THE PATHFINDER
#59
THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD
(Part 4)
Contents:
THE TRANSFIGURATION
UTTER DESTRUCTION
THE VOICE OF THUNDER
THE TRANSFIGURATION
"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them MOSES AND ELIAS TALKING WITH HIM...A bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, in whom I am well pleased; HEAR YE HIM" (Mt. 17:1-3,5).
Men born of Adam have taken the words from the Bible, gathered them into teeming sermons, and poured them over the earth like a mighty flood. These torrents are commonly called "the word of God," but are not. Sweeping through the channels of carnal minds, these muddied waters masquerading as the Voice of the Son of God carry with them every kindred thing that lies in its descending path.
This may be a great mystery to some, but the simple fact is, it matters not what "word" out of the Bible a man propagates, if it is not joined with the Spirit, it is not the Voice of the Son of God. Plainly, it is not the Word of God at all. It was certainly the Word of God when it was given to the anointed prophets and apostles to write, but once it rested upon the parchments and scrolls of earth it became the letter that kills, as our brother Paul so aptly wrote in II Corinthians 3:6.
The Voice of the Son of God is not a profusion of words taken from scripture and energized by the carnal minds of men. His Voice is Living! It is the celestial waters that make the dead
trees to bud and the forests of the earth to Live. It is the Word and Spirit coming together as One. It is not, and never shall be, the letter void of the Spirit.
A word lacking the Spirit of life binds people by its cruel legalism, not unlike the chains of the demoniac in the tombs of the Gadarenes. And the spirit without the Word is just as binding. When there is not an equal balance of substance it can produce fanaticism. There is an overabundance of the "word" taking the form of legalistic laws in the church. In other areas there is nothing but the "spirit," of some sort, and it lacks a solid word. Therefore, very seldom is the Voice of the Son of God heard. The church has an outward testimony of adorning herself with the dying fig leaves of religion; but praise God, this is not the end of the matter! The assuring hope which will find its mark in all mankind, and spans the vast expanse of the ages, was demonstrated by the Lord of Life in His victory over all areas of death. He conquered that realm of darkness and rendered idle and completely helpless he who had the power of death, even the devil. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and gave sight to the blind. In His presence the lame walked, the maimed were healed, lepers were cleansed, deaf ears opened, and the dead were raised again to life. After six days of dealing with the ravaging afflictions of Adam, Jesus went upon the mountain and was then transfigured.
In this, the Kingdom of God was momentarily seen in its full glory; and for those who may have forgotten, the expanse of that kingdom is tremendous. For example, in one of the Psalms of David it is written: "The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Psa. 24:1). When His face shown as the sun and His raiment as white as light, we can see in type His Kingdom as it shall ultimately be. Rather than it being ruled by the incompetent red-faced Adam who covered himself with the self-righteous, religious rituals, the Lord of glory shall reign in his stead. In this reign, His face, the many sons of God, shall radiate with the very nature of His person, and His raiment of glistering righteousness shall cover every member of his glorious body.
UTTER DESTRUCTION
We could write volumes on the countless miracles Jesus performed that symbolizing His authority in the Kingdom, and how they relate to His absolute victory over all sorrow, tears, and death; but let us notice for a moment Mount Hermon from which a large portion of the Jordan river is birthed, the descending river that flows through Israel and waters its inhabitants with death before emptying itself into the Dead Sea. Hermon, as we mentioned earlier, means "high," "lofty," "exalted," "forbidden," and according to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, it also carries the thought of "UTTER DESTRUCTION." It was here that Jesus took "...Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an HIGH MOUNTAIN apart" (Mt. 17:1) -- to witness His UTTER DESTRUCTION.
UTTER DESTRUCTION? What is meant by -- UTTER DESTRUCTION? Destruction simply means the changing from one form to another. The word is usually used in reference to being changed from a greater state of being to a lesser; but in truth, a thing is just as surely destroyed when it is changed from a lesser to a greater; such as, when water is changed to the higher form of vapor, or when wood is changed to smoke and gases by the flame. In both cases the lesser is destroyed when the greater comes to be.
We can easily see how Mount Hermon can represent the high, lofty, exalted Kingdom of God with Jesus as its Head; but this would be more in the light of His Kingdom when it is manifested in its final glory. What may not be so evident is how it also speaks of the same kingdom, but with Adam as its head.
