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-- THE SPIRIT OF ELIJAH
Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous— to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Zachariah's promised son, John, would not be converted to the ways of God later in life, like many believers, but was destined to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the power and nature of God, from his mother's womb -- and as a result would be a source of constant joy and delight to his parents, no doubt because of the things he said, his insights and observations as he grew up, his character and his personality. Although he was to meet a horrible death some thirty years later at the hands of Herod, his parents were probably dead by then and so spared the suffering.
Once again we see that these events are rooted in the writings of the ancient prophets, as the angel quotes the words of Malachi who wrote: "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire will come" (Malachi 3:1) -- and also: "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:5).
Notice that Gabriel interprets the words of Malachi by explaining that John would come in the spirit of Elijah, carrying out a similar commission, namely that of fearlessly confronting the nation's political and religious leaders and preaching a message of repentance to the people. As John explained to those who asked him, he was not literally Elijah (John 1:21), although he did have a similar life style, also instructed disciples (2 Kings 2:3, Matthew 9:14), and apparently even dressed in a similar fashion (Mark 1:6, 2 Kings 1:8).
The writings of the prophets are complicated and easily misunderstood-- but we now know that the message of Malachi encompasses both the first coming of Jesus, as Saviour, and his future second coming, as the Messiah.
The separation in time of these two events was not originally understood by Jesus' disciples, who, even after his resurrection, thought that the promised kingdom was to be set up at that time (Acts 1:6). However, as Jesus then explained to them, there was much more work to be done -- namely the proclamation of the good news of that coming kingdom to the whole world as a witness (Acts 1:8, Matthew 24:14).