Behold, I send unto you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah.
The book of Malachi closes with a promise about a person: before the day of the Lord arrives, God will send a prophet. Readers have asked ever since — was this John the Baptist, is it still future, and why Elijah?
Verse 4 tells Israel to remember the law of Moses. Verse 5 points them to a coming Elijah. One writer sees in that pairing a lesson in how to judge the present.
Next follow two points of interest. One is the remembrance of the law of Moses. They look back; and this is the test to judge their whole course from first to last. Again they look forward: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet." So, though this is about Israel, it shows us the two ways to judge the present rightly — in the light of the past, and in the light of the future. It always takes faith to judge as God judges. So Malachi brings in, on the moral side, the giver of the law and the restorer of the law, the two great pillars of the Jewish nation. They herald the way before Jehovah, who alone can give and sustain the blessing.
The New Testament links John the Baptist to this promise. Whether that settled the matter depended on how Israel answered.
Elijah the prophet is announced. John the Baptist came in the Spirit and power of Elijah, but he was not the Elijah promised here. If you are willing to accept it, said our Lord, he is Elijah who is to come. It was a testimony to faith and not the fulfilment of Malachi's prophecy. If the Jews had accepted Christ, John would have been Elijah. Our Lord bears witness to this: "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." When the age closes another will appear — the Elijah announced by Malachi. He does his work of restoration before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
One writer explains why John denied the title, and who this future Elijah will be.
Because Israel rejected the Messiah, the mission spoken of in Malachi 3 will be carried out by another. This explains why John the Baptist told the messengers of the Jews that he was not Elijah. Who will this future Elijah be? "Elijah the prophet," it says. We must remember that Elijah did not see death. Such a man would be a worthy forerunner of the One who is coming in judgment.
The verse itself dates the mission: it comes before a day of judgment. That fact settles which coming of Christ is in view.
So Malachi 4:5 ties Elijah's appearing to the great and terrible day of the Lord. That had not come when the Lord was on earth, nor has it yet. A herald, however, was to precede Messiah (Isaiah 40). The herald had come and gone; John the Baptist had appeared. Here was the solution of the difficulty. The Elijah of Malachi 4:5 belongs to the second coming, not the first.
Commentators differ on who this messenger will be. One connects him with the witnesses of Revelation 11.
In Revelation 11:3-6 we read of "two witnesses". Features of their testimony remind us of Moses and Elijah, and they come before the second coming of the Lord. We may connect the Elijah of our verse with one of these. We can say this with confidence: God always raises up adequate witness, and gives adequate warning, before He acts in judgment.
The choice of name is itself a message about Israel's condition in that day.
In the day of judgment, however, He remembers mercy. So before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives, He will send Elijah to test the hearts of His people, and to call them back to His unchanging faithfulness and grace. And the very mention of Elijah is significant of the state in which Israel will then be found. Elijah's mission came at a time when the nation as a whole had abandoned God. They had openly disowned Jehovah and chosen Baal in His place... As in the time of Ahab there was a hidden remnant, so it will be again. God will never leave Himself without witness on the earth.
- Warning first. God "gives adequate warning, before He acts in judgment". The promise of a messenger is itself mercy.
- Warning offered. John the Baptist came in Elijah's spirit and power. If the Jews had accepted Christ, John would have been the Elijah promised here.
- Warning refused. Israel rejected the Messiah, so John's work stood as "a testimony to faith and not the fulfilment of Malachi's prophecy". The promise stayed open.
- Warning renewed. That day has still not come, so the mission is still ahead. It belongs to Christ's second coming, and to days like Ahab's.
- Warning heeded. Malachi points back to Moses and forward to Elijah — the law remembered, all things restored — clearing the way for the One who alone can give and sustain the blessing.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
The Old Testament ends with a warning and a hope: God will send a prophet, and hearts will turn — or the land falls under a curse. So who is this Elijah, and did John the Baptist finish that work or only begin it?
The Old Testament leaves the curse still hanging. The New Testament follows the story to its end. The quotes below use the older wording, "strike the earth with a curse."
The Old Testament closed with the hope of the Lord's coming to reign. It closed too with the need of preparing hearts to receive Him, so that He would not come and strike the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:6). The New Testament carries us on to millennial blessing, when there shall be no more curse (Rev. 22:3).
Verse 6 belongs with the two names just before it. One name points back to the law of Moses. The other points forward to a prophet God will send.
Next follow two points of interest. One is the remembrance of the law of Moses. They look back; and this is the test to judge their whole course from first to last. Again they will look forward: "Behold I send you Elijah the prophet." So, though this concerns Israel, it shows us the two right ways of judging the present. One is in the light of the past. The other is in the light of the future. It always needs faith, therefore, to judge according to God.
The change God promises starts inside families in Israel. Its reach does not stop there.
We know that the moral restoring of all things will be worked in the hearts of fathers and sons in Israel. We know too that God will make them as life from the dead to the world. In this way He will spread His saving health among all nations, who shall be blessed, not cursed, in the Seed of promise.
Another writer says a verse in Luke makes the meaning plain.
What is stated in the last verse may seem rather obscure, but if we read Luke 1:17, its bearing is plain. The "disobedient" will be turned to "the wisdom of the just," and so a people will be prepared for the Lord. In this way a godly remnant will be found; otherwise the whole earth would be struck with a curse.
That leaves the question of John the Baptist. Everything turned on how Israel answered him.
If the Jews had received John the Baptist, they would also have received the Messiah. The kingdom would at once have been set up in power. In that case Malachi 4:5-6 would have been true of John. But in fact it was not. Crowds gathered around him when he first rang out the cry, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Yet there was little work of conscience, and scarcely any turning of "the heart of the fathers to the children."
The turning was only partial, so the curse fell on the land — but not for ever.
Even in our Lord's own case, the unbelief of the people stopped everything bright and clearly blessed for Israel... So for the time the moral restoration of the Jews was partial. The mass of the people did not repent, and family bonds were completely loosened and broken. The land has been struck with a curse from that day to this. But it will not always be so. For grace will work in a remnant once more in the last days. Then Elijah's mission will be fully accomplished (Matt. 17:11).
Elijah's own day shows what Israel will be like when that mission comes.
Elijah's own mission came at a time when the nation had turned away from God. Israel had openly disowned Jehovah and chosen Baal in His place. And we gather from many scriptures that the same turning away will mark Israel as a whole in the last days. In the time of King Ahab there was a hidden remnant, and so it will be again. God will never leave Himself without a witness on the earth... A people whom God has called and prepared in grace will once again be the salt of the earth. For their sake the earth — or more likely the land — will be spared what is here called a curse: pure, unmixed judgment.
One writer applies the verse to strife among God's people.
When children fight and quarrel, that is the time they may expect their father to come and separate them with his rod... Strife and contention put a people next door to a curse. God brings a heavy judgment on a people when He Himself leaves them.
- Warning. The Old Testament ends with a curse hanging over the land. Revelation is where God finally removes it.
- Messenger. Moses and Elijah stand side by side at the close. The law tests the past. The promised prophet marks the future. Faith judges today in both lights.
- Turning. God promises a change of heart in fathers and children. The disobedient turn to the wisdom of the just, and a people is made ready for the Lord.
- Remnant. John came in Elijah's spirit and power. Had Israel received him, he would have been their Elijah. They refused, so for now a hidden remnant answers, not a nation.
- Blessing. When Elijah's mission is finished, restored hearts in Israel become life from the dead to the world. The nations are then blessed, not cursed, in the promised Seed.