Is That Not Elias Come Back Again
BY DR. STUART PARSONS:
Outside of college duties, I assist an outside ministry building named GotQuestions.org, by answering questions that readers pose. A reader recently asked, In Matthew 17:12, when Jesus said that Elijah has come already, so in verse 13 when it says that the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist, were the disciples mistaken in their assumption that Jesus was referring to John the Baptist? This question calls us to see an insight that is both surprising and wonderful. I hope that you enjoy the following answer to this question:
You inquire a very interesting question. And as it turns out, the answer is extremely interesting too!
The disciples of Jesus, similar virtually of the other ancient Jews, were very pious, very aware of the promises of the Scriptures of Israel, and very eager for the arrival of God's Messiah, who would deliver God'southward people in the coming messianic historic period from all of their enemies. The setting of Matthew 17, in which they asked Jesus nigh the coming of Elijah, reveals why they asked their question. They had just seen Jesus transfigured (Matt 17:2, "…he was transfigured before them. His face shone similar the sun, and his clothes became every bit white as the light," NIV translation here and beneath). In His transfiguration, Jesus' divine glory was revealed to His disciples. They saw Him talking with Moses and Elijah, these peradventure representing "the Law and the Prophets," i.e. the Scriptures of State of israel which promised God's people that all of their hopes will exist fulfilled by the coming Messiah, that is, by the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom they spoke. And even though Jesus' disciples had merely seen Elijah talking with Jesus at His transfiguration, they knew they had not yet seen the promised coming of Elijah, hence their question to Jesus in Matt 17:10.
What then was the promised coming of Elijah nearly which Jesus' disciples were wondering? The answer is found in Malachi affiliate 4, a hope-filled, messianic passage that was very important to aboriginal Jews equally they waited for the coming Messiah and the coming messianic age when God'south groovy deliverance would arrive. Mal 4:ane-half dozen promised them:
"Surely the twenty-four hours is coming; it will burn similar a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer volition be stubble, and the day that is coming will ready them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. Just for y'all who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rising with healing in its rays. And you lot will get out and frolic like well-fed calves. So you will trample on the wicked; they will exist ashes under the soles of your feet on the mean solar day when I act, says the LORD Omnipotent. Recall the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all State of israel. Come across, I will send the prophet Elijah to you earlier that great and dreadful 24-hour interval of the LORD comes. He will plow 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."
The sending of Elijah that Malachi mentioned is really a render of Elijah, since Elijah had already lived, ministered, and died past the time of Malachi. And we run across here that when Elijah returns, "He volition turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents." That is, Elijah would render and usher in a great move of repentance and a new movement of holiness. And this is exactly what John the Baptist did, calling God's people to repent, and indeed, administering a baptism of repentance. Jesus' answer was quite reasonable. But additional implications are even more striking:
The ancient Jews, in their remembrance of Mal four:1-6, quoted above, focused on the promise of a coming messianic 24-hour interval in which "every evildoer volition be stubble, and the day that is coming will prepare them on fire." That is, they focused on the great solar day of judgment by Messiah when He would evangelize His people from their enemies with the ultimate and terminal deliverance, fifty-fifty incinerating those enemies by fire. And Jesus' disciples must take begun to sense that Jesus Himself is the promised Messiah, for they had just seen a glimpse of His divine glory equally they viewed His transfiguration atop the mount.
But Jesus' reply to His disciples' question added a surprising twist: unexpected suffering by Elijah and fifty-fifty by the Messiah Himself: "But I tell you lot, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have washed to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their easily. Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist." (Matt 17:12-thirteen, emphasis added).
Here and then, nosotros see hints of the infinite mercy of Messiah Jesus, God the Son who became human and mortal while besides mysteriously remaining divine and immortal. This allowed Him to conduct the weight and penalty of all human sin and graciously pay the penalty of our sin on His Cantankerous, even though He was and is absolutely innocent. But nosotros also see in these passages hints of His infinite strength, power, and holiness, and the hope of His judging all evildoers when He returns again. As Hebrews 9:28 states about both His starting time and His second coming, "Christ was sacrificed once to take abroad the sins of many; and he volition appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."
As Matt 24:44 reminds united states of america, "you also must exist ready, considering the Son of Man will come at an 60 minutes when yous do not expect him." We do well to be ready for His second coming by centering our hopes not on unsatisfying human efforts simply rather on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And with our hope centered on Jesus, we can live in light of His return.
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Dr. Parsons holds a MDiv from Western Seminary and a Southward.T.M. and Ph.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has taught Bible, aboriginal Greek, church history, and theology at Trinity College of Florida since 2006, and chairs the Bible and Theology Section. His scholarly specialty is early on Christianity, especially early on Christian use of Scripture. He is the writer of Ancient Apologetic Exegesis: Introducing and Recovering Theophilus's World.
Source: https://www.trinitycollege.edu/the-surprising-return-of-elijah/
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