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The Real Reason Why Jesus Had to Meet Moses and Elijah On the Mount Of Transfiguration · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: Why did Jesus have to meet Moses and Elijah on
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  Speaker 1: the Mount of Transfiguration? This is one of the most
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  Speaker 1: misunderstood passages in the entire New Testament. Because this was
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  Speaker 1: not a vision. This was not a display of glory.
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  Speaker 1: This was a meeting. And Luke recorded one word about
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  Speaker 1: what they discussed that Matthew and Mark never included. A
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  Speaker 1: word that reveals what was really happening on that mountain.
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  Speaker 1: But there is a deeper mystery underneath. Why Moses and Elijah?
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  Speaker 1: Why not Abraham, the father of the covenant? Why not David,
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  Speaker 1: the ancestor of the Messiah? God chose two men out
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  Speaker 1: of all of Israel's history, one who died, one who
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  Speaker 1: never did. And the reason he chose those two will
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  Speaker 1: change how you understand the entire Bible. To understand what
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  Speaker 1: happened on the Mount of Transfiguration, you have to understand
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  Speaker 1: something that most Bible readers never notice. This was not
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  Speaker 1: the first time God met His servants on a mountain.
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  Speaker 1: It was the third. And the pattern that connects all
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  Speaker 1: three mountains stretches across more than 1,400 years of biblical history.
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  Speaker 1: The first mountain was Sinai. In the book of Exodus,
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  Speaker 1: three months after God delivers Israel from Egypt, He tells
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  Speaker 1: Moses to consecrate the people and prepare them. Because on
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  Speaker 1: the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount
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  Speaker 1: Sinai in the sight of all the people. And when
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  Speaker 1: that day arrives, the mountain erupts. Exodus chapter 19 describes
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  Speaker 1: thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and
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  Speaker 1: the sound of a trumpet so loud that everyone in
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  Speaker 1: the camp trembles. The mountain itself is wrapped in smoke
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  Speaker 1: because the Lord has descended upon it in fire. The
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  Speaker 1: whole mountain quakes violently. Moses ascends into that fire, into
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  Speaker 1: that cloud, into the presence of the living God. The
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  Speaker 1: cloud covers the mountain for six days. On the seventh day,
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  Speaker 1: God calls Moses into the cloud. He enters the presence
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  Speaker 1: of the Almighty, and he stays there for forty days
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  Speaker 1: and forty nights. When he finally comes down, something has changed.
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  Speaker 1: His face is shining. The glory of God has marked
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  Speaker 1: him so visibly that the people of Israel are terrified
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  Speaker 1: to come near him. Moses has to place a veil
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  Speaker 1: over his face because the reflected brightness of God's presence
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  Speaker 1: is more than the people can bear. On that mountain,
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  Speaker 1: Moses receives the law, the commandments, the statutes, and the
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  Speaker 1: covenant that would define the relationship between God and Israel
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  Speaker 1: for the next 15 centuries. Sinai, is where the old
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  Speaker 1: covenant begins. Remember that, because the third mountain is where
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  Speaker 1: it reaches its destination. The second mountain was Carmel. Centuries later,
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  Speaker 1: Israel has fallen into deep apostasy. The kingdom has split.
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  Speaker 1: The northern tribes are worshipping Baal under the influence of
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  Speaker 1: King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. And one prophet stands alone
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  Speaker 1: against the entire religious establishment. His name? is Elijah. On
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  Speaker 1: Mount Carmel, Elijah issues the challenge. He stands before 450
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  Speaker 1: prophets of Baal and tells Israel to choose. If Baal
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  Speaker 1: is God, follow him. If the Lord is God, follow him.
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  Speaker 1: The prophets of Baal cry out all day. Nothing happens.
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  Speaker 1: No fire, no voice, no answer. Then Elijah builds an altar,
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  Speaker 1: lays the sacrifice, drenches everything in water, and calls on
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  Speaker 1: the God of Abraham Isaac, and Israel. Fire falls from heaven.
