READ: Dan. 9:24–27: … Then he shall confirm a covenant with many ...
This passage is also not easy to explain. Yet the Lord gives it to us for our reflection. It elaborates on verse 24. The main question is whether “the Anointed One” refers to Christ or to a king like Cyrus or Antiochus Epiphanes. We choose King Cyrus, since he ended the exile.
The passage mentions three time periods within the seventy weeks (see v.24): 7 weeks (v.25), 62 weeks (v.26), and 1 week (v.27).
The first seven weeks may represent the exile period, followed by the 62 weeks during which Jerusalem and the temple are rebuilt. Yet this final period is not peaceful, as we know from chapters 8 and 11—there is persecution and oppression.
Then in verse 27 comes the final week, in which the events of verse 24 are fulfilled. Another Anointed One will be cut off—this is Christ. He dies as a substitute, bearing God’s wrath for all who love Him. This is indicated with: “not for Himself.”
Afterwards, the people of Rome, under Emperor Titus, will conquer and destroy the city in 70 A.D. This marks the end of the Jewish temple. The sacrificial system becomes obsolete now that Christ has brought reconciliation through His great sacrifice on the cross.
He, the Christ, will confirm the covenant with many (v.27)—on Golgotha, where He sheds His blood. There, as the Lord’s Supper form says: “Finally, with His death and the shedding of His blood, He confirmed the new and eternal covenant—the covenant of grace, when He said, ‘It is finished.’”
The final part of verse 27 again speaks of destruction—something Jesus refers to literally in Matt. 24, where He speaks about the coming destruction of Jerusalem (v.15) as a foreshadowing of the final judgment—a matter that must remain on our radar.
Is there reason to fear when we think about the end times?
Sing: Ps. 80:8