Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
In many hearts around the world there is an interest in "the Elijah message" which is God's promise in the last two verses of the Old Testament. He says, "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5, 6).
That's a clear-cut promise. God's honor depends on its fulfillment.
We turn the page, and we're into the New Testament. There immediately, before we are even introduced to Jesus the Messiah, we meet up with "Elijah" in the vision given to Zacharias. God is in a hurry to fulfill that promise! Zacharias' son John the Baptist is to "go before [the Christ] in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of … the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord'" (Luke 1:13-17). Later Jesus tells His wondering disciples not to wait any longer for the promised "Elijah," for he has already come in the message and ministry of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:7-14).
But conscience arrests us at that point: John the Baptist's day was not "the great and dreadful day of the Lord." That's due now! Any lingering doubt we may have is removed by the realization that the "curse" the Lord alludes to in that last verse of Malachi hovers over us. Everything comes together: (a) the "Elijah message" is that of the great "other angel" of Revelation 18:1-4; (b) it's the final "everlasting gospel" of 14:6-15; (c) it's the powerful repetition of "the fall of Babylon" of vs. 8; (d) it's the "witness" of the Lord Jesus to "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans," the last of the seven churches of history (3:14-21); (e) it's the call to "be zealous therefore and repent"; (f) finally, it's the appeal of the Disappointed Lover in the Song of Solomon to His Bride-to-be to consummate the long-delayed "marriage of the Lamb" (19:7, 8). (g) And we add--Elijah reconciles her heart to Him!
It's time for us, the "ten virgins," to stay awake (Matt. 25:1-13), time to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:4, 5), time for a new dimension of closeness to the Son of God.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 3, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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