"Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn
the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their
fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter
destruction." Mal 4:5-6 ESV
In the last book of
the New Testament, Malachi the prophet promises that the prophet Elijah would
be sent back to earth before Jesus came. He would prepare the people to receive
the coming messiah.
We read the story of
Elijah in 1 and 2 Kings. He was unusual
among the prophets for several reasons:
First, he did many
miracles that other prophets did not do.
Second, he was the
leader an organizer of the prophetic communities, the schools of the
prophets, who lived and ministered in
Judah and Israel since the time of David.
Third, he was
unusual in his death. He did not die in the normal sense, but went up to heaven
bodily in a fiery chariot.
Elijah was more than
a man. He was a symbol of the prophetic voice of Israel. He appears in this capacity in the Gospels on
the Mount of Transfiguration, and in the book of Revelation as one of the Two
Witnesses who prophesy at the end of time. The other witness is Moses, who gave
us the Law. Together they stand for the
Law and Prophets, who tell of the coming of Jesus.
Malachi's prophecy
was fulfilled first through the Spirit of Elijah coming back to earth in John
the Baptist. Elijah's Spirit was passed on to Elisha, who led the prophetic movement after Elijah.
John the Baptist reemerges in the New Testament as the leader of prophecy
before the coming of Christ. He
introduced Christ to the world.
Second the prophecy
was fulfilled in the Scriptures themselves.
In the verses we have seen over the past two weeks, The scriptures
introduced Jesus. He was a curse to the
serpent, the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, the branch of David, the wonderful
counselor, the prince of peace. He was
the brass serpent of Moses in the wilderness, the child of the virgin, and the
rock in the wilderness. He is the kinsman redeemer of Ruth, the beloved suitor
of Song of Solomon, the New Covenant of Jeremiah. It was He who turned our hearts from stone to
flesh, according to Ezekiel.
All the prophecies
of the Old Testament point to the coming of the Lord. All the prophecies of the Old testament are
made complete in Him.
God has prepared the
way for His revelation of Jesus.
"God thank you
for the preparation you have made to
reveal your Messiah to us. Help us to believe in the reality of the mighty gift
of Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen. "
