In 539 BC the prophet Daniel was given the following prophecy about the coming of the Messiah:
Daniel 9:24-26a:
- Duration of time: "Seventy weeks (meaning "weeks of years", or 70 x 7 years) are decreed
- Regarding: your people and your holy city,
- Purpose and Goal: to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction.
Daniel 9:26a:
"And AFTER [H0310 'achar] threescore and two weeks (which followed the first seven weeks) shall Messiah be cut off [karath H03772], but not for himself.
1. The Hebrew word 'achar ALWAYS means AFTER, for example:
Genesis 5:4:
And the days of Adam after ['achar H0310] he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters.
There is NEVER any exception in scripture: AFTER [Hebrew: 'achar] means AFTER.
2. The Hebrew word [karath H03772] is used multiple times in scripture - often in reference to the cutting off of a person or a people, etc; and MANY times it's used in reference to the cutting of a covenant.
With reference to the cutting off of the Messiah (Daniel 9:26), it means both. So let's look at the word, and then look at some examples in scripture:
H03772 karath kaw-rath' a primitive root; to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication, to destroy or consume; specifically, to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces):--be chewed, be con-(feder-)ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league ((covenant)), X lose, perish, X utterly, X want.
Here are some examples:-
Genesis 9:11:
And I will establish my covenant [b'riyth H01285] with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off [karath H03772] any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Genesis 15:18:
In the same day the LORD cut [karath H03772] a covenant [b'riyth H01285] with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Genesis 21:27:
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them cut [karath H03772] a covenant [b'riyth H01285].
Genesis 17:14:
And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off [karath - H03772] from his people; he hath broken my covenant [b'riyth H01285].
Genesis 41:36:
And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land not be cut off [karath - H03772] through the famine.
Exodus 12:15:
Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off [karath - H03772] from Israel.
Exodus 8:9:
And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to cut off [karath - H03772] the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?
Exodus 23:32:
Thou shalt cut [karath H03772] no covenant [b'riyth H01285] with them, nor with their gods.
THE CUTTING OFF OF THE MESSIAH (CIRCA AD 30) WAS THE CUTTING OF THE NEW COVENANT IN HIS BLOOD:
We know that the Messiah was not cut off by God - He was cut off by the people (all those who wanted Him cut off from the people), who also killed Him, or supported the actions of those who killed Him.
DANIEL 9:26-27
The Messiah is the only subject mentioned in Daniel 9:24-25, therefore the Messiah is the only subject of, and fulfillment of the 70 "weeks".
Daniel 9:26-27 FIRST OF THE TWO TOPICS:
"And AFTER (seven) + threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off [karath H03772], but not for himself (God cutting the New Covenant in His blood);
and he (Messiah) shall strengthen (strengthen and establish) the (new) covenant [H01285 b'riyth] with MANY for (the) one (remaining) week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.
("For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for MANY for the remission of sins." - Matthew 26:28).
Daniel 9:26-27 SECOND OF THE TWO TOPICS:
And the people of the prince that SHALL come SHALL destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined - and on the wing/s of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, and that (which has been) determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Did Jesus say anything about armies gathering against Jerusalem and the city being destroyed in Luke 21:20-24?
Yes, He did.
Has such a thing ever happened in history?
Yes, it has - in 70 A.D.
Did Jesus prophesy about the coming destruction of the Temple when He was standing in the Temple talking to the Pharisees and scribes?
Yes, He did (Matthew 23:38 and 24:2).
So the people of the prince mentioned in Daniel 9:26-27 as the ones destroying the city of the Jews and making the sanctuary of the Jews desolate, came in A.D 70.
The prophecy did NOT say, "70 weeks are determined for the destruction of the city and the sanctuary by the people of the prince who will come",
- therefore the prophecy was not stating that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the people of the prince who would come would be fulfilled within in the same 70 weeks.
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Daniel was prophesying that Jerusalem and its temple, which had been destroyed by the king of Babylon, were going to be rebuilt, and within 490 years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, the Messiah would have come - but at some point AFTER the Messiah had come, the city and sanctuary (temple) were going to be destroyed again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CAUSING SACRIFICE AND OFFERING TO CEASE
The author of the letter to the Hebrews quoted a prophecy from Isaiah 1:11-14, and related it to the sacrifice of Jesus:
Hebrews 10:8-10
"Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
The prophecy that Hebrews quoted says:
Isaiah 1:11-14
"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the LORD; I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand, to trample My courts?
Bring no more vain sacrifice; incense is an abomination to Me; the new moon and sabbath, the going to meeting; I cannot endure evil and the assembly! Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me; I am weary to bear them."
It makes sense therefore that we read in Daniel 9:27b about the Messiah causing the animal sacrifices for sins and the oblations to cease, by rendering them obsolete through His own sacrifice of Himself:
"..and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." (Daniel 9:27b).
Just hours before He was crucified, Jesus repeated Daniel's prophecy, saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:37-39).
Yet in their unbelief the Jews continued - after God's once-for-all sacrifice of His Son - to offer daily sacrifices for sins - but as the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us:
"But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Therefore when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You have prepared a body for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I come ( in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God." Hebrews 10:3-7.
Isaiah 53:8 speaks of the Messiah being cut off. Count: (7 + 62) weeks of years = 69 'weeks of years'. Daniel 9:26 states that it was after this (in the 70th week) that Messiah was cut off (but not for Himself):
He was cut off because the people demanded of Pilate that He be crucified - and as a result, the Messiah finished the transgression (of the law) and made an end of sins:-
1. "It is finished!" (John 19:30). He did this "once for all" (Hebrews 7:27; also Hebrews 9:12 and Hebrews 10:2 & 10).
2. He made Atonement for iniquity (Romans 5:11)
3. He brought in everlasting righteousness: "The LORD our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16; Jeremiah 51:10)
4. He (a) Sealed up vision and prophecy. (He reopens the seals Himself: "And one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals of it." Revelation.5:5)
(b) He was anointed by the Holy Spirit when He was baptized by John the Baptist:
"And Jesus, when He had been baptized, went up immediately out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:16-17)
So Jesus fulfilled it all:-
"Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city,
1. to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and
2. to make atonement for iniquity, and
3. to bring in everlasting righteousness, and
4. to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." (Daniel 9:24).
DESOLATING ABOMINATIONS
The author to the Hebrews wrote,
"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness. There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years. Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, Their hearts are always wandering and they have not known my ways. As I swore in my anger, They will never enter my rest!" (Hebrews 3:7-11).
"For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:16-19).
In rejection of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice for sins, daily animal sacrifices for sin continued to be made by the people upon the altar in the Jerusalem temple - and this continued for forty years: Like lost sheep, the people were wandering in unbelief *
* Whatever it is that constituted the abominations mentioned in Daniel 9:27 is not specified in the text.
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The abomination of desolation - the idol that was placed in the 2nd temple in Jerusalem by Antiochus IV Epiphanes over 200 years prior to the crucifixion of Jesus (Daniel 8:11-12; 11:31 & 12:11) did not result in the destruction of either the city or the sanctuary). The daily sacrifices for sins mentioned in Daniel 8:11-12; 11:31 & 12:11 were only temporarily suspended.
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However, the abominations that were prophesied about in Daniel 9:26-27, ARE associated by the text with the destruction of both the city and the sanctuary.
Anything in scripture that was prophesied regarding what the Messiah would accomplish and do that was not completed before He was cut off (for example the judgment of the nations), the Messiah will accomplish and do when He returns.
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