Reading… and Thinking

“And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

— Luke 1:16-17 (ESV)

This prophecy is from the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah the priest, of the work of John the Baptist. Gabriel is referring to the closing verses of Malachi: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, so that I willl not come and smite the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6, NASB)

Because of the division of our Bibles into Old Testament and New Testament, it isn’t immediately obvious, but in fact the last divine revelation of the Old Testament period was this prophecy of “Elijah”, and the first divine revelation of the New Testament period is Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah.

The Lord Jesus confirms that John’s role was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Elijah: “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” (Matthew 11:13-14)

There was enormous speculation that John the Baptist was Elijah. He dressed like Elijah. He was clearly a prophet, and everyone knew about the Malachi passage. They were in expectation of the Messiah, and knew that Elijah would be the forerunner. So they made the natural conclusion. And according to Jesus, they were right.

But, John himself said that he wasn’t! “He confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ ” (John 1:20-22)

So what’s going on here? I believe that the answer is in something Jesus said later, when the disciples were inquiring about the Elijah prophecy: “And the disciples asked him, ‘Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?’ He replied, ‘Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of man will certainly suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.” (Matthew 17:10-13)

Remember that Jesus first said, “if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah”. From the later passage, it’s clear that they did not accept it. (Not referring to the disciples, rather to the nation as a whole.) Elijah’s role was to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, that is, turn the people back to the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To some extent, at least, John did that. But the other half was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, that is, turn the religious leadership back to caring for the flock. But the leadership utterly rejected John. They were not willing to accept him, and therefore John couldn’t complete the work of Elijah.

There are two important conclusions we can draw, one general and one specific. The general one is that God sets things up to fulfill His word, but often the outcome is dependent on the reaction of people. John could have been Elijah, but he was rejected. (I would suggest he knew they were already rejecting him, hence his statement that he wasn’t Elijah.) Similarly, a case can be made that 70 AD could have brought the return of Christ, but the nation didn’t repent. Which means that the Lord will set up the conditions again.

And here is where the specific conclusion comes in. Since John didn’t fulfill the Elijah prophecy, it remains to be fulfilled. There will be a prophet before the “great and terrible day of the Lord”. Some students suggest that it will literally be Elijah, risen from the dead. Could be, but we see that John could have been the fulfillment, so it could be another prophet who fills the Elijah role. Or perhaps it’s supposed to be us who fulfill the role, preaching about the “one who is coming”, just as John did!