Prior to the opening of Adam's eyes, the Kingdom of God stood not unlike that great mountain on the northernmost border of Palestine. Glistening brightly, it crested high above the lower regions of the earth. It had living waters gushing from its heart and watered all the Garden, even as the Jordan quenched the thirst of the hills, the plains, and the deserts it flowed through. That reigning king (Adam) and his kingdom, however, did not remain the shining testimony of God in the earth. Upon eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil he died, as did the kingdom under his rule. At that fateful moment Adam became the prince of death. Towering with majestic pride over the ever-dying realms below, the kingdom that was once the standard of life in the earth became the standard of death. All that was in Adam and made subject to him died. Humanity was no longer permitted to drink from the waters in the Garden that were sweetened with life. To insure this deadly stroke touched every living soul until Jesus came, they were driven from that place of fresh water and became dependent on the muddy river of death -- the Descending Jordan. Death reigned in victory upon the earth without much check until Moses and Joshua began to conquer. Like Jesus Christ, the Word and the Anointing together put their enemies under foot everywhere they trod.
After Moses was gone, Joshua and Caleb continued in the conquest of life over death. They crossed the Jordan at the mouth of the Dead Sea near Jericho and conquered every aspect that represented that carnal kingdom of death. Their first step was a prelude in type of what the end result would eventually be. Death was cut off all the way back to Adam (Josh. 3:16).
In a manner akin to Joshua, Jesus, as the living God among us (Josh. 3:10), demonstrated His power over the deadly enemy as well. It is said that Jesus was baptized in the same region of the Jordan as Joshua crossed, near the entrance of the Dead Sea. Beginning there He tread under foot the scourge of humanity. Like frightened scorpions, death scurried when Jesus appeared, but to no avail. Wherever the Word of Life was heard, death rolled back and ceased its flowing down. For three and a half years He showed the world who He was, but that was not all. Everything He did was a prefigured pattern of promise to those with an ear to hear the resounding Voice of the Son of God.
Jesus traversed every realm of death, proving He came from above, and His origin was that of God; yet the final thrust and victory of Life over death came with His rising from the grave. He could raise others from the dead, but what about Himself? Did He truly have the power to lay down His life and then to take it up again, as He had said was a commandment from His Father? (John 10:18). Indeed He did, and it was proven; but we first see in type the UTTER DESTRUCTION of Adam and his fallen kingdom -- we see the TRANSFIGURATION!
Before this, however, we see Mount Hermon under Adam's rule, a kingdom that has been the utter destruction of creation. Out of the belly of that kingdom is the birthing ground of the Jordan, the river of ruin, the river which has descended down through the ages and ministered death to every realm of life. In his fall from life, Adam brought death to all, but not forever. From where Adam descended, our Lord of Life ascended, high upon that mountain and finished in Himself what Moses and Joshua began. HE UTTERLY DESTROYED that great kingdom wherein Adam walked in failure. He destroyed it by swallowing it up in the brilliant Light and Life of Himself -- a grand display of Life over death that was prompted by the Word and the Spirit. MOSES and ELIJAH were seen TALKING WITH HIM! Moses and Elijah came together. Word and Spirit merged. Substance and Life met and sparked a mighty change.
The Word alone, as holy and good as it is, could not make the change. Paul wrote this about the law: "And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (Rom. 7:10-12). Even though it is holy, Jesus made it very clear concerning the law's limitations: "(You) Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life" (John 5:39-40). The Scriptures, the Law, the Word -- it is good -- but without the flaming Spirit of Life, they who hear it still die.
The Spirit, as tremendous and moving as it is, was not what transfigured the body of Jesus either. The Spirit of the prophets had the power of life, in a measure, but not the ability to transfigure one from the lower state of the earthy Adam to the higher. In one the records, it is written with respect to the power the prophets had as they delivered the word of the Lord. Ezekiel spoke to a valley of dry bones, and they lived: "He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' I said, 'O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.' Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!' This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
"So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army." (Ezek. 37:2-5,7-10, NIV).
Although this, no doubt, took place as a vision, we can't help from noticing the magnitude of power that day of rattling bones. The breath of the four winds sweeping across the plains of the earth and finding their mark as they surged into the waiting lungs of the dead. That which the prophet saw had to be unparalleled in the history of man. Most witnesses of such a vision would think nothing could be more grand, but there is something.
Everything that happened to the bones were in the PHYSICAL REALM of NATURAL MAN: BONE to BONE, TENDONS connecting, FLESH, and SKIN being laid upon the BONES, and the BREATH of the four WINDS. Although the slain lived again, they there is no reference in them being transfigured. At another time there was also a dead soldier, not a vision but literally, who was lowered into the sepulcher of Elisha, and when his body touched the bones of the prophet, the soldier was raised to life, but not transfigured. "And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." (II Kings 13:21).
The prophets had life, but not the transfiguring, glorifying Life of the heavens. They could only revive adamic men to the earthy state of being from which they were born. The law of Moses was holy and just and good, but it was also lacking in the greater power to change one from the earth to the heavens. Notwithstanding when the two merge as One, as they did upon that high mountain apart -- BLAZING TRANSFIGURATION!
