5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Today I was doing research on Elijah and found that John the Baptist coming as the spirit of Elijah in fulfillment of this prophecy is very controversial. There are volumes of writing on the subject, and it is apparently a key to why Jews do not believe Jesus was the messiah because they expect Elijah to return literally from heaven ahead of Jesus and since they haven't seen that then it follows Jesus couldn't be the messiah.
Jesus himself said in Matthew that was a fair question, but he pointed out that Elijah had come and wasn't treated very well---aka John the Baptist.
It is all so fascinating to me and I wish I could spend even more time coming and reading and studying it. It makes me realize I would not have been prepared to recognize Elijah and I certainly don't want to be unprepared when Jesus returns.
knut
p.s. so we wrapped up the minor prophets, should we head to one of our remaining New Testament chapters during this Christmas month?
way to bring it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read it that way....when I first read it, at all.
I read it to be talking about when Jesus returns for Judgement day. Not his first coming.
Isn't it funny how we humans, can take one line out of a book......all be it, the most important book,....and we allow it to divide us? I'm pretty sure that isn't the intent. Its not even the message that divides us.....its the interpretation of the message.
I agree. Let's move back to the New Testament for the holiday season.
You pick it.
ps. I gotta give major props to Malachi. There was a lot of good, tactical stuff in there. I dont' think I've spent even 10 minutes in that book prior to this. I really found it to be the most intriguing of the minors.
tp
i agree Malachi was absolutely the best. and for the record I read it to be talking about Jesus until I did a little research.
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