A frequent question that is asked of Good God Ministry is “Why did Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus on the ‘Mount of Transfiguration?’” Let’s read from Mark Chapter 9 and Matthew Chapter 17:
Mark 9:1-8 NKJV And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” (2) Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. (3) His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. (4) And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. … (7) And a cloud* came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (8) Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.
Matthew 17:5 NKJV While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud* overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
We see a few notable things that we want to talk about. First off, Jesus said that some would see the kingdom of God present with power before they died. Well, the very next scene was a view of Him in all of His glory, with a glorified body, a body full of brightness and power, thus a fulfillment of Jesus’s preceding statement. Secondly, we have Moses and Elijah present and then they both disappear and only Jesus remained. This signifies the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) being fulfilled by Jesus and becoming no longer the area of focus. When Father God said “Hear Him (Jesus),” the law and the prophets disappeared! Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets and now we are to focus on Jesus and get out of the Old Testament (OT). Jesus fulfilled the law & bore the curse, and He fulfilled the prophecies, so this scene was representative of the new covenant that is centered on Jesus and no longer the OT.
Moses
Let’s take a close look at Moses. As we mentioned, Moses above all represents “The Law.” In addition to being representative of the law, he also prophesied of Jesus’s coming. Let’s look at a few passages:
Deuteronomy 5:22-23 ESV “These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. (23) And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders.”
Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen
In Deuteronomy Chapter 5 we see Moses receiving the law from Yahweh. This is why we think of the law when we think of Moses, because he was the one who brought it forth to Israel. Some rabbit trails we could go down would be pertaining to Yahweh’s identity in this law-giving passage—is he Father God or is he someone else who is perhaps sinister? Let’s do the “spiritual math” quickly, but we won’t deep dive in this article:
- First of all, in the giving of the law, Yahweh was seen by Moses and he was speaking aloud for all to hear, yet Jesus said that no one has ever seen, heard, or known God at any time (John 1:17-18, John 5:37, 1 John 4:12). With certainty from Jesus’s own lips, we can say Yahweh is not Father God. You can add more evidence by reading Acts Chapter 7 where it says Moses met an angel—not God—in the bush and on Mt Sinai—it clearly states that Moses received the law by way of an angel.
- Secondly, Yahweh was using the power of death in the law-giving scene stating that anyone who touched the mountain would be killed, whether man or animal (Exodus 19:12-13). Who has the power of death? Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Jesus came to destroy him who has the power of death—the Devil.
- Thirdly, Yahweh was in fire, smoke, and thick darkness. The passage above says that his voice was coming from the midst of darkness. In many other OT passages it states that “Yahweh dwells in thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12-13) whereas the NT (New Testament) says that God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16), and even the passage we are evaluating has Jesus exuding bright white light and Father was speaking from a bright cloud. Thus we have Yahweh associated with darkness and Good God associated with light, further calling into question Yahweh’s identity and linkage to the kingdom of darkness.
- Fourthly, the attributes of the scene remind us of Leviathan and the fire from heaven beast of Revelation due to the conditions of fire, smoke, and darkness. We know from the book of Job Chapter 41 that Leviathan is a fire breathing beast and Yahweh is described with the exact same attributes as Leviathan in Psalms Chapter 18 and 2 Samuel Chapter 22. This connection with the fire from heaven beast is solidified in looking at Elijah’s work in calling down fire from heaven to murder (burn alive) 102 men.
In reviewing all of this, we see a lot of evidence that indicates that Yahweh, in the giving of the law, is clearly not Father God, but an (evil) angel. In the OT, however, sometimes Yahweh is representative of Good God—we have this unfortunate issue of the veil over the OT that blinds our minds when we read it (2 Corinthians 3:14-15). The veil is characterized by Father and Devil being mingled together as one character in the OT, which produces an image of God that is ½ good and ½ evil. We are left with the responsibility of rightly dividing the Word to determine what is representative of God versus the Devil. We frequently see Jesus rightly dividing in the gospels, most obviously in Matthew Chapter 5 where He constantly says things like, “You’ve heard it said to those of old… But I say…” Every time that He did this, He was noting something said or done by Yahweh, then He was correcting it with His (God’s) truth. If Jesus accepted some things in the OT as “of God” yet rejected other things as “of the Evil One,” then so must we (not to mention that we are commanded to rightly divide in several NT passages).
