Hi John,
I was reading in Malachi this morning and ran across the two verses below.
What is verse 6 saying?
How will hearts be turned? Is he referring to Elijah from verse 5, or is it the Lord?
Malachi 4:
5.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse”
Tom
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Hi Tom,
We can see many benefits to what God says He will send Elijah to do. Primarily, what God is promising is that He will heal relationships and re-establish the order among us that He intended in the beginning. When elders (“the fathers”) are in God’s order, they have a kindly and nurturing attitude toward those in their care. At the same time, when those who are being cared for (“the children”) are in God’s order, they view their forebears with respect, which is contrary to the way a proud generation thinks, as Solomon’s friend Agur observed:
Proverbs 30
11.
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
12.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
13.
There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
What else God may have had in mind when He promised to send Elijah with the blessing of good order in the home, I cannot say. But I will say that the blessings that come from God’s order are many, and to be in God’s order is something we pray for, so that we will be a blessing on the earth
Pastor John