The study of the prophet Elijah, of his mission with the ten tribes of Israel and of his future work, provides food for thought and reflection. We may possibly consider the question as of little religious value, but when it is realized that Elijah’s work is associated with the re-establishment of the Kingdom of God, and the accompanying restoration to their land of the ten tribes of Israel, the subject becomes one of more than ordinary interest. The prophet is introduced in an informal manner :
“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab,” etc.
No particulars of his ancestry, profession or occupation are mentioned, such as are given in the cases of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. His appellation, “the Tishbite,” indicates his native place, Tisbeh in Gilead; bit beyond this we have no further information respecting one of the most courageous characters of the Old Testament. Elijah’s sudden appearance with a message for King Ahab, reminding him “that the Lord God of Israel liveth,” along with his mysterious disappearance, has caused some to think that he was only a myth, originating in the Jewish imagination. As to the actual personality of Elijah we will take the following evidences :
Jesus said : “I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months.”
Christ thus not only endorsed the Old Testament record concerning an incident in Elijah’s life, but he had also seen him, for, describing the scene on the mount of transfiguration, the record mentions “There appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him.” Paul, too, believed in the historical reality of Elijah. “Know ye not what the scripture saith of Elias?” We have a third witness, the Apostle James, who writes, “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are.”
The leaders of religious thought in the time of Christ taught the people to expect the coming of Elijah as the harbinger of the Messiah. With this in view, they sent to John the Baptist to enquire who he was, and if he claimed to be the Messiah. John at once disowned any such claim.They then asked : “Art thou Elias (Elijah)?” To this he gave an equally positive denial, adding that he was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, to make straight the way of the Lord.”
There is an impression in the minds of some that in John the Baptist were fulfilled all the prophetic allusions to Elijah; bit in the face of the Baptist’s emphatic declaration that he was not Elijah, it seems desirable to examine all the information available.
It is universally believed by the orthodox Jews that Elijah will appear to herald the appearance of their coming Messiah. At every Passover feast they specially look for him to come, and a cup of wine is set apart, called Elijah’s cup; and, although there have been centuries of disappointment, the expectation still exists. Admittedly Jewish tradition, of itself, is unreliable as a basis for belief. “We have,” however, “a more sure word of prophecy,” and this seems to give positive information as to the future mission of God’s notable servant. It is equally clear that John the Baptist was not a re-incarnation of Elijah. The missions of these two great men certainly took parallel courses in their denunciations of the prevailing wickedness; and the characters were similar in the display of a rugged austerity and fearlessness. This was anticipated by the Angel who announced the birth of John :
“He shall go before him (Jesus) in the spirit and power of Elias.”
Upon this point there is no uncertainty; John certainly exhibited the outstanding features of the prophet whose “spirit, and power” he was destined to exercise before the people.
But does this similarity of character and zeal for godliness on the part of John completely fulfil the striking predictions which relate to the prospective work to be performed by Elijah, as presented in the words of the prophet Malachi at the head of this article ? It will be remembered that when the three disciples came down from the mount of transfigiration they were enjoined by Christ not to tell the vision they had had of the coming kingdom (in which Elijah had been seen talking with Jesus) “until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.” To this the disciples immediately rejoined : ” Why then say the scribes that Elias mist first come ? ” The answer given by Jesus to this enquiry was this :
“Elias truly shall first come and restore all things.”
He also at once added :
“But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not . . .”
We are told that “the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”
Now we have to consider whether this comment or reflection of Jesus is to be taken as supplementary to or as a negative or modification of his first positive statement given above. Review the facts.
Although John came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah, he (John) did not “restore all things.” Elijah is to come and “restore, lest the earth be cursed.”
John’s ministry did not avert the curse from coming in all its bitterness upon his nation. It was not therefore restoration, but dissolution, which followed the work of John; for his nation was destroyed or driven out into slavery.
The fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy relating to Elijah is to be when the wicked are destroyed, leaving “neither root nor branch,” and when the righteous will “tread down the wicked as ashes under their feet.”
This did not occur in the time of John’s ministry. Malachi’s Elijah is to come before the “great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
John came in the “acceptable year of the Lord.” John’s work heralded the immediate appearance of the Lamb of God who preached as the “Light of the world.”
But this “Light” was rejected by most of the house of Israel and was consequently granted to the Gentiles; the Jews, as a nation, being deemed unworthy of eternal life.
The weight of evidence inclines us to a literal interpretation of this prophecy, which yet remains to be fulfilled.
John was the fore-runner in the days of Messiah’s suffering. Elijah will be the fore-runner of Christ’s Millennium triumph. Elijah’s work had to do with the ten tribes. He was taken away in the midst of his labours. He comes again to resume that work. For many centuries the ten tribes have been scattered, no one knows where; they are spoken of as the lost ten tribes of Israel. The two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were in the land at the time of Christ. The ten tribes never returned to their land as tribes. God’s purpose is shown through the prophet Zechariah (12. 7), “I will save the tents of Judah first.”
It would appear that the Jewish restoration will be a work of two parts, first the house of Judah, secondly the house of Israel. When our Lord returns he will find the house of Judah to a considerable extent occupying the Holy Land. In Zechariah (10. 3) it says, “Judah is the goodly horse in the battle.” In the same prophecy (12. 10), the house of Judah is to look upon the Lord Jesus whom their fathers crucified. It is a day of mourning, a day of affliction, when they are brought under the new covenant. The ten tribes did not crucify the Messiah, they have not stumbled over that stone; but the test will come. According to the prophecy of Isaiah (8. 14) for “he shall he for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel.”
The ten tribes are to be subjected to a second wilderness experience, by which the rebels will be purged out and the remnant possess the land of Israel, according to their allotment. This will constitute them the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Israel restored. Here the work of Elijah will be resumed and with far greater results than on his first mission.
The great difficulty with some in accepting the idea that Elijah is still to come arises from the words of Christ,
“But I say unto you that Elias is come already and they knew him not” (Matt. 17. 12).
We must, of course, be careful to ” divide the word” rightly, with the view of avoiding apparent contradictions; for in this case, as elsewhere, it is obvious that Christ would not make any statement which conflicts with that which the prophets tell us will come to pass.
“For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land : and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall he King to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”
In the re-construction of the nation of Israel the prophet Elijah’s work will be to prepare the ten tribes of Israel for the acceptance of their Messiah, who has returned from heaven to sit upon the restored throne of David and rule a united nation, assisted by his Apostles, to whom he promised the rulership of the twelve tribes. The beneficial effects of this rule will be world-wide, resulting in
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill among men.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One