall not be made perfect."--Heb.
11:40.
We
have two testimonies to the effect that this entire matter was a
vision, after the same kind that John had on the Isle of Patmos,
recorded in the Book of Revelation. As John saw horses, beasts,
angels, men, and heard them talking, and talked himself, so in this
vision the Apostle heard conversation going on about the Lord and
those who appeared with him in the vision, and the words were in
reference to our Lord's death at Jerusalem, of which he had already
informed them six days previously. The circumstances all corroborated
the thought that it was a vision; but we are not left to
circumstantial evidence, for we have our Lord's plain statement to
this effect. As he came down the mountain side with the three
apostles, he charged them straitly, saying, "Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead."--Matt.
17:9.
PICTURING
GLORY TO FOLLOW.
The
Apostle Peter, one of the three who saw the vision, refers to it in
his epistle, saying, "We have not followed cunningly devised
fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he
received from the Father honor and glory, when there came such a
voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we
heard, when we were with him in the holy mount."--2 Pet.
1:16-18.
What was the object of
this vision? We answer that it was to establish the faith of the
apostles. The Lord took the three who saw the vision from amongst the
strongest of the number, and that it did make a deep impression is
evidenced by Peter's reference already quoted. It was a heart lesson
for them to learn --that Jesus, the Messiah, the great King, who was
to rule and to bless Israel and through Israel the world, and who was
to establish them with him as associates and joint-heirs in the
Kingdom, was about to die and apparently thus to frustrate all their
hopes, and about to disprove his own claims of Messiahship. The time
that elapsed between the breaking of the news to them and the vision,
six days after, was just about enough to permit them to discuss
matters and digest the meaning of our Lord's words. Then came the
vision on the mount which corroborated our Lord's testimony in both
respects--the conversation of the vision corroborating his statement
that he would suffer a martyr's death at Jerusalem; and the glorious
vision itself, as well as the words from heaven, indicated that our
Lord was indeed what he claimed to be--that they were safe in
accepting him as the Messiah, that they were not being deluded by
"cunning fables." The vision evidently answered its divine
purpose.
"THY
KINGDOM COME."
The
vision itself represented the Lord's Kingdom: Moses was the
representative of the Jewish dispensation, the house of servants, as
in a previous lesson Elijah was shown to represent the Gospel Church
in the flesh. There was glory and honor attached to the Jewish
dispensation and to the Gospel dispensation, but a still greater
glory was manifested in the presence of Jesus, who represented the
Millennial dispensation and the divine Kingdom in glory, which shall
indeed bless the whole world. Not many heard, understood,
appreciated, obeyed, or sought to obey the Law given by Moses. Not
many have heard, understood or obeyed, or even sought to obey the
Gospel invitation; but when the glorious Millennial age shall come,
when "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, all flesh shall
see it together." (Isa. 40:5.) In his day the
righteous shall flourish and all the families of the earth shall be
blessed. In that day it shall be the will of God that all shall hear
the voice of the Son of man, as expressed in the vision, "This
is my beloved Son: hear ye him." Thank God, we can look forward
to such a glorious time and anticipate with confidence such a
glorious consummation of the ages. Thank God, also, that as those who
have heard and obeyed during this Gospel age, we are privileged to be
the members of this glorious one whom the world will soon hear and by
whom it will soon be blessed and every creature be granted an
opportunity for the attainment of life everlasting.
The
vision vanished as suddenly as it appeared, as John's visions
vanished and changed from time to time. One account says that the
apostles were heavy with sleep, and yet the vision seems not to have
been a dream, but rather, as already stated, of the kind given to
John on Patmos. The vision had a great lesson for the apostles, and
as they followed Jesus down the mountain side to rejoin the waiting
remainder of their number, they questioned one another respecting the
rising from the dead, and what that signified. Our Lord had already
mentioned to them that after he had been dead three days he should
rise again, and now in the vision this had been repeated. It was
evidently the divine intention [R3346 : page 105] to impress
the matter of the resurrection upon their minds. Nevertheless, when
the resurrection of our Lord did take place on the third day, we
perceive that it was with great difficulty still that they
comprehended the situation. How great would have been their
difficulty had it not been for this previous instruction of our Lord
and through the vision!
"HE
KNOWETH OUR FRAME."
One lesson to us in
this connection is that divine wisdom notes our weaknesses and needs
and in advance makes full and thorough preparation for them. How
comforting it is to us that the same Lord who then so carefully
supervised the interests of the faithful ones, is the same yesterday,
today and forever, and is equally caring for us now. This thought is
brought out in the ninety-first Psalm, "He will
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."
There will be no danger of the stumbling of the feet members so long
as we abide faithful to the Lord. His care will be over us and we
will continue to be recognized as his members, and, as such, no
provision for our interests will be neglected.
The apostles were
gradually getting the thought that the Kingdom was to be deferred,
and that the King and his associates in the Kingdom were to be of a
higher order than the humanity they would rule and bless and uplift.
They were seeing distinctly, too, that Jesus was the Messiah, and
this led them to ask of the Lord whether or not the Doctors of the
Law were correct in saying that the Scriptures taught that Elijah
would come before the Messiah. The Lord corroborated the teaching of
the scribes that Elijah must first put in an appearance for the
purpose of restoring all things--for the purpose of making ready the
world for the Kingdom. But the Lord pointed out that John the Baptist
had served in a sense as Elijah to those who received him as the
Messiah, and that instead of accomplishing a work of restoration,
John as the antitype of Elijah had been slain, and that likewise
Jesus himself would suffer.
Our
Lord did not go on to explain to them how he and they and all of the
faithful of the Church would, while in the flesh, represent the
higher antitypical Elijah, and, as the Gospel Church, would endeavor
to do a restorative work preparatory to the Second Advent, but
without success; and that hence the inauguration of the Kingdom at
the Second Advent will not be peaceable, as of happy subjects
receiving a glorious kingdom, but forceful, as of a King taking
possession of a realm in disobedience, in rebellion, who by force
will subdue all things unto himself and reign until he shall put all
enemies into subjection, the last enemy being death. It was not yet
due time for the disciples to understand that from the human
standpoint it would be a long period between the suffering of the
Head of the body and the suffering of the last members of the body,
though this same period, from the divine standpoint of a thousand
years being but as yesterday, would, as Scripturally referred to,
"shortly come to pass." This was one of the many things
that the Lord had to tell them which they could not bear then, but
which the holy Spirit has brought to light in due time through the
words of Jesus and the Apostles and the prophets. --John
16:12,13.
Let
us accept the Golden Text as the very essence of this lesson, and
apply it each to himself. Let us each learn to listen particularly
for the heavenly direction. Let us remember that we are to hear the
Lord and his chosen mouthpieces rather than to follow our own
imaginations or the imaginations of other uninspired men. We may
accept assistance from any one able to give it, but we are to
scrutinize every helping hand and every voice to know that it is of
the Lord and leads us to him and is in accord with his instructions.
"My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. A stranger will
they not follow, for they know not the voice of a stranger."--John
10:5.
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