Elijah
the Prophet
What does God
promise concerning Elijah?
“See, I will send
you the prophet Elijah before that
great and dreadful day of the Lord
comes.” Malachi 4:5.
What will this
prophet do when he comes?
He will turn the
hearts of the fathers to their
children, and the hearts of the
children to their fathers; or else I
will come and strike the land with a
curse.” Verse 6.
John
the Baptist and Elijah
Whom
did Christ indicate as fulfilling
this prophecy?
Jesus replied, “To
be sure, Elijah comes and will
restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah
as already come, and they
did not recognize him, but have done
to him everything they wished. In the
same way The Son of Man is going to
suffer at their hands.” Then
the disciples understood that he was
talking to them about John the
Baptist.” Matthew 17:11-13.
When asked if he
were Elijah, what did John say?
“They asked him,
“Then who are you? Are you
Elijah?” He said, “I am
not.” John 1:21. “John
replied in the words of Isaiah the
prophet. “I am a voice of one
calling in the desert, ‘Make
straight the way for the Lord.’”
Verse 23.
In what sense was
John the Baptist Elijah?
“Many of the
people of Israel will he bring back
to the Lord their God. And he will go
on before the Lord, in the spirit
and power of Elijah, to turn the
hearts of the fathers to their
children and the disobedient to the
wisdom of the righteous – to
make a people ready for the
Lord.” Luke 1:16,17.
Note – John went
forth ‘in the spirit and
power of Elijah,” and in
preparing a people for Christ’s
first coming did a work similar to
that done by Elijah the prophet in
Israel centuries before. (See 1 Kings
17 and 18.) In this sense, and this
one sense only, he was the Elijah of
Malachi 4:5.
How did Elijah
answer King Ahab’s accusation?
“When he saw
Elijah, he said to him, “Is
that you, you troubler of
Israel?” “I have not
made trouble for Israel,” Elijah
replied. “But you and your
father’s family have. You have
abandoned the Lord’s commands
and have followed after the Baals.”
1 Kings 18:17,18.
Note – Israel had
forsaken God and gone off into
idolatry. Jezebel, Ahab’s wicked
and idolatrous wife, who supported
the prophets of Baal, had “cut
off the prophets of the Lord”
(verse 4), and was seeking to slay
Elijah, Elijah called for a famine on
the land, and said to Ahab, “As
the Lord God of Israel liveth, before
I stand, there will not be dew nor
rain these years, but according to my
word.” 1 Kings 17:1. This
interview came near the end of the
famine. Elijah’s message was a
call to repentance and obedience to
God’s commandments.
What
plain proposition did he submit to
all Israel?
“Elijah went
before the people and said, “How
long will you waver between two
opinions? If the Lord is God,
follow him; but if Baal is God,
follow him.” 1 kings 18:29.
Note – As a
result of the test by fire that
followed on Mount Carmel there was a
great turning to God, the people
saying, “The Lord, he is the
God.” Verse 39.
What
was the burden of the message of John
the Baptist?
“And saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is near. Produce fruit
in keeping with repentance.”
Matthew 3:2,8.
What
was the result of this message?
“People went out
to him from Jerusalem and all Judea
and the whole region of the Jordan.
Confessing their sins, they were
baptized by him in the Jordan River.”
Verse 5,6.
Note – There was
a genuine work of repentance and
reform. John was not satisfied with a
mere profession of religion. He told
the Pharisees and Sadducees who came
to his baptism, to ‘bring forth
fruits” answerable to an
“amendment of life.” He
wished to see religion in the life,
the heart, and the home. Thus he
prepared a people for Christ’s
first coming.
The
Elijah Message Today
When did the
prophecy say Elijah was to come?
“See, I will send
you the prophet Elijah before the
great and dreadful day of the Lord
comes.” Malachi 4:5.
How
is this great and dreadful day
described?
“Surely the day
is coming; it will burn like a
furnace. All the arrogant and every
evildoer will be stubble, and that
day that is coming will set them on
fire,” says the Lord Almighty.
“Not a root or a branch will be
left to them.” Verse 1.
Note – This day
is yet future. Therefore, the work
done by John the Baptist at
Christ’s first advent cannot be
all that was contemplated in the
prophecy concerning the sending of
Elijah the prophet. There is another
and greater fulfillment of it, to
precede Christ’s second
advent, and to prepare, or
“make ready,” a people for
that great event.
What is the
threefold message of Revelation
14:6-10?
“Fear God and
given him glory, because the hour of
his judgment has come. Worship him
who made the heavens, the earth, the
sea and the springs of water.” A
second angel followed and said,
“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the
Great, which made all nations drink
the maddening wine of her
adulteries.” A third angel
followed them and said in a loud
voice: “If anyone worships the
beast and his image and receives his
mark on the forehead or on the hand,
he too, will drink of the wine of
God’s fury, which has been
poured full strength into the cup of
his wrath. He will be tormented with
burning sulfur in the presence of the
holy angels and of the Lamb.”
Revelation 14:6-10.
Note – The
messages of Elijah and John, this is
a call to repentance and reform
– to forsake false idolatrous
worship, and to turn to God and
worship Him alone. The first part of
this threefold message points out the
true God, the Creator, in language
similar to that in the fourth, or
Sabbath, commandment. This message
now due the world, is today being
proclaimed to the world. The 144,000
servant prophets when selected and
sealed during the Great Tribulation
will be preaching the four angels
messages as Elijah spoke of the end
of the world and John the Baptist did
at the time of Christ’s first
coming.
The
People of the Message
How are the people
described who are developed by the
threefold message here referred to?
“This calls for
patient endurance on the part of the
saints who obey God’s
commandments and remain faithful to
Jesus.” Verse 12.
Note – There will
be two groups of people living at the
end that will be ready to meet Jesus
when He comes:
The righteous dead
– those people who have lived by
faith in God and submitted to the
Holy Spirit’s promptings.
The righteous living
– those people who are alive
during the Great Tribulation and have
passed the testing time and are
sealed with God in righteousness for
eternity.
These will be the ones
who will be ready to meet Jesus when
he comes. They have heeded the Elijah
call to repentance and reform. They
have become concerned, not only for
their own salvation, but for the
conversion of their friends and
relatives. By this message the hearts
of the fathers are turned toward the
children, and the hearts of the
children to their fathers, each
burdened for the conversion and
salvation of the other. There can be
little religion in the heart of one
who cares not for the eternal
interests of his loved ones.
