Luke 9:28-32 Dazzling Light on the Mountain
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 15, 2018 Luke 9:28-32
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.
(Understanding the Text) Jesus had left Capernaum and gone to Bethsaida. Then, he headed north towards Caesarea Philippi into pagan territory. Next, he traveled for another week to a mountain. The Bible does not say which mountain. The traditional site is Mt. Tabor, but it is in the wrong place for the narrative. One site that is suggested is Mt. Hermon because it is the highest mountain in the area of one-week’s travel around Caesarea Philippi. Did the disciples ask where He was heading, or were they so used to His various wanderings that they just followed? I think maybe they asked because I think Jesus would have showed a purposefulness in His travelling. I think that when they asked, He just smiled and said something like “home.” He left his disciples at the bottom of the mountain and took only James, Peter, and John with Him and climbed the mountain.
(Revelation of God) Peter, James, and John spent all day climbing the mountain with Jesus. They were pretty tired when they reached the top, and Jesus started praying. They must not have sensed that anything unusual was about to occur. This is another sign of both the frequency of Jesus’ praying and the lack of outward response to His prayers. It must have been boring to watch a man quietly speaking to someone for hours and not hearing any response. They might have totally believed that the Father was answering Jesus as He prayed since Jesus came back refreshed and with new knowledge, but watching Jesus pray must have been more boring than listening to a one-sided conversation, especially since Jesus probably spoke in a normal quiet voice which would sound more like a murmur than distinct words from a distance away. Thus, the disciples were overcome with sleep and did not see the beginning of the transfiguration. They were awakened by the glory shining around them.
The description of the transfiguration says that Jesus’ face was altered and His clothes became dazzling white. The only other description we have of something similar is Moses when he had been up on the mountain speaking with God. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34:29). Leviticus tells us that to be directly in the presence of the Lord is dangerous. “and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:2). These words were said after two of Aaron’s sons had died in God’s presence. “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace. And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near; carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp.” So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his sons, “Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the LORD has kindled. And do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses. And the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying, “Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.”(Leviticus 10:1-11).
There is some kind of light or shining alteration that is transferred to people when they are in God’s direct presence. It is part of being closely connected to our Creator. Breaking that connection takes away that light. This is why Adam and Eve saw themselves as naked after the fall. Rebellion broke the connection to God and His presence began to withdraw from them, probably for their own protection considering what happened to Aaron’s sons. When we think in terms of the amount of power or energy that God has, and that we and every other created thing are powered by that energy, it makes sense that to be close to the source of energy would amp up our own amount of energy until it is displayed as light. It makes sense that sin closes the pathways that the creative energy could travel and that we would die with our broken pathways if we were exposed to the full power of God. Jesus told us again and again that the pathway that God works through to heal us is our faith. Our trust lets us be open to God’s working, but a lack of faith resists God and ultimately would kill us if God kept trying at full strength. God has to work with a delicate hand so that we are not harmed by His very being.
Jesus’ total trust in the Father allowed Him to be in His presence without harm. This indicates that the problem is not in our physical bodies, but in our sinful mindset which does not trust God. It will be our faith in Jesus that allows us to survive the transformation that happens at the second coming of Jesus. It will be the distrust of Jesus that kills the wicked when Jesus comes in His power and glory.
Moses and Elijah came to discuss the final steps with Jesus. This was not because Jesus did not already know the steps. He had understood that His death was required at age twelve when He visited the temple according to the Desire of Ages. What did they come to discuss? Maybe, they came to thank Him for what He was about to do and reassure Him that there were humans who knew and understood the sacrifice that He, God, was making out of love for them. Moses and Elijah were two of the few men who God had revealed Himself to while they were still alive. Moses was called a friend of God. “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent” (Exodus 33:11). Elijah knew how to pray so that he received an answer. He had faith. When he lost faith and ran, God came to him directly in a still small voice and renewed his faith. Elijah was God’s friend also. Jesus came to speak with two of His friends who understood what it was like to deal with the Jews and understood the temptations that would face Jesus. It may not have been so much what they said, but that they understood what was happening and loved Jesus for it. Some of those words may have been words of gratitude and love. Some might have been words of apology and sorrow for how terrible their own people were going to treat Jesus. Some might have been reassurance that there were many humans who would not react with rejection to Jesus’ sacrifice.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that if Jesus considered Moses and Elijah to be His friends, it is not too farfetched to think that I can be His friend also. I know that He is a friend to me, but am I a friend to Him? I want to be like Moses and have Jesus speak to me as a man speaks to his friend. For that to happen, I have to trust Jesus as my Friend. It is only through faith/belief/trust that I can have a full connection to God. Anything less makes that connection impossible and God will not enter into it for my sake. I pray for faith in You and love for You so that I may know You and be transformed. Transformation comes from closeness to God. During total face-to-face closeness, the transformation can show out as glory like light, but EGW says that even less connected closeness will result in changes. I pray for that closeness.