SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/21/2022 7:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Testimony of the Saints”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 17:3-4
Message of the verses: “3 And behold,
Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 And Peter answered and
said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will
make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for
Elijah.’”
I promised to
continue the quotation from John MacArthur as we began this last portion from
verses 3-4 of Matthew 17. “Zechariah predicted
that during the Millennium, when ‘the Lord will be king over all the earth; in
that day the Lord will be the only one.
Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that
went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the
Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths’ (Zech. 14:9, 16). That is the only week-long Old Testament
festival that will be celebrated during the millennial reign of Christ. The feast of Tabernacles will be remembered
every year for a thousand years as a picture of God’s deliverance and
preservation of His people.”
We
mentioned that this feast being close at hand may have been the reason that
Peter suggested to make three tabernacles on the mountain. That possibility is even more likely in light
of the fact that this festival commemorated the Exodus from slavery in Egypt
and the wilderness wanderings of Israel under Moses. We talked in an earlier SD that Moses and
Elijah was talking to the Lord about His departure, and mentioned that the word
departure means exodus, or could be translated exodus, this is seen in Luke
9:31. Now the second-coming and
infinitely greater deliverance of believing mankind will be from sin. How appropriate then, Peter may have thought,
to celebrate the feast in that sacred place, not only in the presence of Moses
himself but in the presence of the even greater Deliverer whom Moses
foreshadowed and of whom Elijah was to be the forerunner. I also mentioned that I believe that both
Moses and Elijah will be the ones called witnesses in the book of Revelation,
which means that Elijah would then be the forerunner of the Messiah when the
Lord comes back to planet earth as seen in Revelation chapter 19.
Peter’s
idea was not foolish, but in the fact that Jesus would not have to die, that
was the foolish part of his idea, for there had to be Christ’s death before His
glory, which would happen when He arose from the dead. MacArthur writes “Peter was also foolish in
placing Moses and Elijah, great as they were, on the same level as Christ by
wanting to build tabernacles for all three of them. As previously noted, when Peter made this
suggestion, Moses and Elijah were already departing (Luke 9:33). They knew their mission was temporary and
their testimony to Christ was now completed.
In their ministries they had merely proclaimed the word of the law and
the prophets. But Jesus Christ, the
living Word was both the giver and the perfect fulfillment of the law and
prophets, whose purpose was to point men to Himself (see Rom. 8:3; 10:4; Gal.
3:24). Leaving Christ in unchallenged
supremacy, Moses and Elijah faded away so that the sole reamaing object of
adoration was the glorious Lord Himself.
Once their testimony to Him was finished, they would not stay and risk
detracting from Him.”
I
have learned from this last quotation from MacArthur, and it is my prayer that
those who read this will also learn new things too.
10/21/2022 8:11 AM
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