“What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9, NKJV)
Great was our surprise when, on the 1000th day of the Manna teachings, we finally got to discuss John the Baptist and the spirit of Elijah.
The apostolic house of ElijahAfrica has a specific mandate concerning the spirit of Elijah, specifically in Africa, but also in the rest of the world. It is undeniably part of God’s amazing sense of synchronicity that I write this specific teaching in the week in which ElijahAfrica celebrates its tenth birthday! On May 2003, in Walvis Bay, God gave birth to this movement.
The history of the prophet Elijah is covered in 1 Kings 17-21 and 2 Kings 1-2. It is however in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, that Elijah’s name unexpectedly crops up again. Remember that the prophetic book of Malachi was primarily written to set out, in greater detail, what God’s problem was with the Levitical priesthood. We know that in 1 Sam. 2:35 He already made it very clear that the reigning priesthood would be replaced: “Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.”
From this a new covenant would spring forth of which the prophet Jeremiah prophesied in Jer. 31, and to which the prophet Daniel later refers back when he reveals God’s timeline for the Jews, in Dan. 9. From verse 24 we know that it sets out what is “determined for your people and for your holy city”, how “to restore and build Jerusalem” (verse 25). For us in the new covenant it is clear that the Anointed One in 1 Sam. 2:35 is clearly Christ (as the following translations indeed reflect: Brenton’s English Septuigint and The Complete Apostles’ Bible). The Levitical priesthood will be replaced with Christ, or rather – Jesus and his Bride (as Heb. 3:14 beautifully states: “For we have become partakers of Christ”), the priesthood of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6), also called “the sons of Zadok” (Ezek. 48:11). [Please read the complete discussion of the change of priesthood, only narrated from a different perspective, in the teachings of Day 680-685.]
When the prophet Malachi in chapter 2 verse 1 then starts off with, “And now, O priests, this commandment is for you”, the commandment is a “mitzvah” (HNV), a “decree” (HCSB), but can even be considered a “warning” (GW), or even an “indictment” (MSG). Throughout the unfolding prophetic narrative the priesthood of Levi is offered a very clear warning with set conditions, that culminate in the last two verses of Mal. 4:5-6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
The link with Elijah arrives unexpectedly. One feels like saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9).
- Selah: Try to figure out why Elijah makes a comeback at the end of the Old Testament.
- Read: 59-63.
- Memorise: 59:1-2.