Death an Exodus
S. Cox, D. D. Luke 9:30-32 And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:… 1. "It is strange how much we can find in that great scene on the Holy Mount, to illustrate this conception, and to impress it on our minds. Look at the speakers — Moses, Elijah, Christ. Was not the death of Moses an exodus? A sacred mystery hangs over the decease of the "Man of God." "He who died by the kiss of the Eternal" is a not infrequent synonym for Moses in the Rabbinical schools. Elijah, again, was rapt, we are told, and carried up into heaven, as by a whirling cloud of fiery chariots. If, therefore, any of the sons of men should be permitted to pass from the spiritual world to hold converse with Christ in the moment of His glory, these were the two men. They had already and fully achieved the exodus or journey of death, and had passed into the large fair land beyond. "They talked with Him of the exodus He should accomplish at Jerusalem." If we love and follow Him, we need not doubt that we shall be made partakers of His death in this high sense — that for us, as for Him, death will be an exodus, a journey home. 2. The more we study this conception of death the more instructive and suggestive we shall find it to be. The illustration which the figure suggests, and was intended to suggest, is the exodus of Israel from Egypt. If we consider what that exodus was and implies, if we then proceed to infer that death will be to us very much what their exodus was to the captive Hebrew race, we shall reach some thoughts of death, and of the life that follows death, which can hardly fail to be new and helpful to us. The exodus was a transition from bondage to freedom, from grinding and unrequited toil to comparative rest, from ignorance to knowledge, from shame to honour, from a life distracted by care and pain and fear to a life in which men were fed by the immediate bounty of God, guided by His wisdom, guarded by His omnipotence, consecrated to His service. And if death be an exodus, we may say that, by the gate and avenue of death, we shall pass from bondage to freedom, &c. (S. Cox, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: WEB: Behold, two men were talking with him, who were Moses and Elijah,