There may be slight differences in the classification of all the books, but generally the titles given suffice and lead to another phrase that would group all of them together, and that is “The Law
and the prophets.” This statement needs to be understood as the literal totality of the Old Covenant, or one could fall prey to even the most subtle of lies and deceptions. The Law and the prophets was a term Yahweh implemented into His written words to embody what could and should be stated as “All truthl”, and this as we have already read would be up until the time of one soul in particular: Yahchanan the Immerser.

And so it is in keeping with scriptural mandates and the integrity of those mandates that one would need to find truth from the Old Covenant Scriptures in order to even delve into what the New Covenant might be upholding and/or clarifying. Remember that we are, for now, speaking from the commonly held Christian and Messianic perspective, that Elijah is a physical man and it is he who is being discussed in the Scriptures given. And it is his potential “second coming” that is alluded to; so much so that the Messianics, and yes even Judah as a whole, present an empty chair at every yearly Passover, as a sign of the “waiting” for Elijah, in order for the above verses to be fulfilled.

We will discuss this much more in a bit, and for now we remind ourselves that the only area of Scripture in the Old Covenant that seemingly talks of the return of the prophet Elijah is Malakyah, Chapter 4. As we start to go a little deeper, I want to share with you that this writer does not believe that in any form of physical fashion the prophet Yliyah will be coming again. However, for truth’s sake and for the Messianic movement, we are going to again analyze the Scriptures in Malakyah, as well as those in Matthew, as if they were in fact speaking of the man Yliyah. I am going to, for the time being, dissect the Scriptures to show you how it could possibly be the man Elijah, only to then use those same Scriptures to show contradictions within that position.

Before we immediately dissect Malakyah Chapter 4, we need to introduce a concept that is widely discussed in both the Old and New Covenants in order to properly view the Scriptures regarding Yliyah and his potential second coming. I state again, the context of the entire New Covenant need be affirmed by, and through, the Old Covenant, as affirmed .by Yahshua himself. The following New Covenant Scriptures are overwhelmingly upheld in the Old Covenant, and it will be your work to do in order to affirm this if necessary:

Matthew 10:7 — “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Yahweh is at hand.'” And;
Matthew 24:14 — “And this message of the Kingdom will be preached to all the world by the one who bears witness to all nations, and then the end will come.”