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  Speaker 1: It consumes the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust,
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  Speaker 1: and the water in the trench. The people fall on
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  Speaker 1: their faces and cry out, The Lord, He is God!
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  Speaker 1: The Lord, He is God! On that mountain, Elijah defends
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  Speaker 1: the faith of Israel and proves that the God of
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  Speaker 1: the covenant is still alive. The third mountain is the
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  Speaker 1: Mount of Transfiguration, and on this mountain, something happens that
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  Speaker 1: has never happened before. The man who received the law
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  Speaker 1: and the man who defended it, both appear again, together,
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  Speaker 1: on the same mountain, standing beside the Son of God,
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  Speaker 1: Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, side by
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  Speaker 1: side with Jesus. And there is a detail in the
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  Speaker 1: text that most readers pass over without realizing what it means.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew 17, verse 1 says, After six days, Jesus took Peter, James,
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  Speaker 1: and John with him and led them up a high mountain.
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  Speaker 1: After six days. Now turn back to Exodus 24, verse 16.
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  Speaker 1: For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on
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  Speaker 1: the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within
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  Speaker 1: the cloud. The same pattern, the same structure. six days
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  Speaker 1: of waiting, and then the encounter with God. Matthew is
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  Speaker 1: not writing casually. He is showing you that the transfiguration
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  Speaker 1: mirrors Sinai beat for beat. The cloud, the glory, the mountain,
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  Speaker 1: the voice. This is deliberate. The God who spoke on
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  Speaker 1: Sinai is about to speak again. And this time, what
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  Speaker 1: he says will change everything. Three mountains, three encounters, three revelations.
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  Speaker 1: But the question remains, why these two men and no others?
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  Speaker 1: The answer begins with Moses, and it begins with a
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  Speaker 1: promise God denied him 1,400 years before this night. Moses
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  Speaker 1: is not on that mountain by coincidence. His presence carries
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  Speaker 1: a weight that stretches across the entire Torah. God could
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  Speaker 1: have chosen Abraham, the father of the covenant. the man
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  Speaker 1: to whom the promise was first given. He could have
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  Speaker 1: chosen David, the king from whose line the Messiah would come.
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  Speaker 1: He could have chosen Isaiah, who saw the throne room
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  Speaker 1: of God and wrote more about the coming Messiah than
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  Speaker 1: any other prophet. But he did not choose any of them.
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  Speaker 1: He chose Moses. And the reason is precise. Abraham received
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  Speaker 1: the promise. David received the throne. but Moses received the law.
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  Speaker 1: And it was the law, the covenant itself, the commandments
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  Speaker 1: written on stone by the finger of God, that needed
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  Speaker 1: to testify, not the promise, not the throne, the law.
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  Speaker 1: When Moses appears beside Jesus at the transfiguration, it is
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  Speaker 1: not simply a man appearing, it is the law of
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  Speaker 1: God arriving to testify. Moses wrote the first five books
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible, He delivered the commandments. He mediated the
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  Speaker 1: covenant between God and Israel. He is the foundation on
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  Speaker 1: which the entire Old Testament is built. And now the
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  Speaker 1: foundation is standing in human form beside the one it
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  Speaker 1: always pointed to. But there is something else happening, something
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  Speaker 1: most people miss when they read this passage too quickly.
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  Speaker 1: When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face shone.
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  Speaker 1: Exodus chapter 34 verse 29 says the skin of his
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  Speaker 1: face was radiant because he had been speaking with God.
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  Speaker 1: The Israelites saw it. They were afraid. Moses had to
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  Speaker 1: wear a veil. His face reflected the glory of God,
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  Speaker 1: borrowed light, absorbed during 40 days in the divine presence.
