Come Here to Me

God tells us in Malachi 4:3 that, before the coming Day of the LORD, He will send us Elijah the prophet to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers." Jesus taught that John the Baptist was a fulfillment of this prophecy, but that there was another man who was yet to come that would precede Christ's second coming. We find this in Matthew:

Matthew 17:10-13
The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come..." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Elijah is revered as one of the most important prophets of the Old Testament. I want to discuss some of the events of his life that may parallel those of the end-time Elijah, primarily to answer the question of what we should be expecting the end-time Elijah to actually do.

When I think of the story of Elijah, two main events come to mind. The first is the contest between Baal and God, in which Elijah very publicly demonstrates the power of God over Baal. The account is found in 1 Kings 18, where Elijah tells King Ahab to "summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel," along with the prophets of Baal and Asherah. He set up the contest as follows:

1 Kings 18:22-24
Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire - he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good."

The story is probably familiar to you, and you may remember the outcome. The prophets of Baal spend all day doing all kinds of dancing, shouting, and cutting themselves trying to get Baal to consume their sacrifice to no avail. Afterwards, Elijah has people pour water on his sacrifice before praying to God to take it, which He promptly does, consuming not only the bull, but also the wood on the altar and all the water that had been poured on it.

Now let's focus on some key points in this story and try to discern what this story holds for the Elijah to come. First of all, let's go back and notice what exactly Elijah said in that prayer that cued God to send the fire down: he says in verse 37 "Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so that these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." These are the same words that describe the eminent  purpose of the end-time Elijah in Malachi; therefore, the clear implication is that the end-time Elijah will accomplish the turning back of the people of Israel to God by a public display of God's power over the false system of religious worship which Israel will fall prey to.

In the time of the first Elijah, the prominent false religion in Israel was idol worship, mainly of Baal and Asherah. For John the baptist, the false religion in place in Israel was more subtle, a perversion of God's way achieved by focusing only on the outward observance of God's law and adding in the commandments of men. Jesus taught that their would also be a false religious system in the end times. In it's current state, the world's "Christianity" distorts the doctrines of the bible and has forgotten God's law. Elijah will, by displaying the power of the true God, turn people away from the pagan doctrines that have infiltrated end-time Israel.

Also, recall that Elijah had the king "summon people from all over Israel" to bear witness to this public display of God's sovereignty. In doing this, Elijah made sure that everyone in Israel was going to hear about what God had done, given how epic the sight they had seen was. Consider what is said of John the Baptist's ministry in Luke 3:3, that "he went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance," and in Matthew 3:5 that "people went to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and all the whole region of the Jordan." Perhaps not everyone went out to see John to be baptized, but you can bet that everyone had at least heard what this man was doing because of how the people were moved by his message of repentance. The message of the last Elijah will likewise reach all of Israel, which is a much larger body of people than it was during both the time of John the Baptist and the first Elijah. It will also be a message of repentance to God, as was the message of the first Elijah also.

The second story from Elijah's life that I want to talk about occurs right after the events on Mount Carmel. Jezebel sends a messenger to tell Elijah that she is going to have him killed, and Elijah, fearing for his life, runs to hide in the mountains.

1 Kings 19:13-14
... Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down you altars, and put your prophets to death by the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

Even being the one through whom God chose to display his power through, Elijah was afraid that his efforts had been of no avail and that he was going to be killed if he went back. Then God reveals something to Elijah to give him hope:

1 Kings 19:18
Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel - all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.

In Elijah's time, he was not the only person following God, though it appeared that way. Now recall that Elijah, leading up the the Mount Carmel contest, had prophesied that it would not rain for three and a half years, after which he went into hiding where God sustained him until he came out for the contest. The time period is significant here, as we see that this is the same amount of time in Revelation 12:14 that the "woman," symbolic of God's church, is cared for in a place that is hidden from the "dragon," symbolic of the agents of Satan who are ruling the earth at that time. We also see that after the dragon has unsuccessfully tried to kill the woman, he "went off to make war with the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ." Now it becomes clear that the seven thousand who had secretly been faithful to God during the time of the first Elijah are a type of God's church in the end times, and the prophets of God who had been killed during this time are symbolic of the "rest of her offspring." We know that a time of tribulation and martyrdom is coming, and those who are not taken to the place of safety will meet this end for their obedience to God and the testimony of Jesus. Since the primary mission of the church is to preach the gospel, it is likely that this is the time spoken of in Amos 8:11, where God says that there will be a famine of hearing his word. If we continue into Revelation 13, we see that the false religion of the end-times is referred to as a beast, and anyone who refuses to worship this beast will be killed, and, again, the time period that this will endure is three and a half years. We see later, in Revelation 20, that those who have not "worshiped the beast or his image" will be resurrected at the coming of Christ to reign in the millennium.

We can then draw the conclusion that the end-time Elijah will also be heard at the beginning of the prophesied three and a half years, resurfacing at the end of the period to fully and unquestionably exert God's power. Furthermore, it is likely that this Elijah will not have contact with the rest of the church of God during this time, not knowing what has become of them. Conversely, think about what it must have been like for those seven thousand, having seen all of the evil that was being done for three and a half years, to finally have Elijah come and put the idolaters to shame. It must have been even more of a shock to them than it was to the Baal worshipers that God had prepared these things. Fortunately for the church at the end times, we have the benefit of knowing what is to come by this example, and the hope that springs from that knowledge will help sustain the church in its time of dormancy.

Let's take a step back now to the Mount Carmel event, focusing now on how Elijah prepared for the sacrifice:

1 Kings 18:30 
... Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD.

We know that the event immediately before the tribulation is the "abomination of desolation," which we know from the history provided in Daniel signifies the desecration of the altar of God with by pagan worship. It could be, since Elijah is coming at the end of this tribulation period, that these verses indicate that the end-time Elijah will be the one to restore the altar of God. Notice here that Elijah is careful to make sure that the people watch as he rebuilds the altar. The prophets of Baal had been flailing around all day, and Elijah could have used this time to be building the altar so that he could get down to business when the time came; therefore, we reason that rebuilding the altar was an integral part of turning back the hearts of the people. It prefaced the miraculous sacrifice by reminding the people of the God that they had followed before - the very God who had given them their name, Israel! How wonderful will it be, after all things have been endured, and Elijah says to the people, "Come here to me," and reminds Israel of their identity and shows them their folly, that they may be moved to repentance. And how much more wonderful, when these things have passed, for God's true church to be able to come out of hiding, having not "worshiped the beast or bowed down to his image," to witness the return of Jesus Christ, and to be resurrected to spirit to reign with Him.