p. 9 | Elijah the Prophet

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 14, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 23.

"Elijah the Prophet"

I. John the Baptist

THE Old Testament canon closes with the following prophecy by God's messenger:

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers with the children, and the heart of the children with their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a ban [devoting to destruction]." A.R.V., margin.

Was this prophecy fulfilled in John the Baptist?
Is it yet to be fulfilled, and how?

I. It was in part fulfilled in John the Baptist, but only in part. Of John before his birth it was said:

"He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit; . . . and he shall go before His [the Lord's] face in THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIJAH, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him." Luke 1:15-17.

In an outline of John's character and work Jesus said:

"And if ye are willing to receive it, this [John's message and work] is Elijah, that is to come." Matt. 11:14.

After John's death, in answer to the question from His disciples, "Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?" Jesus replied:

"Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore all things: but I say unto you, that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they would. Even so shall the Son of Man suffer of them. Then understood the disciples that He spake unto them of John the Baptist." Matt. 17:10-13.

But when John, who knew his mission, was asked, "Art thou Elijah?" he emphatically declared, "I am not." John 1:21.

What is the meaning of these seemingly paradoxical statements?

1. There was a great similarity between conditions in Elijah's day and in John's time. Elijah had before him a backslidden and idolatrous people, a king—Ahab—of occasional good impulses, but weak, ease-loving, led by a strong, unscrupulous, wicked woman—Jezebel. John's message was to be given to a backslidden pharisaical people, over whom was a king—Herod—of occasional good impulses, but weak and licentious, led by a strong, unscrupulous woman—Herodias.

2. The same work of reform needed to be done in both cases, by a messenger from God, who was not "a reed shaken by the wind," nor an effeminate man "clothed in soft raiment." Elijah was God's messenger in the first period. With his rough garb he comes before the king with, "As Jehovah, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." 1 Kings 17:1. He builds no great center. He gathers around him no admirers to shout his praises. He is God's messenger to bring back Israel if it be possible; that is all. He did it in a measure; and God translated him to His presence without seeing death.

John the Baptist bore a similar message before the proud King Herod, which touched his sensual heart. He denounced the proud, dead formalism of the Pharisees and leaders. His few disciples he instructed in the truths of God, and so made them ministers of the message. He was content to be simply a messenger of God, the "voice of one crying in the wilderness" as foretold by the prophet. In his life, in his spirit and power, he met on God's part, in giving the message, the prophecy to that one people, and many were truly turned to the Lord. But the people as a nation did not meet that message. They did not receive it. They did not see in John the Baptist the fulfilment of prophecy. They "rejected for themselves the counsel of God," and put not alone John to death, but the King whose messenger he was. Luke 7:30; Matt. 17:12.

3. A people was made ready to receive Christ, but they were few. The nation rejected both the messenger and his King; and so the curse, the ban, the devoting to destruction, came upon that nation. Mal. 4:6; Luke 11:42-52; Matt. 23:32-38.

4. The great and terrible day of the Lord came to that nation in its rejection and destruction, but to that nation as a nation only. The prophecy is broader and greater. Israel of old was a type of God's children of this age. Every judgment upon city and kingdom and people is a type of the great final judgment to come upon the unrepentant cities and kingdoms and peoples of this world.

II. Has the coming of Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord to the world been fulfilled? If so, how? These questions we will answer next week, the Lord willing.