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  Speaker 1: Now look at Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew
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  Speaker 1: chapter 17 verse 2. His face shone like the sun,
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  Speaker 1: and his clothes became as white as the light. The
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  Speaker 1: parallel is obvious. Both faces shine. Both moments involve a mountain.
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  Speaker 1: Both involve the presence of God. But the difference is everything.
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  Speaker 1: Moses' face shone because he had been near God. It
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  Speaker 1: was reflected glory, light bouncing off a surface. Jesus' face
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  Speaker 1: shone from within. It was not borrowed. It was not absorbed.
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  Speaker 1: It was his own glory breaking through the veil of
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  Speaker 1: human flesh. Moses was the moon, reflecting a light source
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  Speaker 1: that was not his own. Jesus was the sun, radiating
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  Speaker 1: glory that belonged to him from before the foundation of
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  Speaker 1: the world. And Moses is standing right there, watching it happen.
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  Speaker 1: The man whose reflected glory terrified an entire nation was
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  Speaker 1: is now standing next to the source of all glory,
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  Speaker 1: and he is not the brightest thing on the mountain anymore.
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  Speaker 1: There is another detail buried in the letter of Jude
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  Speaker 1: that sheds light on why Moses' appearance at the transfiguration
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  Speaker 1: is so remarkable. Jude chapter 1 verse 9 records something extraordinary.
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  Speaker 1: But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with
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  Speaker 1: the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself
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  Speaker 1: dare to condemn him for slander, but said, The Lord
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  Speaker 1: rebuke you. After Moses died, there was a supernatural contest
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  Speaker 1: over his body. The archangel Michael and Satan himself fought
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  Speaker 1: over the rebuke. of the man who had delivered the law.
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  Speaker 1: Scripture does not tell us what Satan intended to do
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  Speaker 1: with Moses' body, and we should be careful not to
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  Speaker 1: speculate beyond what is written. But whatever the enemy wanted,
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  Speaker 1: he did not get it. Because at the transfiguration, Moses
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  Speaker 1: appears in glory, alive, radiant, standing on a mountain in
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  Speaker 1: the presence of God's Son. The dispute is settled. God
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  Speaker 1: had plans for Moses that Satan could not prevent. But
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  Speaker 1: there is one more layer, and this is the one
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  Speaker 1: that will stay with you long after this video ends.
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  Speaker 1: In Deuteronomy 34, Moses climbs Mount Nebo. Now go and
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  Speaker 1: take possession of it. His eyes are not weak. His
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  Speaker 1: strength is not gone. The text is careful to note that,
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  Speaker 1: as if to say that what happens next is not
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  Speaker 1: the natural end of an old man's life. It is
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  Speaker 1: a verdict. Moses has spent the last 40 years leading
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  Speaker 1: the people of Israel through the wilderness, through rebellion, through faithlessness,
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  Speaker 1: through serpents and plagues and war and complaint. Forty years
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  Speaker 1: of walking toward a promise. Forty years of carrying a
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  Speaker 1: people who did not want to be carried. And now
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  Speaker 1: he is standing on the edge of that promise. God
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  Speaker 1: shows him the entire land, from Gilead to Dan, from
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  Speaker 1: Naphtali to the Negev, the Jordan Valley, the city of
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  Speaker 1: palm trees, all the way to the Western Sea. Everything
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  Speaker 1: Israel had been promised since the days of Abraham is
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  Speaker 1: spread out before his eyes. He can see the hills.
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  Speaker 1: He can see the valleys. He can see the land
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  Speaker 1: flowing with milk and honey that he told the people
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  Speaker 1: about for four decades. And then God says five words
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  Speaker 1: that carry the weight of a lifetime. You will not
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  Speaker 1: cross over into it. Moses had struck the rock at Meribah.
