Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Matthew 17:3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
GOOD TO BE HERE (3)
Moses knew what it was like to be alone. He knew what it was to cry out to the Lord, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me" (Exodus 17:4). Time and again he had been the target of grumbling and complaining as he led the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the glorious promised land of milk and honey. But that was all behind him now. The Lord had received him to Himself, and now He sees His Savior glorified on the mountain.
Elijah also knew what it was like to be alone. He once thought that he was the only faithful child of God left in Israel. He lay down under a broom plant and asked God to take away his life. To him everything looked hopeless. The angel of the Lord strengthened him then for a journey which brought him to see more clearly. But all that was back in the Old Testament times. The Lord had taken him up from this earth in a whirlwind and now He sees His Savior glorified on the mountain.
Jesus knew what lay ahead. More than Moses and Elijah, He would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. All alone He would redeem mankind. Who better to talk with than Moses and Elijah, as He took their aloneness, and yours, upon Himself.
'Tis good, Lord, to be here,
Thy beauty to behold
Where Moses and Elijah stand,
Thy messengers of old.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 135:2)
