The prophet’s name was also his message: “I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me” (emphasis added). The words my messenger are in Hebrew malachi. And who would the messenger be? Again we have multiple fulfillments of prophecy. John the Baptist was a messenger who prepared the way before the Lord (for his first coming and his Second Coming; see Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3; Joseph Smith–History 1:68–72); Elijah also prepared the way before the Lord, as Malachi himself would so plainly prophesy; Joseph Smith was one of the greatest messengers preparing the way of the Lord; and the gospel itself has been “a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me” (D&C 45:9). Jesus Christ, of course, was the “messenger of the covenant,” in whom we certainly delight.
“The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple.” Here is another unequivocal sign of the Lord’s coming: He will come to his temple (D&C 36:8; 42:36; 133:2). But which temple? He did come to the Kirtland Temple, but he will come again—to the house of the Lord in the New Jerusalem and in the Old Jerusalem. See details about the fulfillment of this prophecy, especially commentary from Elder Bruce R. McConkie, at 2 Nephi 12:1–2.