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  Speaker 1: In a moment of anger and frustration after the people
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  Speaker 1: had quarreled with him yet again over water, He struck
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  Speaker 1: the rock twice instead of speaking to it as God
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  Speaker 1: had commanded. It was a single act of disobedience, one
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  Speaker 1: moment of human frailty in a lifetime of faithfulness. And
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  Speaker 1: because of that moment, God denied him entry into the
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  Speaker 1: land he had spent 40 years walking toward. X.C. De
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  Speaker 1: Deuteronomy says God himself buried him in a valley in
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  Speaker 1: the land of Moab. No one knows the location of
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  Speaker 1: his grave to this day He never set foot in
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  Speaker 1: the promised land. He saw it. He was close enough
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  Speaker 1: to describe every ridge and every plain, but he never
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  Speaker 1: crossed the Jordan. Now hold that image in your mind
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  Speaker 1: and jump forward 1,400 years. At the Transfiguration, Moses is
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  Speaker 1: standing on a mountain in the promised land. He is there.
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  Speaker 1: After 14 centuries, after death, After burial by God's own hand,
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  Speaker 1: Moses is standing in the land he was denied, not
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  Speaker 1: as a conqueror, not as a general, as a witness.
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  Speaker 1: God did not forget. God did not abandon his servant
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  Speaker 1: on the other side of the Jordan forever. 1,400 years
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  Speaker 1: after he denied Moses' entry, God brought him back, and
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  Speaker 1: he brought him back to meet the one who was
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  Speaker 1: about to accomplish what Moses never could, the final deliverance,
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate entry into the ultimate promised land. Not a
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  Speaker 1: strip of territory between the Jordan and the sea, but
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  Speaker 1: eternal life with God. Moses had to be on that
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  Speaker 1: mountain because the law had to testify. And the law
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  Speaker 1: testified with tears in its eyes. But the law alone
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  Speaker 1: was not enough. Under the law of Moses itself, a
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  Speaker 1: matter is established by the testimony of two or more witnesses.
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  Speaker 1: The law required a second voice, and the second voice
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  Speaker 1: God chose was the greatest of the prophets. Elijah represents
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  Speaker 1: the prophetic tradition of Israel. Every prophet from Samuel to Malachi,
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  Speaker 1: every voice that cried out in the wilderness, every warning
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  Speaker 1: against idolatry, every promise of a coming Messiah— is embodied
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  Speaker 1: in this one man. Moses brings the law to the mountain.
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  Speaker 1: Elijah brings the prophets. Together, they represent the entire Old Testament,
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  Speaker 1: the two pillars on which everything was built. But there
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  Speaker 1: is something about Elijah that sets him apart from every
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  Speaker 1: other figure in the Bible, including Moses. Elijah never died.
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  Speaker 1: 2 Kings 2, verse 11 records the moment. As they
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  Speaker 1: were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of
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  Speaker 1: fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two
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  Speaker 1: of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
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  Speaker 1: No death, no burial, no grave. Elijah was taken from
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  Speaker 1: this world alive, translated directly into the presence of God
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  Speaker 1: without passing through death. Now stand back and look at
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  Speaker 1: the mountain again. Moses died and was buried. Elijah never
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  Speaker 1: died and was taken alive. Two men, two completely different
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  Speaker 1: exits from this world, and both are standing with Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: This is not random, and many scholars see in this
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  Speaker 1: a profound preview. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4,
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  Speaker 1: verses 16 and 17, For the Lord himself will come
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  Speaker 1: down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice
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  Speaker 1: of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God,
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  Speaker 1: and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that,
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  Speaker 1: we who are still alive and are left will be
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  Speaker 1: caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
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  Speaker 1: the Lord in the air. Two groups. Those who have
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  Speaker 1: died and will be raised, and those who are still
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  Speaker 1: alive and will be transformed. Moses, who died, appears to
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  Speaker 1: align with the first group, the resurrected dead. Elijah, who
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  Speaker 1: never died, appears to align with the second, those who
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  Speaker 1: will be changed without ever tasting death. If this connection holds,
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  Speaker 1: then what the disciples witnessed on the Transfiguration Mountain was
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  Speaker 1: not only a meeting, it was a preview of what
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  Speaker 1: will happen when Christ returns. The Dead Raised the living transformed,
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  Speaker 1: both standing in the presence of the Son of God.