Rabbit trails aside, Moses is the representative of the law, and he also prophesied of Jesus’s coming. An important aspect of Jesus’s mission on earth was to redeem those who were in bondage under the law. Jesus said that the law would not pass away until all was fulfilled. The scene with Moses and Elijah was representative of that future time that was soon to come where the law would be fulfilled and thus disappear—just as Moses (the law) disappeared once Father said to “listen to Jesus” with the words “hear Him.” The time was at hand to flip from OT to NT and from law & prophets to Jesus’s words.
Matthew 5:17-18 NKJV “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (18) For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Elijah
Just like Moses and every other “man of God” back in OT times, Elijah was under the rule and reign of the god of this world by no choice of his own. Satan legally rules over everyone until their sins are washed away, and that doesn’t happen until the salvation of Jesus is manifested in a person’s life (Colossians 1:13-14). Elijah, just like Moses, had faith in God, but their image of God was ½ good and ½ evil because there was no discernment that there was both a Good God and an Evil Devil. The OT “men of faith” attributed all things to the one character Yahweh (aka THE LORD YOUR GOD). As a result, they did great deeds of faith, yet they also did great evil deeds in the name of Yahweh. That aside, God respected their faith and used them for good purposes, despite the evil aspects that were also present.
Elijah is often thought of as the premier prophet and as such he was the representative of the OT prophets & prophecies in the scene with Jesus. We know that Jesus had to fulfill all the OT prophecies because these were the markers that were indicative of the Son of God who was to come and be the Savior of mankind. If you pay close attention to Jesus in the gospels, you will see that He purposed Himself to fulfill all the things that were spoken about Him in the OT. It was mandatory that He fulfill all things that were prophesied. Let’s look at a few passages:
Matthew 5:17-18 NKJV “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (18) For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
John 5:39-40 NKJV “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (40) But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
In Matthew 5:17, we see that Jesus had to fulfill the law and the prophets. He couldn’t fulfill just one or the other, but mandatorily both had to be fulfilled. The purpose of the OT prophecies was to tell of a coming Savior and the full salvation that He would bring to the people. In John 5:39-40, Jesus is telling the people that they are searching the OT scriptures in hopes of finding eternal life, but the purpose of those scriptures, in particular the prophecies, was to point to Himself. Jesus is the source of life and the OT prophecies point to Him. In order for salvation to be manifested, it was necessary for all prophecies about Him to be fulfilled as those were necessary proof points of His identity.
With all this in mind, we see conclusively that the scene of Moses and Elijah with Jesus, and then disappearing, was indicative of Jesus fulfilling the law and the prophets, and thus Father instructed us to focus on Jesus and listen to Him. Elijah, being a premiere prophet, was selected to be the representative of the prophets in this scene.
Conclusion
The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration was a profoundly symbolic moment, rich with spiritual significance. It demonstrated the fulfillment of the law (represented by Moses) and the prophets (represented by Elijah) through Jesus Christ. This pivotal event marked a turning point, signifying that the old covenant, with its reliance on the law and prophetic messages, had reached its culmination in Jesus. When the voice from the bright cloud declared, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him,” the focus shifted entirely to Jesus—the embodiment of the new covenant and the ultimate revelation of God.
Through this scene, we understand that Jesus is not only the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies but also the one who redeems humanity from the bondage of the law. His glorified appearance prefigured the kingdom of God present in power, as promised to His disciples, and illustrated the transformative nature of His mission.
The disappearance of Moses and Elijah further underscored the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The emphasis was no longer on the law or the prophets but on Jesus—the light of the world and the source of eternal life. This moment calls us to rightly divide the Word, recognizing the distinction between the veiled truths of the Old Testament versus the unveiled glory revealed in Christ.
The Mount of Transfiguration serves as a divine declaration: Jesus has fulfilled all that was written in the law and the prophets. Now, our charge is to listen to Him, to focus on His teachings, and to walk in the light of His grace. It is a call to leave behind the shadows of the Old Testament and embrace the clarity and freedom of the new covenant centered on Jesus.