Trumpeting the Great and Awesome Day

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” – Malachi 4:5-6

For those still enthralled by historic stories from the Bible, the astounding and unique translation of Elijah from earth to heaven has to be among the top fifty! I say “top fifty,” thereabouts, because the many, many stories told in the Bible are all mesmerizing.

Some folk are indifferent to their thrill, some are sadly ignorant of them, but those who at least know something of the Bible are riveted by the stories of miracle, history, intrigue, battle, nature, and on and on. No book in the world tells factual stories as renowned and astounding as those of Scripture.

The leaving of earth and entering of Elijah into the courts of heaven is fairy tale like. But this is no fairy tale! Elijah and the chariots and horses of fire accompanying him into eternity are as real as the sunrises and sunsets you marvel at continuously. Only Enoch and Elijah, among the total population to ever live on the earth, crossed over without experiencing death.

So, in the last two verses of the entire Old Testament, introducing four centuries of silence before the New Testament, Elijah is declared the one who would immediately forewarn of “the great and awesome day of the Lord.” In fact, both instances of foretelling Jesus’ first coming and for what is before you now, His return.

Jesus tells you John the Baptist was Elijah in a unique sense, the immediate forerunner of the incarnate Son of God’s earthly ministry and His salvation of men. And in the soon future Elijah is one of God’s two witnesses on earth (Revelation 11:1-14) immediately preceding Jesus’ return to earth.

He appeared with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration before three of Jesus’ disciples. Thus Elijah is prominent in declaring the triumph of His Lord; the triumph of His work of salvation at His first coming, and the triumph of His return to claim His Bride.

It is for us to take note of Elijah’s specific message. He foretold us Jesus came and now is coming again, and that soon! It is for you to renew your intimate acquaintance with the message of Elijah’s preaching: he was truly “a voice crying in the wilderness” (1st Kings 17 to 2nd Kings 2 and John the Baptist in the beginnings of all the Gospels).

Review what Elijah preaches before the final great and awesome day of the Lord. Such is very important for you to know, consider, and respond. “Repent (he preached) for the kingdom of God is at hand!” It is!

“Broken, humbled to the dust by thy wrath and judgment just, let my contrite heart rejoice and in gladness hear thy voice; from my sins O hide thy face, blot them out in boundless grace.”

(4th verse of Psalm 51 from the Psalter, 1912)