MALACHI 4:5

“‘Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.’”

Isn’t it exciting when you are told someone you know and love is coming to see you? I can remember as a child being told that my favorite uncle (Uncle Don) or my Grandma Carter was coming to see us. All us kids would get so excited. We would ask all kinds of questions: When are they coming? What time will they be here? Are they bringing us anything? (that was the important one, lol).

Elijah is going to return. The Lord said so right here. There are so many sources to read on this. Most, if not all, of the early church fathers (Tertullian, Cyril of Alexandria, etc.) spoke at length about this verse. We know John the Baptist came in the “spirt and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). But we are also told Elijah will return again “before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” No one knows when, but he’s coming.

APPLICATION

In two separate occasions, Jesus spoke of John the Baptist as having come as Elijah. I encourage you to read Matthew 11:7-15. Jesus is pretty clear there to the people in speaking about John. And over in Matthew 17:11-13 we read these words from Jesus about John and the second coming of Elijah. “11 And He answered and said, ‘Elijah is coming and will restore all things; 12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.”

That’s a lot to grasp, isn’t it? Who and what is Malachi referring to as he gives us the Lord’s words in today’s verse? Well, this is probably one of the clearest prophecies we have from Malachi, in my opinion. Elijah will return before the Lord returns to judge the earth. This will be a post-rapture event.

You and I will not be here to see his return. We will be either already passed into glory or will have been raptured. Let me be blunt – you don’t want to see Elijah return. That will mean you will face this great and terrible day of the Lord. No one wants that. Come to Jesus now and meet Elijah in glory, not here.

I am thankful, Lord, for the promises of Scripture and the clarity of it.

P.S. For my frequent followers, I will be taking a short break when we finish Malachi after tomorrow’s blog. I will pick back up on January 1. Pray that the Lord shows me where to go to next in our daily study.