IBL13: Law in the New Testament

The Transfiguration

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Law

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 4

Track: 132

Dictation Name: RR130BU132

Date: 1960s-1970s

From the Gospel of St. Luke 9:28-36, “The Transfiguration.”

“28And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.

29 And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.

30 And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:

31 Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

32 But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.

33 And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.

34 While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.

35 And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, this is my beloved Son: hear him.

36 And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.”

The comparison in the New Testament between Jesus and Moses is a frequent one. In fact, it is one that is invited by our Lord. Just as the law as given from the mountain top to Moses and brought down from the mountain, so our Lord gave His sermon on the meaning of the law from the mount. Just as Moses exercised the role of a mediator between God and Israel, so our Lord Jesus Christ. as a matter of fact, Moses declared in Deuteronomy 18:18, 19 that Christ was to be the greater prophet, like unto himself, that is, like Moses. And even as Moses led God’s people from captivity to freedom, so the greater Moses, Jesus Christ, led His people from the captivity of sin and death into the freedom of God.

This comparison between our Lord and Moses is stressed in the account of the Transfiguration. The incident first of all also was on a mountain. Now, Moses came down from a mountain transfigured, and the transfigured Moses came down from the mountain to give directions for building the tabernacle. The transfigured Christ came down from the mountain and declared unto His disciples very shortly, that He was the true tabernacle, the true temple of God, and that the temple in Jerusalem could be destroyed. It had no meaning; that men would destroy the real temple (Himself), but in three days He would raise it again. The experience of Moses of being transfigured on the mount was thus repeated in Christ.

We are told in Exodus 34:33-35 [Exodus 34:29-30, 33-35]:

“29And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.

33And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.

34 But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.”

Now Jesus was transfigured before the disciples. His face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. The transfiguration of Moses was surpassed and repeated in the experience of our Lord.

Then, moreover, Elijah and Moses appeared: the law and the prophets, to indicate their unity with our Lord. And we are told there appeared unto Him Elias (or Elijah) and Moses and they were talking with Jesus.

A century ago, two bishops of the Church of England, the bishops of Gloucester and Bristol and commenting on the Matthew 17 passage concerning the transfiguration, declared, “There was, it is obvious, a singular fitness in each case. One, Moses, was the great representative of the law which was a schoolmaster, a servant-tutor, leading men to Christ, the other of the whole goodly fellowship of the prophets. Of one it had been said that a prophet like unto him should could in the latter days, to whom men should harken. Of the other, Elijah, that he should come again to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. The close of the ministry of each was not after the common death of all men. No man knew of the sepulcher of Moses and Elijah passed away in chariots and horses of fire. Both were associated in men’s minds with the glory of the kingdom of the Christ. The Jerusalem Targum on Exodus 12 connects the coming of Moses with that of the messiah. Another Jewish tradition predicted His appearance with that of Elijah. Their presence now was an attestation that their work was one with Christ. Thus, Elijah and Moses were united with Christ, appearing in glory together with Him to reveal the glory of God which was to be accomplished.”

Then next, and especially important, verse 31 of our text says that these two appeared to Jesus in glory and spoke of His decease, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now the word that is translated there in the English as ‘decease’ is not actually decease. It could be translated as departure. In the Greek it is e-x-o-d-o-n (exodon), the same word as we have in the second book of the Bible, Exodus; exodus. They came to speak of the exodus which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now that word is used deliberately. It’s a sad fact that there are no longer sermons preached on the exodus of the New Testament. Once they were, but you have to go back to the last century to find such preaching. It was once one of the great subjects of preaching, about the birth and death of our Lord, because with His birth He began and with His death and resurrection, He accomplished that greater exodus of which the first exodus was attached. What was its meaning?

The first exodus, the first Moses, led the people of God from the captivity of Egypt, from the land of bondage, of slavery through 40 years on the wilderness to the Promised Land, to freedom. In the greater exodus, the true Moses, Jesus Christ, the greater Moses, borne of the line of Adam, born into a race, mankind, of bondage, of slavery, of sin and death, began the exodus that led His people into the land of freedom from sin and death into paradise regained, into the beginning of a New Creation. He Himself the first fruits of them that are asleep, the first fruits of the New Creation. Thus, the meaning of Christ’s exodus is that we as the people of God in Him are delivered from sin and death so that Heaven is our destiny, that He is the first fruits, as the beginning of the New Creation and a restored earth in which restitution is the order of the day, in which all things are to be restored into the Kingdom of God and into the rule of Christ. They spoke of His exodus, which He should accomplish in Jerusalem.

The theme of the exodus is very common to the New Testament. The baptism, which was instituted in the Church, was compared to the Red Sea crossing by Paul. The Exodus theme. The 40 days’ temptation of our Lord was compared to the 40 years of Israel in Egypt, when they were tempted and they submitted to temptation and they fell in the wilderness. But the greater Israel, because He is called Israel also, “out of Egypt have I called my son,” the prophet declared, speaking prophetically of Christ, did not submit in the 40 days of temptation.

