Sunday, May 5 I am sending to you people Elijah the prophet.—Mal. 4:5. Jesus himself identified this “Elijah†as John the Baptizer. (Matt. 11:12-14) And Mark pointed out that the ministry of John fulfilled the prophetic words of Isaiah. (Isa. 40:3; Mark 1:1-4) Jesus did not arrange for John to do an Elijah like work as His forerunner. The activity of this foretold “Elijah†was done in harmony with God’s will as a means of identifying the Messiah. Additionally, in the synagogue at Nazareth,the town where he had been reared, Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah and applied to himself the words: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.†Because he truly was the Messiah, Jesus could rightly say: “Today this scripture that you just heard is fulfilled.â€â€”Luke 4:16-21. w11 8/15 1:11, 12