Verse 13 reveals a subject discussed in Malakyah, one that is the crucial understanding of the phrase, “The Law and the prophets.” We are told that the Law and the prophets were the mandate to guide us “until Yahchanan”. There seems to be a change in the guard from Elijah to Yahchanan, but no explanation of why, and what for? Verse 14 really upsets the apple cart in that it has Yahshua the Messiah telling all who would believe that if they were “willing to accept it”, that Yahchanan IS “the Elijah who was to come.” This was the fulfillment of verse 5 of Malakyah chapter 4. Yahshua goes even further by stating that it would only be for those “who have ears to hear”, that all he was expressing could be understood. We will speak more on these with ears to hear later, but. let’s remind ourselves that we are attempting to prove that Malakyah prophesied the coming of the prophet man, Elijah. Most of the Messianic movement stares at the empty chair every Passover, waiting for the supposed prophecy to come to pass. They wait, and all the while preach, “One mind,
one voice, one speech”, but then they fall into fatal errors , amongst each other. For instance, if one brother says, “I have ears to hear, and I am willing to receive that the Elijah who was to come is and was Yahchanan the Immerser”, then can another brother tell him, “No!”? Can other brothers then say “Well for us, Elijah has not yet come, so in order for the Kingdom of Heaven to be fulfilled, we must wait.” Can these same brothers actually negate the words of Yahshua the Messiah himself, by telling those with ears to hear, that Elijah has not come for them? Can they actually say, “Even if you are willing to receive it, it still has not happened yet! The chair remains empty.”? As absurd as this may sound, it’s exactly what is happening amongst the brethren. No unified minds, no unified voices, no unified speech. Is this Yahweh’s doing? Is He in fact the author of this confusion? Are Yahweh’s words to mankind incomplete and unknowable? Let’s move to the next area of Scripture and see what else transpires:

Matthew 17:10-13 — “(10)Then his (Yahshua’s) disciples asked him, saying, ‘Why (something seems contradictory to them) then do the scribes (whom in fact are being referred to here?) say
that Elijah must come first?’ Yahshua replied and said, (to the NIV version now) ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. (12) But I tell you Elijah has already . come, and they (who?) did not recognize him, but they have done to him everything they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their (whose?) hands.’ (13) Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.”

Here again, we have pertinent matters that need resolution. In verse 10, the disciples ask “why”, in reference to the supposed coming of the man Elijah, and it is what they are questioning that must be faced. Their “why” is exposing apparent contradictions, and those contradictions are carried forth by the “scribes” of the current day. One should need to go no further than verse 12 to realize the realm in which the scribes operate from. Let’s allow the words of Yahshua to help us along as we look at the multiple “woes” of Matthew 23,

verses 13 to 30: (13) But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites… (16) Woe to you blind guides… (17) Blind fools… (27) white washed sepulchers… (30)…killing the prophets.” It is these men who have and continue to make the claim that the man Elijah “must come first.” Are they to be trusted? They are in fact the very ones, the multiple Judaic religions, that have taught the custom of the empty chair. Are Yahshua’s words to be taken as more valuable, more perfect?