33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) 34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen. ~ Luke 9:33-36
In John 1:14 John wrote, “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” He saw the glory of the Lord Jesus on that mountain that day and it was the same glory that belongs to God. John, Peter and James did not see light shine on the Lord Jesus, they saw the glory of God shining out from the Lord Jesus.
In the valley before going up the Mount Hermon, the Father had revealed to Peter that the Lord Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God." In Peter's mind, down in the valley, He was something because he had come to the conclusion that the Lord Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." But, since having that experience on the mountain with John and James, Peter discovered he was wrong. On the mount of transfiguration God showed Peter, this message of the mountain was not for those in the valley, for the people in the valley were not quite ready for its message.
Moses, the giver of the law, and Elijah, the greatest upholder of the law, conversed with the Lord Jesus for a time. And, the word used to describe their discussion with the Lord Jesus is the Greek word “exodon.” The English translation is EXODUS.
Before coming to this scene, Moses and Elijah had been in the eternal kingdom, they had been in the presence of God. And, there they would have known the Son of God, they would have known Him well before He was ever born in Bethlehem. And they therefore would have known God's plan of redemption.
In v.33 Peter suggests, "Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." Peter's first comment does make sense. According to v.33 he said, "Master, it is good for us to be here." Peter thought, "This is what I've been waiting for. Yeah, it got a little bit confusing when we heard You were going to be rejected and killed and we were going to have to be taking up a cross, and all this sadness and all of this disappointment. But, now here we are and this is what we expected."
Perhaps Peter remembered Zechariah 14 where we are taught that in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, the Feast of Tabernacles will be held every year as a remembrance of the Exodus; and not just the exodus out of Egypt, but the exodus out of bondage to sin into the glorious life of God.
Peter didn't realize that this was not the beginning of the eternal kingdom. Sure, Elijah was to come at the time of the kingdom, he knew that. Sure, during the eternal kingdom there was going to be a Feast of Tabernacles. All of the elements of the kingdom that Peter had longed for were there. And, the glory of Christ was displayed. But he doesn't realize that there is more, that there must be the cross. Before there will ever be a crown for the Lord Jesus and His followers, there has to be a cross for the Lord Jesus, alone.
According to v.34, "While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud." Back in Exodus, when Moses went up Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord, "the cloud of the glory of God" came down and hovered over the cloud. And it was that cloud that led them through the wilderness. Moses was very familiar with this cloud. It was a cloud that represented the presence and glory of God. This cloud didn't frighten Moses.
But the disciples were afraid. And, according to v.35, '"A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."' Unbeknown to Peter, he was placing Elijah and Moses on the same level as the Lord Jesus. When the Father spoke, there was no mention of Elijah and Moses. He spoke of and to the Lord Jesus only.
This is why in v.36 we read, "When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen."
Months after this, after the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, this experience would certainly make more sense and become more believable. Peter, John and James were told not to say anything about this experience to the others because if they explained what they had seen, it would have caused problems. If they explained that they saw the eternal kingdom and that the Lord Jesus was transfigured and that He was the King, they would have then become a greater threat to the Jews and to the Romans. This could have precipitated an attack against them and a premature execution of the Lord Jesus and the apostles, and so the Lord Jesus doesn't want that to happen.
The timing of God is perfect. Always! We spend a lot of time in our lives waiting because change is a process. Many people want change, but they don't want to go through the waiting process. But the truth is, waiting is a given.
The question is, are we going to wait the wrong or right way? If we wait the wrong way, we'll be miserable; but if we decide to wait God's way, we can become patient and even enjoy the wait. It takes practice, but as we let God help us in each situation, we develop patience, which is a fruit of the Spirit. It's developed only under trial, so we must not run from difficult situations. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that we may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing (James 1:4).
Our souls are made up of our minds, wills and emotions. When the Word, His definition of things, gets rooted in our souls and begins to change our minds, it begins to heal our emotions and turn our wills away from self-will and onto doing the will of God. Living out of one's own soul is equivalent to staying in the wilderness. When we say "no" to our flesh, and we get to doing the will of God, that's when we enter and experience His glory.
