The Bible Study Podcast, episode 443. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the

gospel of Matthew with Chapter 17. Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

You may remember at the end of chapter 16, Jesus was talking to the disciples, and we had Peter's confession, and then we had Peter's rebuke.

And in the middle of that, he said that some of you will not die until you see the son of man come in his glory, which is useful to know because

today we're talking about the transfiguration. After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and

John, the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured

before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here, if you wish, I will put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

While he was still speaking,

a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my son, whom I love. With him,

I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down on the ground,

terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. Get up, he said. Don't be afraid.

When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. Now, it's interesting that Matthew put this story,

well, obviously he's drawn to it chronologically, but he mentions this story right after he mentions the other story where Jesus says that some of you will see me

in my glory. It would be easy to interpret that as that I will come again before some of you

die, which didn't happen. But I think that he's talking about the transfiguration. That's always

how I've interpreted that, and I think that's a fairly common interpretation. But there's this odd

story here in the midst of Matthew where Jesus goes and has a little away time, a little

mountaintop time, a little retreat, not just with Peter James and John, the three apostles,

the three disciples that he's probably closest to, but also with Moses and Elijah.

Moses being the lawgiver, probably one of the most important people mentioned in the Old Testament,

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