Luke 9:33-36 A Cloud 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 16, 2018 Luke 9:33-36
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.
And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
(Understanding the Text) Peter, James, and John must have silently listened long enough to know that the two men with Jesus were Moses and Elijah. The glory surrounding them awed the disciples into silence, and it was not until Elijah and Moses embraced Jesus and said their goodbyes that Peter found his voice. The idea that he suggested was not totally outrageous. It was what his ancestors had done when they had experienced a supernatural occurrence in a place. They had set up markers called altars. Peter was suggesting a little place of worship for each person. This shows that even though Peter believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, he still did not comprehend what that meant. In trying to show respect, Peter ended up showing insult to God by trying to treat Jesus as if He was just another man. Peter had grown up revering Moses and Elijah. Jesus was his everyday friend who Peter had probably seen pee and poop. It is harder to revere someone who has farted and burped near you, yet Peter did respect and love Jesus. However, He did not understand that Jesus was actually God yet.
(Revelation of God) Interesting idea. God farted, pooped, and peed as Jesus. He sweated and stank. He took baths and washed Himself. God was physical in all ways in Jesus. Jesus is God, but He is also man in every sense of the word. Peter had allowed the man part of Jesus to blind him to Jesus’ divine nature. The Father knew that Peter and the others needed to understand that Jesus was more than Moses and Elijah, so He intervened showing that He had been there the whole time. A little of God’s presence brightens everything, but a lot of God’s presence usually darkens the area because God has to hide His presence with a cloud in order to protect us from His own powerful self. The disciples looked around as the cloud encompassed them and then heard the voice of the Father Himself declaring that Jesus was His Son and that He was in command.
(Understanding the Text) Then, all the supernatural phenomena simply stopped and there were only Peter, James, John, and Jesus left standing on the mountain in the dark, or maybe by then it was the pre-dawn hours. Small night sounds whispered around them as the stunned disciples tried to process what they had just seen and heard. When they heard Jesus tell them to keep what had happened to themselves for a while, they were relieved because they weren’t sure how to put what they had just experienced into words that others would believe.
Peter wrote of this experience many years later. “For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:17-18). Even though it seems that for a few days time, Peter forgot what he had witnessed, after Jesus’ resurrection, he never forgot and more importantly, he understood the significance of what he had seen.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to realize that Jesus is both man and God. I need to respect Him as God while loving Him as Man. Or maybe it’s the reverse; I need to love Him as God while respecting Him as a fellow human? He can be my friend and my Master at the same time. I need to see the Father through the Son. I need to know that this “normal” physical world is real while also knowing that the spiritual world is just as real and just as much an integral part of the physical. I need to be careful not to revere the past, or even other people, so much that I place them as equal to God. God is higher, better, more lovely, and more important than any one person, but respecting and loving God leads to me giving more respect and love to other humans. Help me to understand Your beauty in both the physical and the spiritual world. Teach me to look beyond the ordinary to the extraordinary that comes about when You are with me.