"BEHOLD, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and
the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come saith the LORD of
hosts."
— Malachi 3:1
“[Jesus] commanded them that they should write the words which the Father had given unto
Malachi”
— 3 Nephi 24:1
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So much emphasis is place on John the Baptist being the 'messenger'
who prepared the way before the Lord, that the rest of the pronouncement
is somewhat lost. And that is that the Lord himself shall suddenly come
and appear in his temple.
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[This Section Is Given As if Malachi Is Narrating His Story]
My name means “my messenger,” and as such I relayed the “burden of the word of the Lord to
Israel.”1 In my day, about 450 years before Christ’s birth,2 many of the Jews became discouraged
and had stopped living righteously.3 The Lord rebuked them through my teachings.
Jewish priests from the tribe of Levi were normally dedicated to providing ordinances, but the
Levites were corrupt in my time. They were ungrateful, refused to honor God, and offered
polluted bread and imperfect animal sacrifices.4 They had broken the priesthood covenant God
had made with Levi.
The people—not only the priests—were corrupt as well. They were marrying outside of the
covenant, divorcing the wives of their youth, and refusing to pay their tithes and offerings.5
But even as the Lord spoke against these evil practices, He was willing to forgive because He
loved His people: “Return unto me, and I will return unto you.”6 One way to return unto the
Lord was to bring “all the tithes into the storehouse.”7
The people complained, “It is vain to serve God: … they that work wickedness are set up
[prosperous],”8 but I taught that the names of those who “feared the Lord … and that thought
upon his name” were written in a “book of remembrance.”9
I also prophesied that at the Lord’s Second Coming, the wicked “shall be stubble” but unto
those who fear His name “shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.”10
I prophesied that before the Second Coming, the prophet Elijah would come to restore the
priesthood keys that would “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of
the children to their fathers.”11
Through my teachings, we see that the Lord remembers His people and keeps His promises to His
faithful children. He wants us to have faith in these promises and, through repentance, return
unto Him.12
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Apreciating Malahi:
Malachi's prophecies where not a 'one time' or about one era only and done type of prphecies,
they were very much dualistic. Yes John the Baptist would come and prepare the way of the Lord
in the meridian of time, but Malachi spoke concerning the events of the latter days as well. Not
only did Malachi prophesy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to the latter day temple in
Kirtland, Ohio, but he also prophesied of Elijah the prophet comeing to visit the earth before
the Secord Coming of the Great and Dreadful day of the Lord.
Elijah's mission was to restore the keys of the priesthood that related to the sealing powers
of uniting the family of God eternally. That is that work which turns the hearts of the fathers
and the hearts of the children toward's each other in the great temple sealings that being
the family units together eternally and eternally connected unto God their Father in Heaven.
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[Fact/Information Box: Isaiah]
- Malachi was considered as one of the minor prophets of the Old Testatment. His
prophecies are in the last book of the Old Testament.
presumed that it would be known who is being spoken of.
- Life time: He lived in the 5th century B.C. and is dated to about 450 B.C.
- Mission: His ministry and mission is not seen as being that of a contemporary
nature as the people at that time where again considered in the ways of sin. Rather he is deamed
as a prophet for future ages to come. Thus his prophecies are applied to the mission and
ministry of John the Baptist in preparing the way of the Lord and to such matters as the Lord's
Glorious Second Coming preceed by the prophet Elijah.
- His Name: The meaning of Malachi is 'God's Messenger' and may more precisely be
applied to mean the prophet of God's Messengers. Malachi prophecies of the coming forth of
various 'messengers', John the Baptist, Jesus Christ as the messenger of the covenant, and
even Elijah's coming before the Second Coming of the Lord.
- Mortal role: Thus his mortal role must be seen not so much as a prophet calling his
contempories unto repentance, but as the prophet prophesying of the furture events to come.
"The Prophet Elijah was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made
to their fathers*,
"Foreshadowing the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the
fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their
parents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming."
~ Doctrine and Covenants | Section 138:47-48
* These promises of the fathers are those propmised back father Adam, and are those promises
which Abraham states that he was seeking in the book of Abraham. They are the eternal or
everlasting covenant promises of heaven of providing the Messiah and a way by which man might
return to God. These covenant blessing include all the priesthood blessing that the bring the
blessings of God, by the power of God, upon the children of man.
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Elijah Has Come Again
Jewish Tradition holds to the prophecies of Malachi that before the Lord's Glorious Coming to
earth, Elijah the prophet must first come. In fact they invite the Prophet Elijah to attend
the Seder feast by reserving a special chair that remain's vacant until Elijah does come and
sit in it at the Seder. They will even pour Elijah a cup of wine and open the door to have him
come in.
It was at the Seder feast of the Passover that Jesus introduced the ordinance of the Lord's
Super or Sacrement. That was a special covenant ordinance that pertains to the Lord's Atonement.
One of the beliefs of the Jews is that Elijah comes to the Seder to visit the performance of
the cirsumcision, which is the Old Israelite covenant observed to mark the children of Israel
as being of the covenant of Abraham. And it is about that time of year that Elijah did come to
the Temple of Kirtland [April 3, 1836] but not to visit the Old Covenant of the Circumcision
that was fulfilled in Christ, but to turn the hearts of the child to the fathers and the fathers
to the children in restoring the priesthood of the sealing powers of God that seals the families
of earth to the eternal and celestial heaven of God and God's family.
Of course, the Jews who are not Mormons, are still looking for Elijah to come, though we are
given to understand that he has come already.
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Reference Notes:
_______________
1.
Malachi 1:1.
2.
See Bible Dictionary, “Malachi,” 728.
3.
See Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 193.
4.
See Malachi 1:2, 6–14; see also Old Testament Instructor’s Guide, Religion 301–2 (1994), 109–10.
5.
See Malachi 2:11, 14–16; 3:8.
6.
Malachi 3:7.
7.
Malachi 3:10; see also LeGrand Richards, “The Second Coming of Christ,” Ensign, May 1978, 75.
8.
Malachi 3:14–15.
9.
Malachi 3:16.
10.
Malachi 4:1–2.
11.
Malachi 4:6; see also Doctrine and Covenants 110.
12.
See Old Testament Teacher Resource Manual (2003), 215.
Elijah's Chair
" Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of
by the mought of Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah]
should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the
Lord come [Lord's Coming]—
To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with
a curse—
~ Doctrine and Covenants 110:14-15
'Come to the House of the LORD'
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