WAS IT A VISION OR A REALITY?
The Resurrection of Moses.
1. The event is called a “vision.” Jesus said, “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen from the dead” (Matthew, R. V.); He charged them that they should “tell no man what things they had seen” (Mark); and Luke tells us that the disciples “kept it close, and told no man in those days.” 2. The word rendered “vision” is horama, meaning vision, sight, “something gazed at; a spectacle.” In Acts 7:31 it is rendered “sight.” It simply means a “seeing” as in the English, and may be a reality tho supernatural. 3. The record seems to indicate that the things seen and heard were actually there. The mountain, the overshadowing glory, the voice from heaven, the two prophets, the talking with Jesus about His coming decease, were all evidently real. And tho all these were real, the whole scene was not less a vision, a seeing. 4. Of Elijah there can be no question as to his being alive; for he never died physically. He was translated without seeing death. 2 Kings 2:11. 5. Of the other prophet on the mount it is written: “So Moses, the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.” Deut. 34:5. If, therefore, Moses was actually on the Mount of Transfiguration, he must have had a resurrection; for according to the Scriptures, “The dead know not anything; . . . also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Eccl. 9:5, 6. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:4. 6. Did Moses have a resurrection? There are several scriptures which seem clearly to indicate this. These are as follows:— “Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, . . . said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Jude 9. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise.” I Thess. 4:16. “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, who is a figure of Him that was to come.” Rom. 5:14. The name “Michael” means “who is like God.” “Archangel” means chief angel. Michael, the Son of God, before His incarnation was commander of all the heavenly host. See Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1. He is known also as the Angel of Jehovah. Ex. 23:20-23; Isa. 63:9, et al. The only conceivable contention that could take place between the great adversary and the Saviour of man over Moses’ body would be concerning its resurrection. Satan is the prince of death, who sets not his captives free. Christ is the Son of God, who sets free those captured by the enemy and taken to the land of death. See Isa. 49:24, 25; 61:1-3. True, all of Christ’s conflict was not yet over when He met Satan over the grave of Moses. The struggle in human flesh was to be met. But the Archangel did not meet Satan in His own strength or name, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” And we know from Zech. 3:1-4, that “the voice of the Archangel” was triumphant, even as it will be when it calls all the sleepers of God. While Rom. 5:14 is written primarily as a part of the apostle’s wonderful argument to prove the universality of sin and hence of God’s law, it incidentally clearly shows that the long reign of death over those who had fallen asleep was broken by the power of God through His Son in the raising of Moses. 7. But is it not said that Christ is “the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming”? 1 Cor. 15:23. It is. But “first-fruits” and “first-born” do not necessarily mean priority of time or first in date. These terms are frequently used to denote pre-eminence. To illustrate: Esau was in point of time the firstborn of Isaac, but Jacob was made the firstborn. See Ex. 4:22. Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob, and to him naturally belonged the priesthood, the rulership, and double portion; but Levi was chosen priest instead, Judah was given the rulership, and Joseph the double portion. 1 Chron. 5:1, 2. Manasseh was Joseph’s firstborn, but God made Ephraim the firstborn. Gen. 48:14-18. And tho our blessed Lord was not the earliest among the children of earth who were loyal to God, the Lord declares: “I will make Him My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” Ps. 89:27. And so first-fruits is used of that which is pre-eminent. The last company gathered out of this world, translated when Christ comes, are said to be “the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.” Rev. 14:4. They are pre-eminent ones unto God. “The last shall be first.” So the Stone that the builders rejected became the Head of the corner. Christ is the first-fruits, the one by virtue of whose life all are raised from the dead. So in all probability Moses and Elijah were literally there. 8. The object of the transfiguration was to reveal the kingdom of God, the second coming of Christ. See Mark 9:1; Matt. 16:28. There will then be two classes of saved ones, those raised from the dead, and those translated without seeing death. The raising and manifestation of Moses was an earnest of the future resurrection, even as God gives to Christians His Spirit as the earnest of the eternal spiritual inheritance, even as Elijah was an earnest of those who should at last be translated7without seeing death. And this is the lesson that Peter draws from it in his second epistle. See 2 Pet. 1:16-18. We may call it a mere vision; but it seems to us a blessed reality, as real as the earnest, the pledges, that God is continually giving that all that He has promised will be fulfilled.