The Last Word: Elijah Will Return Before the Great and Terrible Day
The Old Testament ends mid-sentence, mid-promise, mid-threat. The very last verses: 'I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.' The Hebrew Bible then goes silent for 400 years. When the New Testament opens, the first question asked about John the Baptist is: are you Elijah? Jesus himself says John is the Elijah who was to come. The Old Testament ends on a cliffhanger that the New Testament begins by answering.
The Last Word: Elijah Will Return Before the Great and Terrible Day
“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.