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  Speaker 1: And there is one more parallel that demands attention. On
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  Speaker 1: Mount Carmel, Elijah called fire down from heaven to prove
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  Speaker 1: that the God of Israel was real. He stood alone.
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  Speaker 1: He was outnumbered 450 to 1. The prophets of Baal
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  Speaker 1: had screamed and cut themselves and danced from morning until evening.
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  Speaker 1: and their altar remained cold and silent. And then Elijah
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  Speaker 1: rebuilt the broken altar of the Lord, laid the sacrifice,
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  Speaker 1: drenched it in water three times until the trench around
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  Speaker 1: the altar was overflowing, and he prayed one quiet prayer,
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  Speaker 1: and fire fell, not a spark, not a flicker, fire
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  Speaker 1: that consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, the soil,
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  Speaker 1: and licked up the water in the trench. On that day,
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  Speaker 1: Elijah proved God was real by calling down his fire.
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  Speaker 1: But on the Mount of Transfiguration, Elijah does not need
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  Speaker 1: to call fire down from anywhere. He is standing next
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  Speaker 1: to the source of the fire. The God whose existence
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  Speaker 1: he risked his life to prove on Carmel, the God
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  Speaker 1: he defended when every other prophet had been killed or
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  Speaker 1: had fled, is the man standing beside him. The fire
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  Speaker 1: of God is not falling from the sky. The fire
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  Speaker 1: of God is radiating from the face of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Everything Elijah fought for, everything he nearly died for in
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  Speaker 1: that cave on Mount Horeb when he begged God to
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  Speaker 1: take his life, is confirmed in the person standing at
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  Speaker 1: his side. The prophet who proved God on Carmel is
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  Speaker 1: now standing next to the proof itself. And there is
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  Speaker 1: one final detail that closes the loop of the entire
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament. The last book of the Old Testament, the
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  Speaker 1: prophet Malachi, ends with this promise in chapter 4, verse 5. See,
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  Speaker 1: I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that
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  Speaker 1: great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. These are
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  Speaker 1: among the last prophetic words spoken in Israel before 400
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  Speaker 1: years of silence. Four centuries with no prophetic voice, no vision,
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  Speaker 1: no word from God. And the final promise hanging in
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  Speaker 1: the air through all those silent generations is this, Elijah
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  Speaker 1: will return. At the transfiguration, standing on a mountain in
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  Speaker 1: glory beside the Son of God, he does. The law
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  Speaker 1: is there. The prophets are there. Moses, who died. Elijah,
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  Speaker 1: who never died. The entire Old Testament, standing in human form,
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  Speaker 1: beside the Son of God. But they were not there
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  Speaker 1: for a reunion. Luke recorded one detail about what they discussed.
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  Speaker 1: A single word that Matthew and Mark did not include.
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  Speaker 1: And it changes the meaning of the entire encounter. Luke
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  Speaker 1: chapter 9, verse 31, records something that the other gospel
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  Speaker 1: writers chose not to include. It says that Moses and
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  Speaker 1: Elijah spoke about his departure, which he was about to
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  Speaker 1: bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Most English translations use the
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  Speaker 1: word departure. It sounds simple, almost casual, as if Moses
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  Speaker 1: and Elijah appeared on a mountain to discuss travel plans.
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  Speaker 1: But the Greek word Luke uses is not a casual word.
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  Speaker 1: It is exodon, exodon, exodus. They were not discussing a departure.
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  Speaker 1: They were discussing an exodus. And the choice of that
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  Speaker 1: word is not accidental. Luke is one of the most
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  Speaker 1: precise writers in the New Testament. He investigated everything carefully.