The comparison between Exodus and our Lord’s ministry was very strongly developed in a study of the subject by R.E. Nixon (not R.N. Nixon). R.E. Nixon, in a study of the Exodus in the New Testament, he declared, and I quote in part, “Where they had been dissatisfied with the Lord’s provision of manna, He is tempted to turn stones into bread. Where they put God to the test at Massah demanding proof of His presence and power, He is tempted to jump from the temple pinnacle to force God to honor His promises. Where they forgot the Lord who’d brought them out of Egypt and substituted a molten calf for Him, He is tempted to fall down and worship Satan. Christ is shown to meet the temptations, not arbitrarily, but deliberately for Moses’ summary in Deuteronomy of the history of Israel in the wilderness. If Jesus really was the true representative of God’s people, He too must be shown to have had His wilderness journey and endured the test which proved His person, only without sin.”

Just as Moses called together 70 men to rule with him during the exodus experience, so our Lord called together 70 disciples and set them out to declare His coming and His authority over the land as the new conquest of Canaan and declare that its cities would be destroyed in a day of judgment. Thus, indeed our Lord’s whole life was self-consciously a greater exodus.

Moreover, Jesus was attested not only by the law and the prophets, but by God Himself to be the greater Moses, the voice of God speaking from the cloud, and the cloud is a symbol of judgment, declares, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. Hear ye Him.”

Now St. Peter himself in Acts 3:22-23 tells us the meaning of this declaration. He said, “22For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” This then was the meaning of God’s declaration at the transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. Hear ye him.” In other words, hear Him and be saved, or refuse to hear Him and be judged. To hear Jesus therefore, according to the scripture quoted, Deuteronomy 18:19, by St. Peter, meant to hear the law and the prophets or else to be destroyed, for Christ in His person is the power behind every prophet, the giver of the law, the incarnate Son of God.

There can be no separating of the law from Christ. And yet, tragically, this is what is being done. I had a letter not too long ago from a seminary student, and he wrote about a discussion in a seminary that prides itself on being thoroughly orthodox on the subject of abortion. There’s a portion of it I can’t even quote because when he referred to God’s Law, he was set down with a, an expression that is not printable. “Dr. W” put the whole discussion of abortion in the purely academic sphere when he divorced morality from society by saying that since this is a democracy, the State would have to base its decision concerning abortion laws on the will of the majority of the people. This is a seminary professor who claims to believe the Bible from cover to cover, who admitted the student says, that the Bible says that abortion should be punished by the death penalty. If they (that is, the majority of the people), think that abortion is harmful to society, they ought to prohibit it. If not, then let ‘er rip! His Antinomianism is appalling. I suppose that this is the thing that I find most troubling here: the Antinomianism, the old ‘I never mix religion and politics’ line. It’s so bad among (well, I can’t quote this portion). One thing that disturbed me about that abortion thing was that it was more or less assumed by all there, even those who oppose general abortion, that therapeutic abortion was morally justifiable. If you are trying to save the mother, murder is justified. So murder of anyone for a good cause is okay. It is hard to see why they can’t see the fallacy of that. Murder is murder. Now that from a first-year student, describing the Antinomianism that characterizes the students and the faculty.

The fact is that the warfare of our Lord was not against Moses of the Law of God, but against the scribes and the Pharisees who denied the law. Francis Foltz, writing on the acts of God declared, “It is significant also that for Israel, the law is not just a statement of abstract principles, a carefully worked-out code of behavior formulated as such. The law is the expression of the righteousness and mercy of God. It is the statement of the principles of the covenant, the Old Testament setting of the law is the giving of the covenant at The Exodus, the Decalogue begins, ‘I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’ The law, therefore, contained not just a code to keep but the principles of God’s actions in the past which remain the same for the present and the future.” Thus, as Foltz pointed out, the first sentence of the Ten Commandments sets for and celebrates the grace of God. It is grace which enables the people of God to keep the law.

Therefore, the Law of God is the basis in which we pray. We do not pray that God set aside His Law, that He bless adultery or murder or false witness or theft. We pray in terms of the righteousness of God and in terms of His kingdom and in terms of the prospering of His saints, in terms of our blessing in terms of our obedience, or blessing in terms of repentance, in terms of His Law. Thus the law is inseparable from grace and from mercy, inseparable from prayer.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus Christ appeared as the greater Moses, He who had come to fulfill the law, and God by His voice from Heaven had declared, “Hear ye Him,” echoing the statement of Deuteronomy, hear and be blessed; do not hear and you shall be cursed. Jesus Christ, therefore, when He is heard and obeyed, is the principle of mercy, of grace, of blessing and of prosperity, and of judgment to those who will not hear him.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee that Thou art He who didst call us to be the people of Thy covenant, that Jesus Christ, our true and greater Moses has led us from the captivity of sin and death into citizenship in Thy kingdom in time and in eternity. We thank Thee our Father that we are citizens of no mean city, citizens of the New Jerusalem and that we have such promises in Jesus Christ who is unto us yea and amen. Oh Lord, our God, how great Thou art and we praise Thee! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all with respect to our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience] Is the… I realize that the {?} of Moses to that of {?} of Jesus Christ, but the equation {?} to Jesus Christ when I, in the Old Testament, you can see the mistakes Moses made {?} he had to be directed by his father-in-law. I cannot see the equation {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, it doesn’t mean it’s a perfect correlation, you see, the type and the fulfillment do not mean a perfect correlation, but all the same a very real one in that both were prophets, were law-givers, let the people of God from captivity to freedom, so we cannot expect the one who typifies something to be the perfection that the fulfillment is, just as the priesthood of Melchizedek was not a perfect priesthood and Christ’s was, but still, Melchizedek typified Christ. Just as David as king was a sinful man, and yet he typified Christ the King.

