had in it some gleams of light that are not here. Jesus is now a fugitive
from the province of Judea. The death plot has been settled upon. There's
a ban in Jerusalem on His followers. Already one man has been cut off from
synagogue privileges, and become a religious and social outcast. The
southerners are pushing the fight against Jesus up into Galilee.

Four distinct times that significant danger word "withdrew" has been used
in describing Jesus' departure from where the Judean leaders had come.
First from Judea to Galilee, then from Galilee to distant foreign points
He had gone, for a time, till the air would cool a bit. The bold return to
Jerusalem at the fall Feast of Tabernacles had been attended, first by an
official attempt to arrest, and then by a passionate attempt to stone
Jesus to death.

And now the Galilean followers begin to question, and to leave. His
enemies' northern campaign, together with His own plain teaching, has
affected the Galilean crowds. They come in as great numbers as ever to
hear and to be healed. But many that had allied themselves as Jesus'
followers decide that He is not the leader they want. He is quite too
unpractical. The kingdom that the Galileans are eager for, that the Roman
yoke may be shaken off, seems very unlikely to come under such a leader.
Many desert Him.

Jesus felt the situation keenly. The kingdom plan in Jerusalem had failed.
And now the winning of individuals as a step in another plan is slipping
its hold. These people are glad of bread and the easing of bodily
distress, but the tests of discipleship they pull away from. He turns to
the little band of His own choosing, with a question that reveals the keen
disappointment of His heart. There's a tender yearning in that question,
"Will ye also go away?" And Peter's instant, loyal answer does not blind
His keen eyes to the extremity. With sad voice He says, "One of you, my
own chosen friends, one of you is a--devil." Things are in bad shape, and
getting worse.

It was a time of dire extremity. God was in sore straits. The kingdom plan
was clearly gone for the present. The rub was to save enough out of the
wreckage to get a sure starting-point for the new plan, through which, by
and by, the other original plan would work out. There can be no stronger
evidence of God's need of men than this transfiguration scene. Just
because He had made man a sovereign in his will, God must work out all of
His plans _through_ that sove