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  Speaker 1: He interviewed eyewitnesses. And when he describes what Moses and
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  Speaker 1: Elijah talked about with Jesus, he uses the single most
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  Speaker 1: loaded word in the entire history of Israel. Because the
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  Speaker 1: Exodus was not just an event. It was the event.
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  Speaker 1: It was the defining act of God in the Old Testament.
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  Speaker 1: The moment when God reached into the most powerful empire
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  Speaker 1: on earth and pulled his people out of bondage. Before
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  Speaker 1: the Exodus, Israel was a collection of enslaved tribes. After
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  Speaker 1: the Exodus, Israel was a nation with a covenant, a law,
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  Speaker 1: and a destiny. The Exodus was the act that created
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  Speaker 1: the people of God. Moses led that exodus. He stood
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  Speaker 1: before Pharaoh and said, Let my people go. He stretched
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  Speaker 1: his staff over the Red Sea and watched the waters part.
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  Speaker 1: He walked with Israel through 40 years of wilderness, feeding
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  Speaker 1: them with manna, giving them water from rock, mediating between
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  Speaker 1: a holy God and a rebellious people. He brought them
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  Speaker 1: to the edge of the promised land. The exodus was
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  Speaker 1: Moses' life work. It was the act by which God
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  Speaker 1: made Israel a nation. And now Moses is standing face
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  Speaker 1: to face with the one who is about to lead
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  Speaker 1: a second Exodus. But this time, the bondage is not Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: It is sin. The enemy is not Pharaoh. It is
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  Speaker 1: death itself. And the promised land is not a territory
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  Speaker 1: between two rivers. It is eternal life in the presence
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  Speaker 1: of God. Consider the parallels. In the first Exodus, A
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  Speaker 1: lamb was slain and its blood was painted on the
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  Speaker 1: doorposts so that death would pass over. In the second exodus,
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  Speaker 1: the Lamb of God would be slain and His blood
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  Speaker 1: would cover the sins of the world so that eternal
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  Speaker 1: death would pass over every soul that believed. In the
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  Speaker 1: first exodus, Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea,
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  Speaker 1: from slavery on one side to freedom on the other.
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  Speaker 1: In the second exodus, Jesus would pass through the waters
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  Speaker 1: of death itself, from the cross to the grave to
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection, and bring humanity from bondage into liberty. In
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the first Exodus, Moses led the people to a mountain
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: where God spoke. In the second Exodus, Jesus would ascend
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: to the Father and send the Spirit at Pentecost, where
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: God would speak again, this time in every language on earth.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Moses led the first exodus, the liberation of a nation
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  Speaker 1: from physical slavery. Jesus was about to lead the second exodus,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the liberation of humanity from spiritual bondage, from the dominion
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: of sin, from the power of the grave. The first
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: exodus freed Israel. The second would free the world. This
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: was not a social visit. This was not two old
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: saints catching up with the Messiah. This was a strategic briefing.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: The man who led the first liberation was being told
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  Speaker 1: about the second, and the second was infinitely greater than
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the first. And Elijah was there because the second exodus
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: would also be a confrontation. On Carmel, Elijah had confronted
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the false gods. In Jerusalem, Jesus would confront the ultimate enemy.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Elijah proved that God was alive. Jesus was about to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: prove that death was defeated. Moses led the first. Jesus
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: was about to lead the second. And then something happened
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: that silenced everyone on that mountain. Peter spoke first, and
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  Speaker 1: what he said reveals how overwhelming the moment was. Matthew 17,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: verse 4 Lord, it is good for us to be here.