Oh, the glory of this mystery! There is so much to be seen in the transfiguration of this preview of Life's victory over death. In the fire of His glory we see the Second Death coming in the form of the Last Adam. We see Him coming in a figure of His ultimate glory and absolute destruction of the first death. In the twinkle of an eye we are shown the end of the first king and his dark kingdom. This kingdom that is seen as a figure in Mount Hermon is utterly destroyed in the presence of the Word and the Spirit.
From the crust of this mountain a towering tree overshadows the earth with its fruit-laden boughs of good and evil. It is here that both the good of man and the evil of him rise together as one kingdom. This kingdom under the rule of the double-minded Adam reaches high into the heavens, while it fosters its deadly fruit for the world below; and as humanity sates her wanton appetite, the grave opens wide and receives a bountiful harvest.
It is also seen as a dual mountain, with the "good" of Israel possessing the southern half, and the evil of Syria claiming the north. Dark clouds ascend from its exalted summit, and like the tree, it drops its deadly dew upon mankind. It is this kingdom of death that is utterly destroyed in type at the transfiguration of Jesus. And will He not finish the work with the same glorious victory in His body of many members? Romans 8:19-21 says yes.
When the Law of Moses, the substance of God's nature, and the Spirit of the prophets, the life of that substance, united as the Voice of God, the clay of Christ's body took on a different form. Everything of the physical realm met its end, down to the last cell and atom of His body. The glistening Light of Life bathed every facet of His being, utterly destroying them in TRANSFIGURATION, transforming the earth of His body to that heavenly realm from where He came. That great kingdom which had been ruled by man got a glimpse of its end that glorious day, and its sealing deathblow came the morning of the resurrection.
From the crest of that mountain He went to Jerusalem to be crucified and finish the work; a work that not only began the removing of Adam from the seat of God, but in the changing of the kings, the muddy Jordan was replaced with the crystal-clear River of Life. Instead of death descending down from that mountain to creation and destroying it, Life began its journey from that throne of God in a mission of destroying the plague of death; and from that day until now and beyond, everything in its path is healed. (Ezek. 47:1-12, Rev. 22:1-3).
THE VOICE OF THUNDER
When the Voice of God is truly heard, men will Live, yet very often His Voice is not perceived as a Living Word, but only as THUNDER. The thundering voice of God is powerful, as it rolls through the clouds of His people. It comes as the promise of rain to the thirsty, but to those whose bellies are filled with Jordan's flood waters, those with impaired hearing, it is like the shockwaves of doom. Being void of understanding, and not willing to surrender their religious kingdoms, the souls of the untrained ear are sometimes struck with fear. In their spiritual deafness and confusion they flee to their religious dens and caves of human reasoning for supposed safety. The heavens of the carnal mind tremble at the sound of His Voice, but with those of understanding, it should not be; for Paul wrote the following concerning the end of Adam as he stands in the presence of God's glory -- and it is a good thing: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, [Adam] the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity [Adam and his traduced mind] doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked [Adam] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH [SPIRIT & WORD], and shall [UTTERLY] DESTROY with THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING. Even him [Adam], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (II Thes. 2:1-9). [Brackets supplied].
When any person ascends with Christ upon Mount Hermon, their ears do not hear the roar of thunder but the clear Voice of the Son of God. In transfiguration, the Word and the Spirit shall utterly destroy their man of the earth with which they were formerly clothed. The enemy called death will be swallowed up in victory. THEY SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD AND LIVE! They shall be raised together with the many membered body of Christ, joined as One Mountain, as One Kingdom. From the height of that place they shall send, not death, but the blessings of their Christ over the earth -- even "As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for THERE THE LORD COMMANDED THE BLESSING, EVEN LIFE FOR EVERMORE" (Psa. 133:3). Not the fruit of the tree of death nor the water from the mountain of death is issued forth -- but LIFE!
If we ever forget one thing, let it not be these words of our sovereign God: "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55:11). If God commands Life, Life shall be. If He pleases to have all saved and come to the knowledge of truth (I Tim. 2:4), all shall comply (Eph. 1:10-11). And the command of God in the form of His anointed Son, or the Word in the form of the Voice of that Son -- shall not return void!
The rocky soil could not withhold its hidden fruit when the SPIRIT of God moved and He SAID, "Let the earth bring forth." Neither can the stony heart of the carnal mind say, "No," at the Voice of the Son of God, in Whom all power in heaven and earth is given. Believe it or not, dear reader, the truth remains; and all the unbelief in the world cannot nullify nor stop it. The compelling Voice of the Son of God is proceeding from the throne with crystal clear, Life-giving water to all who thirst. Stop for a moment and drink deeply. It is refreshing, it is ever-Living, as GOD COMMANDED FROM THE HEIGHT OF HERMON, THE TRANSFIGURED MOUNTAIN OF UTTER DESTRUCTION IN MAJESTY!
Elwin R. Roach
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