Listen to Him!

   “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked his disciples (Matt. 16:13). This was before Jesus’ transfiguration (“a change of form or appearance”).

The disciples replied, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” 

“But whom say ye that I am?” Jesus said.

Peter replied, “Thous art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

Jesus said Peter was blessed “for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which art in heaven.”

SPURGEON’S VIEW: Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “I never loved God till I saw him in Christ. … I could never have any familiarity with God till I saw his familiarity with me in the person of his Son. I never understood how I could be God’s son till I understood how God’s Son became a man. I never saw how I could be a partaker of the divine nature till I saw how his Son became a partaker of the human nature. … Oh, beloved, do you delight in Jesus Christ? Is he all your salvation and all your desire? Do you adore him, do you consecrate yourself to his honor, do you wish to live for him, and to die for him? Then be sure that you belong to him, for it is the mark of the children of God that they love God in Christ Jesus.”

JESUS REVEALED: Jesus told his disciples he must go to Jerusalem and suffer, be killed, and be raised. Peter rebuked Jesus, saying that should not happen to Jesus. 

“Get thee behind me Satan,” Jesus said. Peter was “an offense” because of “not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts” (ISV).

TAKE UP CROSSES: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? … For the Son of Man is going to come … and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. … There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom’” (Matt. 16:24-28 ESV).

SIX DAYS LATER: After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother into a high mountain (Matt. 17:1). (Mount Tabor is 1800 ft. above sea level; most ancient scholars agree is the site of the Transfiguration.) Jesus was transfigured before them; his face shown like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus.

PETER’S MISTAKE: Peter told Jesus it was good to be there, and if need be, he would make three tents (tabernacles), one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Writer Valerie Riese tells us why Peter had this idea:    

The Greek word translated as “tents” refers to the type of shelter the Hebrews called sukkah (pronounced ‘sook-kah’), Riese says. “Strong’s Concordance” defines a “sukkah” as a rude or temporary shelter. A sukkah was a small booth or tabernacle made with roofs of willows, palm trees, and other leafy trees (Lev. 23:40). Similar to our tents today, sukkot (plural for sukkah) were easy to pack up and rebuild in a new location, so they were the standard dwelling of Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years. Peter was also familiar with a more elaborate dwelling, the tabernacle of the Lord that traveled the desert along with the Israelites.

Why did Peter suggests a sukkah for each of the three? God gave Moses instructions for three Jewish Festivals, Riese says. The Festival of Booths is detailed in Leviticus 23:33-44. Every year, the Israelites built sukkot to remember how God sustained them during the Exodus. Peter lived in a sukkah for a week every year during the Festival of Booths, known as Sukkot, as Jews do each year as one of the three Pilgrimage Festivals. He learned to go without most conveniences of life to rely on God, as his ancestors did, and was reminded of their years of wandering in the wilderness. 

Peter knew a sukkah was a place to meet with God, so it seemed appropriate to accommodate God’s glory as he’d always done. He was trying to worship God. There are only three recorded instances of people hearing God’s audible voice in the New Testament. One of them was God speaking to Peter to tell him to listen to Jesus. God didn’t need a tabernacle to speak to his people anymore!  

While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, and from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”