Behold

“While he yet spake, behold, 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.’”  Matthew 17:5 (KJV)

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a mountain to be alone with them.   When they arrived on the mountain, Jesus’ face shined like the sun, and Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus.   Peter, being overwhelmed, asked if he could build “tabernacles” for each of them.  But God the Father interrupted Peter and spoke one of the great “beholds,” attesting to what Jesus had told them, that he was the actual Son of God, and, furthermore, proclaiming that He was well pleased with Jesus.  And then He spoke the words, “…hear ye him.”  Those words resound through the centuries to us today.  Paraphrased, the Father said to us:  “Hear Jesus; listen to what He said as recorded in Scripture,” and, “Listen to what He says when you pray.”  If Peter, James, and John were to listen to Jesus, shouldn’t we all.  If we were to listen as well as they did, revival would happen NOW!

In John 1:29 (KJV), John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  He said that as he saw Jesus passing by.  John was born to be the one who “introduced” Jesus to the people of Israel.   He began to do that in answer to the Pharisees when they asked if He claimed to be the Christ or Elijah.  He answered them in John 1:26,27 (KJV):  …”I baptize with water:  but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”   In verse 34 He said, “And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”   John spoke it clearly and plainly, just as we should.  Jesus is the Son of God, the only means of salvation for all who want to be saved from sin, death, and hellfire. 

In 2 Corinthians 3:15-18, Paul tells us:  “But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit:  and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  When we look upon Jesus and see Him face to face, we shall grow to become more and more like Him every day.   But meantime, we need to study His life and spend precious time in prayer in order to reflect His goodness and glory to those we meet, thereby drawing them to Him.  Our assigned task here on earth is, by word and deed, to bring others to a saving knowledge of Him.

Let us “behold” to many that Jesus Christ is Lord!