The readings for the Transfiguration of our Lord are from Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Hebrews 3:1-6; and Luke 9:28-36.
All Scripture either looks forward to Jesus or back to Jesus. The connections between these three lessons are unmistakable. Deuteronomy records the end of Moses’ life. Moses was a type of Christ, a living prophecy that gave witness to God’s promise that He would bring us out of bondage to death into life eternal in paradise. The Lord often refers to His early promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that through their Seed (remember that same promise to Eve), God would crush the power of the devil. Moses conveyed God’s Word to the people and interceded for the people before God. Yet like every other type of Christ in the Old Testament, Moses failed. The consequence of that failure meant he could not enter the promised land with the Israelites. But the grace of God prevailed and granted Moses absolute relief by taking him from that rebellious Israel according to the flesh into everlasting perfection in paradise.
Hebrews is entirely about comparing/contrasting all of God’s creation with its Creator, Jesus Christ Himself. Israel according to the flesh refused to hear what the law of Moses plainly teaches: the law always and only condemns us. Israel turned Moses into its Lord and despised the One that Moses and the Law were always pointing to—Jesus, who was faithful in all things and therefore fulfilled the law for us all.
Luke records the Transfiguration of Jesus and His Baptism (the reading from seven weeks ago), which bracket and exemplify the Epiphany season. At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and near its completion, God gives powerful, public, and clear witness that Jesus is His only beloved Son with Whom He is well pleased—so well pleased that Jesus provides everlasting substitutionary atonement for the whole world. The Transfiguration takes place on a mountain, with Moses and Elijah (indicating the law and prophets both pointing to Jesus), and the cloudy witness of God’s presence. Note well God the Father’s warning which is ever necessary and applicable: “This is My Beloved Son, keep on listening to Him.”