In the penultimate chapter of the Old Testament, we read of a coming penultimate prophet, a messenger who will appear before the Lord Himself arrives: "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts" (vs. 1).
Malachi, whose own name literally means "my messenger", speaks here of another messenger, one yet to come. This is critically important for the study of prophecy, as it became widely understood that someone was to appear on the scene to prepare the people for the Lord's arrival. In fact, we see this question being debated and discussed in the Gospels (i.e. Matthew 17:10, John 1:7) Just like today, when those who study the end-times try to mesh the prophecies together, so, too, were the eschatologists of Jesus' day doing the same with the Old Testament prophets.
The New Testament points to John the Baptist as being the person who fulfills this role. Not literally Elijah back from the dead (although we do see Elijah during the Transfiguration scene, along with Moses), but a man cut from the same cloth as Elijah (camel hair?) and conducting a similar prophetic ministry. John checks all of those boxes, and - crucially - points the way to Jesus. He is the "messenger" God spoke of through Malachi. And, considering what Malachi says of the One who would come after this messenger, he is also saying quite a bit about Jesus' identity as well.
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