The promise that God will send Elijah before 'the great and awesome Day of the LORD' establishes a final forerunner who will prepare the way for eschatological judgment, paralleling the messenger of 3:1 with heightened urgency and specificity. The figure of Elijah—Israel's quintessential prophet who called a nation back from Baal worship—suggests that the coming preparation will be marked by radical, confrontational prophetic ministry aimed at national repentance. Jesus identifies John the Baptist as this Elijah-figure (Matthew 11:14, 17:12), establishing that John's ministry of preparation inaugurated the eschatological age. The promise reveals that God does not arrive in judgment without prior opportunity for repentance, demonstrating the mercy embedded within even eschatological warning. The specific naming of Elijah connects the final word of the Old Testament to the prophetic tradition's most dramatic moment of covenant crisis and renewal, unifying the testaments around the theme of divine faithfulness.

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