Jesus the
Christ, the one the law
and all
the prophets said was to come.
When Jesus began preaching His gospel
of the kingdom, his followers grew into multitudes, confounding the chief
priests and scribes who feared the multitudes.Luke 20:19 When
Jesus claimed to be God, His ministry came to and abrupt end, and many who
flocked to hear Him were among the ones who were yelling "Crucify
Him!" There was a conflict with Jesus’ claim and scripture. God had
promised in scripture to reveal all He would do to the prophets, but, when they
looked in scripture, they found only one coming of the Lord Himself, and that
was for the day of the Lord,Zech 14 and that did not describe Jesus.
They could find no other coming of the Lord, Himself, in scripture, so they
didn't believe Him.
What they didn't realize was that
they were the people of whom the Lord had foretold, the foolish people without
understanding, which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not.Jer
5:21 The Lord had revealed to the prophets that He would come twice, once
before the day of the Lord and again for the day of the Lord, but seeing it,
they didn't see it, and hearing it, they didn't hear it. The blindness, in
part, of Israel had arrived,Rom 11:25 and it wouldn’t be
revealed until the specified time.
At the transfiguration the disciples
discovered that contrary to what they had been taught, the Prophet Elijah
wouldn’t be returning to resume his ministry before the Lord returns. So, they
ask Jesus Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?
Matt 17:10 Note the Author’s choice of words. They didn’t ask why
Malachi, a prophet, or prophets said Elijah must first come. The Author
attributes the teaching to the scribes.
To understand how a difference could
arise between what Malachi prophesied and what the scribes expected requires a
little background information. First, the Hebrew alphabet includes no vowels,
just consonants. There was no upper case and lower case letters. In
English it would be as though there were no A, E, I, O, or U in our words, and
“Remember the Alamo” would look like this: rmmbr th lmo. It was primarily a
spoken language and every one knew what vowel sound to pronounce between
the consonants as they spoke. Second, when Malachi’s prophesies were written,
the style of writing was different than the style today. In Chuck Missler’s
terms, they wrote the way we speak, one syllable after another with no spaces
in between, and in English, “Remember the Alamo,” would now look like:
rmmbrthlm. Both Testaments, the Old and the New, were written this way.
The separation of the words with spaces between them and the vowel markings
were later additions to the Hebrew scriptures. When we go to the Hebrew text of
Malachi and remove the vowel markings and spaces, we can see what the scribes
saw as they read the verseMal 4:5 (3,23 in the Tanakh):
הנהאנכישלחלכמאתאליההנביאלפניבואימיהוההגדולוהנורא
אליה
Of interest to us
are the four Hebrew letters in red, which can be one word: ELYH or can be
divided into two words: EL YH]. Malachi’s prophecy could be read as two
words to prophesy the coming of the Lord Himself, before the day of the Lord,
or it could be read as one word to say that Elijah, whose name was formed to by
combining the two words, would be coming. The scribes read it as one word and
taught that Elijah would be coming before the day of the Lord. What the
New Testament reveals is that Malachi prophesied the coming of LORD God, the
first coming of the Lord, the coming before the day of the Lord. It was scribes
who blinded Israel to the first coming of the Lord, for there is no other
prophecy of the Lord coming before the day of the Lord, and the Lord had
promised Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret to
his servants the prophets.Amos 3:7 The Lord had revealed His
first coming to Malachi, but when the scribes came to the coming of the LORD
God they read and taught the return of Elijah.
This blindness of Israel is
something, which would continue until the fullness of the time for the gentiles
to enter the kingdom has passed: that blindness in part is happened to
Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; Rom. 11:25
so, how does Jesus reply to his disciples without removing the blindness and
closing the door of the kingdom to the gentiles? Replacing the Hebrew letters with
letters of our Roman alphabet, EL YH is LORD God and ELYH is
Elijah: Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?
Matt 17:10 Jesus’ answered one thing and his disciples heard
another. Jesus said EL YH truly shall first come, and restore all
things. But I say unto you, That EL YH is come already, and they knew
him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the
Son of man suffer of them.Matt. 17:11-12 Jesus is the redeemer
who restores all things, and who was suffering the rejection and abuse of the
violent taking the kingdom by force and it continued until His death.
What his disciples heard was ELYH
truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That ELYH
is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they
listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. What is often
missed here is that they discovered Elijah wasn’t coming, which prompted the
question, and they missed that Jesus was speaking of the one who would restore
all things so the disciples assumed [suniemi: put together] that he
spoke to them of John the Baptist.Matt. 17:13
John the Baptist knew that he wasn’t
the one of which Jesus spoke: And this is the record of John, when the
Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he
confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked
him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet?
And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an
answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the
voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as
said the prophet Isaiah.John 1:19-23. John told the priests and
Levites who he was. John wasn’t the Christ. John wasn’t Elijah. John wasn’t
that prophet, the Elijah-like alternative, John was the one prophesied by
Isaiah.
Over the years of the blindness we’ve
interpreted scriptures as though John were Elijah, but we can see that he isn’t
as we review our interpretations. For example, the angel said unto him, Fear
not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee
a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and
gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the
sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he
shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many
of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he
shall go before him in the spirit and power of EL YH, to turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make
ready a people prepared for the LordLuke 1:13-17 In this case
we’ve given the verse the reading of John the spirit of Elijah, not the spirit
of LORD God with which he was filled from his mother’s womb.
Here we’ve ignored the transtion from
Jesus speaking of John who was to go before Him to Jesus who was to come: Jesus
began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to
see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in
kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you,
and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send
my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I
say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the
kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all
the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it,
this is El Yh, which was for to come. The one that has ears to hear, let him
hear.Matt. 11:7-15 What the law and all the prophets until John
had prophesied would come was the Christ. What the law prophesied is one of the
subjects of the book of Hebrews, and the law prophesied the coming of the
Christ, saying nothing of John. And this one is Jesus the Christ which
was for to come.
Interestingly, in the Jewish Passover
celebration of today a place is set for the one prophesied to come by Malachi,
and the last course of the feast is the broken bread, which has replaced the
lamb of the Passover of Moses. It is called the afikomen. The rabbis say it means
dessert because it is eaten last, but it isn’t a Hebrew word. It is a Greek
word, the aorist form of ikneomai, and it means he came.Zion’s Fire
March/April 1996 Vol. 7 No. 2, p.10, Kevin L. Howard
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