Like Elijah, John would turn the hearts of some Jews back to God

[tonychanyt]

1 Kings 18 describes a contest between Elijah and Baal's prophets. Elijah prayed:

37 "Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

Elijah demonstrated great success that day. For a short time, some Jews turned their hearts back to the Lord.

A few centuries later, Malachi prophesied in 4:

5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Did Malachi 4:6 prophecy John the Baptist?

Yes, it is confirmed in Luke 1:

13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. … 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

Like Elijah, John would turn the hearts of some Jews back to the Lord.

17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Like Elijah, John turned the hearts of some Jews back to God. Also like Elijah, that period of turning hearts did not last very long.