From Matthew 17:9-13 / Standing on The Word

Note first: Jesus does not want the testimony of the Disciples to rest upon visions and supernatural experiences. They are not to use this experience as a basis for their preaching, nor as a means to awe and wow the crowds with tales of the supernatural. Instead, He directs them back to helping them understand the Scriptures. In this case, the prophecies about Elijah as the Messiah’s forerunner.

And so it will be that the Disciples will latch on to this principle in their preaching and teaching. They took this so seriously, that we read nothing more of it in the Gospels – except this specific account in Matt., Mark & Luke. But it is nowhere else mentioned until Peter’s 2 letter, and that is almost certainly after the mid-sixties C.E.; no less than 30 years after the event. And in that epistle, he tells his readers that while he indeed had that experience, they are to turn their eyes, and rest their faith in “the prophetic word more fully confirmed.” This, he goes on to explicitly denominate the Scriptures.

How different from much of pop-Christianity today which is rife with people telling their dreams, visions and experiences instead of expounding the Word, and profiting off of those supposed experiences like carnival side-show barkers.

Note second: As J.C. Ryle comments, the appearance of Elijah and Moses here serves as a wonderful indication to Believers that the afterlife with Christ is a certainty and not a myth. Moses had been gone nearly 1,500 years and Elijah nearly 1,000. But here they are. Alive and well and waiting the resurrection as is true for all who die in Christ.

Even as I pen this I think of those in my own family who have gone on before, and how they are kept in some place, cognizant and well and waiting until all in Christ are joined together. What a joy to have such an assurance recorded for us. The promise of the resurrection is but glimpsed ever so slightly here, but in grace He has let us take a quick peek behind the veil – where Christ now has gone before.

Note third: How careful we must be in trying to read current events into prophetic passages.

The Scribes were correct that Malachi 4:6 predicted that Elijah would be the Messiah’s herald. But they had built a framework around it that did not allow for the way that would be fulfilled being other than a literal appearance of Elijah – and certainly not one which included his death.

Neither the Scribes, Pharisees nor the Disciples at this point had any category for an “Elijah” like the John the Baptizer, nor for the suffering Messiah of the Old Testament. And so today, many prophecy mavens build all kinds of constructs around the prophetic portions of Scripture – especially the Revelation – and do not allow for how some of things may be fulfilled far differently than they imagine. One thinks immediately of the secret rapture theory surrounding a two-stage return of Christ.

It is a lesson for us to tread lightly in such areas. To camp on what is certain, hold tentatively what is reasonable, and refrain from insisting on what is merely speculative.

We have so many sure and clear matters in Scripture to study, know and master – that spending time wondering if some of the images in Revelation are black attack-helicopters or whether or not the Anti-Christ will drive a black Mercedes with 666 on the license plate – is nothing less than a fruitless distraction.

As one wag once said: “It isn’t the things I don’t understand in the Bible that trouble me, but the things I DO understand.”

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” is our rule. And leave the fuzzy areas to the Lord of all. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29) They are called secret things – because that is what they are – secrets. Not for us. What is fully revealed is ours., And such revelations always lead us into living in right union and communion with God in holiness. Growing in the character of Christ and advancing His Kingdom must take precedence over all other things.