Let us now consider one of Judaism’s most famous traditional beliefs, rooted in the verse in Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”
This is the key verse that has given rise to countless other traditions and legends about Elijah’s return. But notice something important: the Messiah is not mentioned in this verse. The connection to the Messiah is implied. This passage is understood in light of the earlier promise in Malachi 3:1, where the Lord announces the coming of the Messiah and the messenger who prepares His way.
What Malachi 4:5 emphasizes is this: Elijah does not come alone. He comes with an important announcement. He comes before something immense, terrifying, and world-shaking: the great and terrible day of the LORD.
This is a truth the ancient rabbis understood very well. Many early writings clearly speak of it. However, the link between the day of the Lord and the coming of Elijah is almost always neglected in modern Judaism; perhaps because it is too unsettling, too sobering, too close to home. Prophecies in general are not taught at all in synagogues, and they are neither taught in most churches.
But it is this message that he will emphasize, and it must be proclaimed because it speaks to Israel’s condition today. It addresses the growing hostility toward the Jewish people and affects the direction in which the entire world is moving. From this single verse, both Jews and Gentiles can begin to understand not only what is happening to Israel today but also what is soon coming upon the world.
So the question becomes unavoidable: What is the Day of the Lord? We have also addressed this Day in many previous studies, but now let us look at it again, freshly, through the eyes of Malachi and the other prophets. Malachi calls this Day, great, gadol, and terrible from the Hebrew word יָרֵא (yārēʾ), which means fear, dread, and terror. Is this what will come upon this world before the coming of the Messiah?
The Bible does not attempt to water down the impact of this coming day. Malachi began its description in Chapter 4, vs.1, where the Lord says: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
Malachi describes that day as an oven, a blazing furnace, where the chaff is set on fire. This is what Elijah first comes to announce. Even before Malachi speaks of Elijah in chapter 4, the Lord introduced this coming day with a sobering question in Malachi 3:2: “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?” The answer is clear: No one can endure it. No one can stand.
The point is that the coming of Elijah cannot be separated from the Day of the Lord. He does not come merely to stir curiosity or to inspire religious excitement. He comes as a warning. He comes to announce that a day is approaching unlike any other in human history.
As we said earlier, Elijah does not come alone. He comes with an announcement, and this message is also shared with another very important individual mentioned in this very text. Have you noticed who else is mentioned in the preceding verse 4 of Malachi 4? Moses! This is what the verse says: “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.”
We examined part of this verse’s message in our last study but note that Moses and Elijah are placed side by side because each represents the whole of the Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, a term Jesus used three times to describe the Hebrew Scriptures (Matt. 7:12, 22:40, Luke 16:16). For those familiar with the Brith Chadashah, these two were present on the Mount of Transfiguration, conversing with Yeshua.
But Malachi emphasizes the relationship between the two individuals. First, in many ways, Malachi presents the coming of the Messiah as another Exodus – Elijah is often seen as a second Moses. This comes through in Malachi’s text. There are two phrases that are repeated when it comes to sending the first and the second messengers, and these phrases reminded many ancient rabbis of how the Scriptures spoke when Israel was sent during the Exodus.
In 3:2, we read, “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.” This speaks of John the Baptist. Then the same words return to usher in the second messenger, Elijah, in our verse for today, Malachi 4:5. “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.”
These words, behold I am going to send are the very same words found in the Exodus account when the Lord promised, after they received the Law on Mount Sinai, that His messenger would be with them throughout their journey. “Behold, I am going to send a Messenger before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. “Be on your guard before him and obey his voice …My name is in him.” Exodus 23:20-21.
These words link the two events: the one in the Exodus, when the Messenger, the Angel of the Lord, whom some rabbis identified as the Lord Himself, led the Jewish people out of Egypt. In Malachi, the Messenger of the Covenant, the Messiah, returns to lead the Jewish people (after the Tribulation) out of the Diaspora and into the promised land.
One point not to be missed is that, as Elijah was the forerunner of the Messenger of the Covenant (the Messiah), Moses can be considered the forerunner of the Angel of the Lord. This further underscores the messianic connection of the Angel of the Lord.
Furthermore, the relationship between Elijah and Moses is evident in that they both experienced a theophany, a revelation of God, at the same mountain, called Horeb, a synonym for Sinai. In fact, in Malachi 4:1, it does not say “Sinai” but “Horeb,” perhaps to underscore the relationship between these two men. We see that both were there after Israel’s apostasy. Moses was right at Horeb in the aftermath of Israel’s rebellion with the golden calf. Elijah came to Horeb after confronting Israel’s massive apostasy, when the nation had embraced the false prophets, 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, a total of 850 (1 Kings 18:19). And in both cases, their encounters marked the beginning of a new era, the Law and the Prophets.
What is striking is that it points directly to what happens at the Transfiguration. There, Moses and Elijah appear again, this time, not on Horeb, but on another mountain, standing beside the Messiah Himself.
And Luke tells us something extraordinary: the subject of their conversation was Exodus, another Exodus, this time led by Yeshua. Let us read Luke 9:29–31: “And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
Where is the Exodus in this passage? It is in the phrase “His departure.” The Greek word used is exodos. This word appears only two other times in the New Testament: in Hebrews 11:22, referring to the Exodus from Egypt, and in 2 Peter 1:15, where Peter speaks of his own departure, his Exodus from this world.
What Moses, Elijah, and Yeshua were discussing was not merely His suffering. They were speaking of His death and resurrection, an event that would inaugurate a new era in Israel’s history. It would be the final and greatest Exodus.
Click Here for the Video : Malachi Part 7 – Elijah is Coming