BLOWING THE TRUMPET IN ZION WITH MALACHI’s FINAL PROPHETIC MESSAGE (28 SEPT 2016)

Chewing on the prophetic message of MAL 4:5-6, the last verses of the Hebrew scriptures, helps us understand why Christ said, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.”(A) It’s a common saying that there is a silver lining in each dark cloud…and the prophecy of MAL 4:5-6, which was written specifically to our day & age, supports that saying. This is a message of encouragement for those of us who follow Christ in these end times. Remember that God’s faithful remnant is his “treasured possession.”(B)

MAL 4:5-6 (the text), “Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of YHWH. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with utter destruction.” There is a great deal of meaning to all this if one meditates on this prophecy. And I will expound on its meaning in a moment.

ITS APPLICATION. This prophecy is given specifically to the generation alive just prior to the great tribulation, the day of YHWH’s wrath. But its prophetic truth has application to other generations as minor fulfillments. Others have come in the spirit & power of Elijah, but in the end times there will be Elijah himself (or an Elijah figure close like him) to draw the people back to God. John the Baptist came with the Spirit & power of Elijah (C), even though John the Baptist made it clear he was not the “Elijah”.(D) And Christ’s death was a minor fulfillment of the Day of the Lord. Elijah’s spirit of prophecy was also given to Elisha. During the reformation this prophetic pattern of the Elijah spirit and a Day of Wrath also occurred. So it describes a general prophetic pattern, but its major fulfillment is for these end times. Prophecy says that at the end “…there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time…”(E)

UNDERSTANDING ELIJAH. Elijah is the model prophet. His 15 yr. ministry played a big role in history. Elijah lived in an extremely evil corrupt time period, which in many ways resembles our times. He was willing to courageously stand in the gap for God. His commitment to God, when the rest of the World was going to hell, and to serve God when it was not politically correct, nor convenient, nor comfortable; it’s that commitment that sets him apart. For instance, Israel was ruled by King Ahab (addicted to sin) and his evil Queen Jezebel (who the Jezebel spirit was named after). I am reminded of Bill Clinton & his addiction to sin and his Jezebel co-ruling wife, who are surrounded by court apostate false prophets of God, like Ahab & Jezebel had. Same spirits, different time period. It was a time of money & idol worship like today. And you, as a godly person, have likely witnessed how liars hate truthers, how evil can’t tolerate the righteous (who they call “goody two shoers”, etc.), how darkness abhors light, and how hate desires to mangle love. So it is no surprise that the evil elite wanted to kill Elijah. Jezebel made a point of sending him a message that she was going to kill him by this time tomorrow.(F) And at several points, God had to tell Elijah: “Hide yourself!”

PROPHETIC PATTERNS. There are many people whose lives are prophetic foreshadowings of Christ, for instance: Moses, Joseph, & David. Likewise, Moses & Elijah share some commonalities: both had to confront the establishment rulers, both incurred the establishment’s anger, both had mountain top experiences with God at Mt. Sinai (aka Horeb), and both had to deal with Israel falling away into apostasy. Additionally, both were authoritative prophets who gave Israel leadership. Interestingly, these two came down from heaven to spend time with Christ and his inner group of disciples…on what is called the Mt. of Transfiguration.(G) There are a number of prophecies about two witnesses in the end times, and while these may or may not refer to the same two witnesses…they are often viewed by Bible students as being prophecies about the same event, the ministry of two witnesses in the end times.(H) Whether the two end time witnesses are angels, or Moses & Elijah –both views have supporters. Never the less, we know that Elijah is going to minister to bring the older and young generation together. How appropriate to reconcile the millennials with their postmodernism to their Bible-believing truth-believing elder generation. And all believers should join in this Elijah work of reconciliation. Elijah was uniting the people of the covenant.(I)

POSSIBLE REVIVAL OF THINGS. So now I am going to discuss how things could change for the better. We get a glimpse from these prophecies as well as the lives of these ancient prophets that things could get better. This is an interesting concept–because in the middle of all the doom that seems to be coming–to entertain that something good may happen…is a surprising twist of thinking…yet not impossible or unrealistic. In fact, many Scriptures say God will do good things with His people even in these end times. For the sake of discussion, let’s picture that Russia & China send troops to America after an economic crash and the ensuing crack up of America. Now in the past, I have typically had a negative view of their troops being here. But what if they come–not as U.N. troops–but as BRIC troops with the goal of eliminating the Illuminati elite power structure that has harassed both Russia & China. You know our whole govt. structure is corrupt & rotten. It has been corrupted from the top down. As you know the Dragon families in China want to eliminate the Illum. and Putin certainly dislikes them, incl. putting out an arrest warrant for George Soros. So it is not inconceivable that they might come here to restore a legitimate honest government that would work in peace with them. I am not saying it will happen…I am only using this as an example, that everything in the future may not necessarily be all bad & evil. And we have an inkling with that in the prophecy of MAL 4:5-6!! YHWH God promises to preserve a faithful remnant.(J) He promises to supply all our needs. (K)

ELIJAH’S WARNING TO HIS & OUR PHONY GENERATIONS. Elijah began life as a nobody from a small town called Tishbeh. He was a rugged committed believer, not a sophisticated intellectual. I can picture Ahab & Jezebel’s security force at the Jezreel palace watching this audacious man of God walk up the palace steps to give the King the real truth, in contrast to all the spin he was spun by his positive encouraging false prophets. If you listen to our Matrix leaders & the Mass media, then you are familiar with their positive lies…for instance, how they started out the presidential debate by saying our economy was doing great and in a great recovery. (Cough!) Elijah confronted people with the truth, and then confronted them to obey and serve God. He just laid it out before people: How long will you hesitate between two opinions?? We see the same lukewarmness condemned in the last days.(L) He began his ministry saying these things in this order>> 1) My God is YHWH, 2) The Lord God of Israel lives, (M)and 3) I stand before Him and serve Him.(M again). Almost 3,000 years have gone by, and the message is still the same for God’s people.

FINAL THOUGHTS. Why did I start w/ the title: Blow the trumpet? Because the priests would blow the shofar trumpets to call the nation to repentance.(N) The last Elijah will have a mission to restore faith, and that will mean calling people back to repentance. Now is the time to fear God, like Elijah feared Him. However, now is not the time to fear men; the life of the first Elijah serves to teach us that, & when he comes again, I have no doubt he will teach it again!

(A) JN 14:1 (B) EX 19:5 (C) LK 1:17 (D) JN 1:21, 23 (E) DAN 12:1 cf. MT 24:21 (F) 1 KGS 19:2 (G) MT 17:1-13, MK 9:2-8, LK 9:28-36 (H) ZECH 4:2,3, REV 12 (I) MAL, seen in the reconciling of 2 generations (J) 1 KGS 19:18, cf. MAL 3:16-18 (K) PHIL 4:19 (L) REV 3:15-16 (M) 1 KGS 17:1, (N) JOEL 2:12-17