God sends the prophet Elijah before the “great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” Elijah’s mission is to bring about reconciliation, as the passage indicates:
Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
According to the Old Testament description Elijah did not die but was taken up to heaven directly (2 Kings 2:9-12),
Jewish tradition spoke often of the future return of Elijah.
Matthew 11:13-14 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
Jesus did not say that Elijah would come in the future. He explained the prophecies as showing that “Elijah, indeed, does come first and restore all things” (Mark 9:12). As Matthew and Mark narrate the story, it was Jesus’ understanding that Elijah must precede the arrival of the Messiah and that Elijah has already come.
According to the Gospel of John, when asked, “Are you Elijah?” John answered, “I am not.” To the question, “Are you the Prophet?” his answer was, “No.”
Jesus did not differentiate between Malachi 3:1 and 3:23. Instead, he identified John as the “messenger” and announced that “he is Elijah.”
It was believed that before the Messiah's showing, Elijah would personally appear. This expectation John met in his denial; but his words had a deeper meaning. Jesus afterward said, referring to John, "If ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, which is to come. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, to do such a work as Elijah did. If the Jews had received him, it would have been accomplished for them. But they did not receive his message. To them he was not Elijah. He could not fulfill for them the mission he came to accomplish.
Among all the people that deny Jesus as the Messiah there is some confusion because they do not accept John the baptist as Elijah. We need to take things at face value. Prophecies sometimes are not exact. They are always accurate but not always in the way we tend to interpret them to satisfy our own beliefs.
John may not have seen himself as the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6. However, Jesus did.
This is another fulfilled prophecy. Jesus clearly stated that Elijah had already come, but, tragically, he was not recognized and had been killed. Jesus then predicted He would likewise die at the hands of His enemies.
Before the end times and the second coming of the Messiah we will have a similar event where "Elijah will come". We do not know how is it going to happen or if it's going to be Elijah himself or one like Elijah but prophecy will be fulfilled once again and soon we will witness "The days of Elijah".
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