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The Lord's statement in Matt. 11: 14 however is not so simple as our quotation makes
it appear. He introduced His statement with an "If". "If ye will receive it" (namely,
John's testimony and the presence of their King) then, most surely, Elijah had come. But
Israel did not receive, and so Elijah had not come, nevertheless John had foreshadowed
and anticipated the ministry of that great prophet, which is foretold in Malachi.
(3) Just before the birth of John the Baptist, an angel spoke to Zacharias, his father,
and said:
"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 Elijah" (Luke 1: 16, 17).
It could never be said of Elijah himself, that he went before the Lord in "the spirit"
and "power" of Elijah, for that would make no sense.
Taking all that is written, we understand that while John was not Elijah, he anticipated
Elijah's coming, much as the first advent of Christ anticipated His second coming in
glory. Both John and the Lord preached repentance in view of the kingdom, but both
were rejected and the promised kingdom is still future.
When we return to Isa. 40: 3-5 and ask of whom does the prophet speak, we have to
reply: He speaks of John the Baptist, in an anticipatory sense, but, primarily and fully, of
Elijah who shall come before the second advent of Christ, as Malachi has said:
"Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4: 5).
Elijah's ministry will be preparatory; "prepare", "make straight", "valley . . . . .
exalted", "hill . . . . . low", "crooked . . . . . straight", "rough places plain". While all
the references here have to do with the actual, physical, preparation of roadways for the
advent of a great personage (a preparation rendered very necessary because of the bad
state of the roads, made worse by the custom of throwing out stones and rubbish on the
highway), they but shadow forth a spiritual preparation. When John the Baptist went
before the Lord to "prepare the way of the Lord", he did so in fulfillment of the prophecy
uttered before his birth:
"He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 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 Lord" (Luke 1: 17).
Again, the Lord said: "Elijah verily cometh first, and restoreth all things"
(Mark 9: 12). We are not surprised therefore to find that the word translated "prepare"
in Isa. 40: 3, although it occurs over 132 times in the O.T., is only so translated 6 times.
Its primary meaning is "To turn the face towards anything", panah "to prepare" being
cognate with panim, "face". In Mal. 3: 1 both words, panah and panim, are used. "He
shall prepare (panah) the way before Me (panim)." The following passage, quoted from
The Land and the Book by Dr. W. M. Thomson, will enable the reader to appreciate the
symbolism of the language of Isa. 40: 3, 4.