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  Speaker 1: If you wish, I will put up three shelters— one
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  Speaker 1: for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. The
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Greek word for shelters is skenas, skenas, tabernacles. It is
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the same word used for the temporary booths that Israel
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  Speaker 1: builds during the Feast of Tabernacles, the festival of Sukkot.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Peter was not babbling nonsense. He was reaching for the
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  Speaker 1: only theological category he had that could make sense of
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: what he was seeing. God's glory a mountain, the presence
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of divine beings. In Peter's mind, this was the eschatological Sukkot,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: the final feast, and he wanted to preserve it. He
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: wanted to build something to contain the moment. But Peter
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: made a critical error. He put up three shelters, one
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah, three equal structures,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: three equal figures. He placed the Son of God on
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the same level as his servants, and God the Father
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: corrected him immediately. Matthew 17, verse 5. While he was
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: from the cloud said, This is my Son, whom I love.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: With him I am well pleased. Listen to him. Peter
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  Speaker 1: did not even finish his sentence. While the words were
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: still in his mouth, the cloud descended. This was not
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: an ordinary cloud. This was the Shekinah, the glory cloud,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the same radiant, terrifying presence that had descended on Mount
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Sinai when God gave the law, the same cloud that
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: filled Solomon's temple so heavily that the priests could not
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: stand to minister, the cloud that had been absent from
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Israel for centuries and it appears one final time in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the New Testament, here on this mountain, and it speaks,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: This is my Son, whom I love. With Him I
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: am well pleased. Listen to Him. Not listen to Moses.
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  Speaker 1: Not listen to Elijah. Not listen to the law and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the prophets. Listen to Him. The Father does not divide authority.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: He does not share the platform. He directs every ear,
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  Speaker 1: every heart, every generation that will ever read this passage
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  Speaker 1: to his son. And the phrase, listen to him, is
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: not new. It is ancient. It reaches back 1,500 years
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  Speaker 1: to a prophecy that Moses himself delivered. Deuteronomy 18, verse 15.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord your God will raise up for you a
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: You must listen to him. God's voice from the cloud
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: is quoting Moses. To Moses' face. Moses wrote those words
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: in the wilderness. He told Israel that one day, God
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: would raise up a prophet greater than himself. And when
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that prophet came, they must listen to him. And now,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: 1400 years later, God's own voice from heaven repeats the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: prophecy back to its author. Moses hears his own words
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: fulfilled by the voice of the Almighty. The prophet he
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: predicted is standing right in front of him. And then
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  Speaker 1: the cloud lifts. Matthew 17, verse 8. When they looked up,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: they saw no one except Jesus. Moses was gone. Elijah
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was gone. The mountain was quiet. The cloud had departed.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: The voice had spoken and fallen silent. And the three disciples, Peter, James,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: and John, looked up from the ground where they had
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: fallen in terror, and they saw only one figure standing
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: on the mountain, Jesus, alone. Think about what the disciples
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: had just witnessed. They had seen two men who had
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: been dead, or absent from this world, for centuries appear
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: in radiant glory. They had heard a conversation about an exodus,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: They did not yet understand. They had watched Peter try
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: to contain the moment in three shelters. They had heard
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: the voice of God the Father speak audibly from a cloud.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: And now, silence. The figures are gone. The cloud is gone.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: The voice is gone. And standing before them, in the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: ordinary appearance of the rabbi they had been following for
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: three years, is Jesus. The same Jesus who ate with them,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: who walked dusty roads with them, who slept in boats
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: with them. But they now know something they did not
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: know before. They know who he is. Not because they
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: reasoned it out. Because the law testified. The prophets testified.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And God himself declared it from heaven. The law had testified.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: The prophets had testified. They had spoken their peace. They
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: had confirmed the mission. They had discussed the exodus that
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: was about to unfold in Jerusalem. And then they stepped aside.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: The Old Covenant did not collapse. It was not destroyed.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: It was not discarded. It fulfilled its purpose. And then
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: it gave way to something greater. And when the cloud lifted,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the disciples saw the New Covenant standing alone on the mountain.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: This is the visual theology of the entire New Testament