[Audience] It {?} bother me that Jesus Christ was the greater Moses,

[Rushdoony] Yes…

[Audience] You know, I {?} hear that Moses was a lesser, but God was not.

[Rushdoony] No, because we have to see that for all his sins and short-comings, how great Moses was and how truly God used him in a great and might way so that we are told there was none like unto Moses in the Old Testament period. That puts him ahead of Elijah, puts him ahead of David, it puts him ahead of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it puts him ahead of Isaiah, so in the sight of God there was none equal to Moses.

Any other questions?

If not, I’d like to share a couple of little things with you of very minor significance but none the less interesting. I read about a week and a half ago, an interesting book by and Englishman in South Africa who has written about 20 or so books on Africa, Lawrence G. Green, and this one Old Africa’s Last Secrets has some very interesting things that I think touch on the Bible at points, and this point, speaking of the snake charmers. Incidentally, he says they are not frauds, and the cobras they work with are cobras with their fangs and sooner or later every snake charmer misses and is stung and killed by a cobra.

“Cobras appear as marks of regal dignity, as tiaras on Egyptian statues. Cleopatra’s asp was a cobra. Magicians of the Pharaohs could turn serpents into rods, imitating the miracle wrought by Moses. This I believe is done by compressing the snake’s neck so that the brain is affected and the snake becomes rigid.”

He goes on to describe a number of the very amazing things that they do. Then commenting on the passage in the Bible that there were giants in the earth in those days, he says, that the tallest man on record in modern times, he was a Russian, 9’3” in height, though in recent years I heard of a man of 9’10”. Some scientists assert that there were even more impressive giants in the dawn world. They support, thus, those lines in Genesis so often quoted which declare, ”There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men” [Genesis 6:4] Professor Franz Weidenreich of the American Museum of Natural History is the leading exponent of the giant theory and he regards Africa as one of the homes of the giants in those days, half a million years or more before Christ. Other anthropologists still think that the first human beings were pygmies, basing their view on the evolution of small mammals which grew larger. Weidenreich studied various skulls and jawbones, including Broom’s massive Paranthropus Robustus from South Africa. He was also influenced by the enormous teeth found in China. He could not revise a scale whereby body stature could be measured from the teeth. But he argued that huge teeth and large jaws must have belonged to large bodies. Weidenreich’s estimate is that man’s ancestors were twice the size of a male gorilla. This creature is often 6’ in height with a weight of 30 stone. Double those proportions and you have a giant indeed! “The human line, I believe, leads back to giants, the farther back it is traced,” Weidenreich declared firmly. “The giants must be directly ancestral to man.”

What support does Africa give his interesting theory? Professor Dennis Sureau another believer in giants regards the colossal statues of Egypt as evidence. He also points to the gigantic stone implements found on Morocco not long ago, tools which could only have been handled by giants 12’ in height. Sureau accounts for the giants by an ingenious theory. He thinks that the gravitation exerted by earlier moons inclining close to the earth lessened the weight of all creatures, drawing them upwards. Living things grew taller, giants were born and they lived to great ages as described in the Bible. Then he goes on to give other theories and so on which doesn’t particularly concern us.

Then one further item which has nothing to do with the Bible, but I just thought it was very interesting and I’ll pass it on: he has a couple of chapters on the bushmen who live in the Kalahari Desert and other desert areas. Their life is a very meager one. They’re a different people from African blacks. They are a yellow-skinned people and a smaller people by and large. They go a long time between meals, so when they kill any animals, they have to eat the whole thing at once, otherwise it will spoil. It will not keep. So a good bushman meal, which may come once every two, three weeks, will be 30lbs. of meat at a sitting. When there is meat, the bushman’s appetite is a wonder to behold. He can eat a fat-tailed sheep weighing 30lbs at a sitting, though the meat will last somewhat longer than a- meal will last somewhat longer than a civic banquet. If he does not possess this power, he might die, for the game he shoots soon goes bad and there is no knowing when the next buck will come within range of his arrows. Nature has come to the aid of the bushman in this life of feast and famine. All the older people have wrinkled stomachs, capable of expanding like concertinas when food is plentiful, and the women of course have developed enormous buttocks and thighs, a condition known to scientists as steatopygia. While meat is the only food the bushman really loves, he has often to satisfy his hunger with such trifles as locust, porridge, bushman’s rice, a variety of termites, snakes and frogs. No other race could support life in the deserts where the bushmen flourish. Even the children on their mother’s backs can swallow water like camels. They too know that it is a long way between water holes.

Now that’s apropos of nothing except that it was interesting.