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The Full Glory
- by Rev Gilbert Wong At the introduction of the law in Deuteronomy 4:44, 48 was in Hermon. The ‘high mountain’ mentioned in Matthew 17:1 (as well as in Mark 9:2) is a clear reference to Hermon. This is important because Moses was giving the law to God’s people in the same mountain recorded for us in Deuteronomy. And now Jesus is standing on the same mountain. To the Jews, Moses and Elijah are representing the Law and the prophets. To the disciples and to Matthew’s original readers, well acquainted with the scriptures, the echoes of Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai will have been obvious. It must have seemed almost like a time warp, and perhaps, in a sense, it is, since at such moments of eternity we are as much present with Moses in the holy cloud and Elijah listening to the still small voice as we are with God speaking through Jesus and drawing together past and future at a moment of intense reality and depth of love. No wonder, then, that Simon Peter refers to the subsequent conversation of God and Moses, and wants to build tabernacles so that God’s transcendence can become permanent among his people. But Peter has not yet grasped the extraordinary extent of God’s glory which has now gone far beyond tabernacles. In the person of Jesus, as the transfigured glory shows, God is now personally and intimately among his people in a way never possible before, and the approaching act of self-giving love on the cross, and triumph over death, are going to mean that the personal closeness will be possible far and wide in all places and in all generations, including ours. It is vital that these followers of Jesus understand something of this, and there is urgency in God’s voice heard by them encouraging them to trust the amazing identity of His Son and to hang on his words. They have been shown God’s glory on the top of the mountain so that they will be better able to recognize God’s presence here on earth, when the cloud faded. Do we want to cling on the ‘mountain experiences’ rather than accompany the living Jesus down to the demands of life in the valley? Do we hit the right balance in our prayer and public worship between intimate friendship and awe in the presence of the almighty God? [Top] |
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Church of the Ascension, 13
Francis Thomas Drive, Singapore 359339 |