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: compressed into a single verse. The Old is not thrown away.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: It testifies. It confirms. And then it disappears, leaving only Jesus,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: only the Son, only the one voice that heaven itself
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: commands the world to hear. The law and the prophets
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: did their job, and then they were gone. Decades later,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Peter is an old man. He has walked with Jesus
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: through Galilee. He has seen him calm a storm with
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: a word. He has denied him three times in a
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: courtyard while a rooster crowed. He has been restored on
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: a beach over a breakfast of fish. He has preached
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: at Pentecost and watched 3,000 souls respond. He has built
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the church. He has been imprisoned, beaten, and threatened with death.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: He has seen more miracles than most people will ever
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: read about. The blind healed. The dead raised. Water turned
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: to wine. Thousands fed from a boy's lunch. Demons cast out.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: lepers cleansed, a man walking on water, and at the
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: end of his life, writing what he knows will be
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: one of his final letters, Peter reaches back across all
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: those years and all those miracles, and he grabs hold
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of one moment, one single event, as the definitive proof
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: that Jesus is who he claimed to be. 2 Peter 1,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: verses 16-18 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: when we told you about the coming of our Lord
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: He received honor and glory from God the Father when
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: This is my Son, whom I love. With him I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice that came
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of everything Peter witnessed in three years of walking with Jesus,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: this is what he chose. Not the resurrection appearances, not
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the ascension, the mountain, the voice, the moment when the
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: law and the prophets arrived, testified, and stepped aside. And
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: God's voice thundered from the cloud that His Son was
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the one the world must hear. Because the transfiguration happened,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: was not a spectacle. It was not a miracle performed
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: for the sake of wonder. It was the most carefully
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: orchestrated theological event in the New Testament. God brought the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: two greatest figures in the history of Israel to a
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: mountain to prove, with witnesses, with glory, with his own voice,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that everything the law had written and everything the prophets
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: had spoken was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Moses brought the
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: law and Elijah brought the prophets. One died and the
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: other never did, representing every human being who will ever
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: stand before God. They did not come for a reunion.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: They came to discuss the second exodus, the ultimate deliverance
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: from sin and death that Jesus was about to accomplish
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. And when God's voice echoed from the cloud,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: repeating Moses' own prophecy back to him The law and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the prophets stepped aside. The cloud lifted. And only the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: sun remained. There is someone watching this who has always
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: read the Bible as a collection of disconnected stories. You
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: thought the Old Testament was one book and the New
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Testament was another. You thought Moses belonged to a different
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: era and Elijah to a different age and Jesus to
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: a different religion altogether. But on that mountain... you see
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the perfect architecture of God's Word. Nothing was wasted. Nothing
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: was random. Nothing was forgotten. Every law Moses wrote pointed forward.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Every prophecy Elijah defended pointed forward. And when they arrived
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: on that mountain and stood beside the Son of God,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: everything they had carried for 1,500 years was finally home.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Even a promise to Moses... to one day stand in
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the promised land was kept 1400 years later because the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: God who spoke on Sinai and the God who sent
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: fire on Carmel and the God who shone through human
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: flesh on the Mount of Transfiguration is the same God
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and he finishes what he starts if God remembered a
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: promise he made to Moses after 1400 years He has
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: not forgotten the promise he made to you. If God
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: could bring Moses back from the dead and stand him
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: in the land he was denied, he can bring you
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: through whatever wilderness you are walking through right now. The
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: same God who orchestrated the meeting on that mountain is
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: orchestrating the details of your life with the same precision,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the same faithfulness, and the same love. The law points
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: to Jesus. The prophets point to Jesus. Moses testified and
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: stepped aside. Elijah testified and stepped aside. And when the
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: cloud lifts in your own life, when the confusion clears
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: and the noise fades, and you are left standing on
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: your own mountain with nothing but silence, there is only
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: one voice left to hear. Listen to him. Because the
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: closer you look, the more you find. If this message
• 36:53
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• 36:56
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• 37:02
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