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related. When the birth of John the Baptist was announced to his father, Zacharias, the
angel said of John: "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 Elijah" (Luke 1: 16, 17). When
John was asked by the priests and Levites, "Art thou Elijah?" he said, "I am not"
(John 1: 21).
The Lord, however, when He had vindicated John the Baptist, as we have already seen
in Matt. 11:, spoke of the kingdom of heaven suffering violence and opposition. Then
alluding to John, He says: "And if ye will receive it (i.e. the kingdom), this is Elijah,
which was for to come" (Matt. 11: 14). That this was a cryptic, or parabolic, utterance
seems certain by the added words, "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (verse 15).
When the Lord descended from the mount of transfiguration, the disciples raised the
question of Elijah's coming:--
"Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come? And Jesus answered and said
unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, And restore all things" (Matt. 17: 10, 11).
Here is a plain answer, endorsing the belief that Elijah himself must come before the
restoration of all things can take place. But the Lord then proceeds to bring the spirit of
the passage to bear upon the time then present, continuing:--
"But I say unto you, That Elijah 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.
Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist"
(Matt. 17: 12, 13).
While there were, therefore, at the first coming of the Lord, provisional arrangements
sufficient to remove all idea that the non-repentance of Israel was destined and therefore
without responsibility, He Who knew all things in a manner we cannot even imagine,
knew that the Messiah would be rejected. John the Baptist was not Elijah, but he came in
the spirit and power of Elijah. Except in a typical, anticipatory fashion the kingdom was
not set up. The great work of redemption was accomplished, but the real coming and
restoration of the kingdom await the day of days toward which all the prophets point.
We have now considered the main witnesses of the O.T. to the second coming of the
Lord:--
1.
The
prophecy of Enoch.
2.
The
patience of Job.
3.
The
prayers of David.
4.
The
visions of Isaiah.
5.
The
dreams of Daniel
6.
The
visions of Zechariah.
7.
The
burdens of Malachi.
They unite in one grand witness to the personal return of the Lord from heaven to
earth, there, upon the overthrow of Gentile dominion and Babylon, to set up a kingdom
closely connected with the city of Jerusalem, the nation of Israel, and the commencement