Pastor Treglown, in his article, reflected on a verse from 1 Peter (since in the midweek Bible studies he’s looking at 1 and 2 Peter) and talked about how this verse commends us to service. I want to look at another verse from Peter’s letters—2 Peter 1:17–18, which is actually the Epistle text that we’ll be reading in a few weeks on Transfiguration (Feb 14/15). Those verses read:

For when [Jesus] received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

Here Peter is making the point that he and the other disciples saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and so now they have been sent to share the good news of what they have seen with the world. I want to spend some time here now looking at the fact that Peter calls this Mountain of Transfiguration “the holy mountain.”

“The holy mountain” is a somewhat uncommon term. It’s possible the thought here is that the mountain was made holy by the transfiguration (it certainly was), yet I think there’s more going on here. I think (along with others) that Peter is here thinking of Psalm 2:6, which reads:

I have installed my king

    on Zion, my holy mountain.

What is the point here? I think Peter is reminding us that when God speaks on the Mount of Transfiguration, this isn’t an event that comes out of nowhere—rather, it is an event that has been pointed to and prophesied about all over the Old Testament (including in Psalm 2).

And this plays into the larger point Peter is making here. Because right after verse 18, Peter says in verse 19:

And we have the prophetic word… to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place…

Peter is talking to people who, like us, weren’t there on the Mount of Transfiguration—because we might sometimes feel like we missed out. What wouldn’t we give to get to see something like what Peter saw? Wouldn’t that be amazing? Yet Peter is telling us that, as amazing as that experience was for him, still the MORE amazing thing is God’s word, written by prophets and apostles—as great as those few words on the mountain were for Peter, even better is God’s sure and certain word, which He has given not just to Peter but to all of His people for all time.

And so as we go out into the world to share this good news, let us go out with confidence, knowing that we don’t have to go to some faraway mountain to hear God’s voice—we can come to church every week and hear it read to us in Holy Scripture in all of its glory.

-Pastor Duncan