Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 4 Study # 7
January 8, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: Witness-John's denial that he was "Elijah" was only a denial of the "Elijah" of
Malachi 4:5.
Introduction: Last week, in our study of whether John was "The Christ", I noted what is an "apparent contradiction" between Author-John's record in this text/context that Witness-John denied being "Elijah" and
Matthew 17:10-13 which says, 'And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" And He answered and said, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you, that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist"'.
The words of The Word often seem to "split hairs" when it comes to proper understanding. The fact is that all of the individual words of God address specific information that is necessary for the understanding of those who are favored to understand as Mark 4:11 declares: "And He said unto them, 'Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables' ". It is for those to whom understanding is given to pursue the issues that the words address and to refrain from considering any of the words of God as unnecessary.
That said, we do want to understand the meaning and significance of Witness-John's response to the question: "What, then? Are you Elijah?"
- I. Our First Consideration: Where Did This Question Come From?
- A. To quote the disciples, from the text of Matthew 17:10, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
- B. The answer is not hard: Malachi 4:5.
- 1. Malachi was the last of the "writing prophets" whose writings make up the Old Testament.
- 2. He wrote his prophecies sometime between 450 B.C. and 400 B.C.
- 3. The last prophecy he wrote was that God was going to send Elijah before "the great and terrible day of the Lord".
- a. The Elijah of whom he prophesied was the Elijah of 1 Kings 17:1 and 2 Kings 2:11.
- b. This "Elijah" had a significant name: it means, according to the letters, God Yahweh, and it means "The true God is Yahweh".
- b. The prophecy regarding Elijah in Malachi 4:5 was that he would return to the earth in the days just before "the great and terrible day of the Lord" to exercise a ministry of turning the hearts of the people back to God (in a way, a ministry of calling for people to return to Yahweh as God like unto the one he exercised on mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18:21).
- 4. When Witness-John's interrogators asked him if he was "Elijah", they had Malachi 4:5 in mind.
- II. Our Second Consideration: What Was Witness-John's answer?
- A. He was unequivocal: "I am NOT"; He was declaring that he was not the Elijah of 2 Kings 2:11, nor was he the Elijah who was to get the people prepared for "the great and terrible Day of the Lord".
- C. His name was a further revelation of that Elijah's name: "Elijah" raises the issue of apostate Israel in the days of Israel's worship of Baal (Who is the true God?); and John's name raises the issue of apostate Israel in the days of Israel's commitment to validate their "status" by reason of their ability to earn their salvation by keeping the Law (What is Elijah's God like?).
- III. Our Third Consideration: How Did Jesus Correctly Identify Witness-John as "Elijah"?
- A. Jesus was addressing Witness-John's identity as an element in the concept of "type of meaning".
- 1. "Type of Meaning" is an integral part of all human understanding of language.
- a. It is how we differentiate similar, but not the same, meanings when the same words are used.
- 1) There is a word that refers to a major part of a farmer's equipment as a farmer: that word is "tractor".
- 2) The word "tractor", however, is also used when the person using it is not a farmer, but a "long-hauler" or "short-hauler": that person drives what is called a "tractor" and he uses it to pull trailers on the highway to various destinations.
- b. The key elements of understanding "types of meaning" are the associated characteristics of the "type".
- 2. An illustration.
- a. "Tree" is a "type of meaning" that is typically used to differentiate between plants such as "bushes", "grasses", flowering plants that are neither "bushes" or "trees", etc.
- b. "Oak" is an associated characteristic of certain "trees" that are different from other trees.
- c. "White" is also an associated characteristic to certain "oak trees" that are different from "red oaks", "scrub oaks", "water oaks", etc.
- d. If one wants to make a "white oak" a geographical marker, another characteristic may be assigned to it that has to do with where it is growing (the white oak that is growing at the intersection of Main and Vine).
- 3. The application.
- a. Witness-John had three characteristics assigned to him for identification purposes: he was "sent from God", he was "named by God" through Gabriel and Zacharias, and he was identified as "a witness of the True Light".
- b. The Elijah of Malachi 4:5 was also given a set of characteristics for identification purposes: the name, "Elijah", was given to a "Tishbite" (1 Kings 17:1) who was not a Levite as Witness-John was; the ministry of "Elijah" was cut-off by his translation into heaven by a whirlwind, unlike Witness-John's ministry being cut off by the cutting off of his head; etc.
- c. But both Elijah and Witness-John did share one characteristic: they were both sent to prepare God's people for significant Messianic activities.
- 1) It is in this characteristic that both could be called "Elijah" with "Elijah" being used in the most "generic" sense of "forerunner" (Malachi 3:1 compared to Isaiah 40:3).
- 2) In Luke 1:17, Luke recorded Gabriel's "shared characteristics" between "John" and "Elijah" with the words "And it is he who will go [as a forerunner] before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord".
- B. Thus, Jesus said of "John" that he was "Elijah" in the sense that another type of meaning required: the coming of Messiah, which was partially identified by the fact that the "coming" would be preceded by a "forerunner" sent by God.
- IV. Author-John's Point: Witness-John Was Not The Elijah Of Malachi 4:5.
- A. As a word of "witness", this means we must understand that Jesus did not come in the first century to execute the extreme judgments of "that Great and Terrible Day of The Lord".
- B. This is another of those words of witness that we must believe in order to be able to believe in The Christ (it was this misunderstanding in the first century that keep people from believing in Jesus as The Christ).
