Chapter 7 of, 2020 A.D. Edited 5/15/20.
Confirming The Covenant and The Third Temple
In this article, I would like to discuss two verses, the first is found in Daniel, 9:27, the other in 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
These two verses concern end time prophesy, but I believe they both are being misrepresented. The first concerns the confirming of the covenant found in Daniel 9:27; and the second concerns the Jews building a 3rd temple on Mt. Moriah in the first half of the 7 Years of tribulation.
OK, let’s begin with,
Daniel 9:27, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the middle 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.”
There’s a great deal of surface information in the above verse, and even more hidden beneath the surface in particular words found in the verse. Let’s begin with several questions that need to be asked, then answered.
- Who is the “he” speaking of?
- What covenant is to be confirmed?
- What does confirm mean?
- When were the temple sacrifice and oblation to cease?
- What’s the “overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate,”
- What or who is going to be made desolate?
- When is the consummation meaning the conclusion or end of the overspreading of abominations going to end, forever? Consummation means to destroy altogether.
- “And that determined,” what’s that mean? It means for the destruction decreed by God.
- And what has been determined that shall be poured upon the desolate”?
First, who is the he? Well, we know “he” is a masculine, singular pronoun; and because it’s masculine, we know it’s a man. It’s said this man in verse 27 shall confirm the covenant for a period of one week, (or 7 Years).” But, in the middle of the week (after 3 ½ Years), this man is going to be cut off (stopped cold).
Now because this man is to be cut off half way through the 7 years, in no way does the verse insinuate or indicate that the last 3 ½ will not be accomplished, it only states he will be “cut off” half way through the seven years.
The verse goes on to reveal, when the 3 ½ Years is finished, all blood sacrifices and offerings in the temple will be discontinued.
So, who’s the man? We have two possibilities, Jesus Christ, or the antichrist. I understand it to be Jesus Christ.
Question: can it be proven? Let’s take a closer look; first, we need to connect whoever the “he” is to question 2 which is, “What covenant is to be confirmed”? Once we understand what the covenant is, we will know who the messenger is.
OK, let’s begin by examining what the Old Testament prophets had to say about this new covenant and who the messenger is to be.
Isaiah 42:6, “I the LORD (Father) have called you (Jesus) in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people (meaning the Jews), for a light of the Gentiles.”
Isaiah 49:8, “Thus said the LORD, in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people,”
Hebrews 8:6, “— He (Jesus) is the mediator of a better covenant,”
Luke 22:20, the shed blood of Jesus Christ is the new covenant Daniel wrote about. “Jesus is speaking, “This cup is the new testament (or covenant) in my blood, which is shed for you.”
So now we know who the He is that is to confirm the new covenant, it’s the Lord Jesus. Following is what Jeremiah had to say about this new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-36, “Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
The first unique feature of the New Covenant with Israel is that its promises are directed to the reuniting of the 12 tribes. After King Solomon’s death, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The ten Northern tribes were known collectively as the House of Israel (or Ephraim), their capital Samaria. Assyrian cuneiform states that 27,290 captives were taken from Samaria, leaving millions in the land. That sort of debunks the 10 lost tribe theory.
The tribes of Judah and Benjamin constituted the Southern Kingdom, with its capital at Jerusalem. In the Years between 734 and 732 B.C. the 10 Northern tribes fell to the Assyrians.
The two southern tribes known as Judah were carried captive into Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. It is estimated some 50,000 were taken captive. Daniel and a few others were taken in 606 B.C., and after Jerusalem was destroyed in 588 and the Temple in 586, tens of thousands more were taken.
Ezekiel 37 concerns the 12 tribes to once again become once nation ruled by their King, Jesus Christ.
The New Covenant is distinct from the Old. The law-oriented Mosaic Covenant is superseded by the New, which is an extension of the grace-oriented Abrahamic Covenant.
Hebrews 8:6 declares that the New is superior to the Old because its based on “better” or unconditional promises.
Jeremiah 31:32 tells us that the Lord was a husband unto the Jews, however, in the New, the Church is the Bride of Christ, Revelation 21:9.
Jeremiah also states that “after those days,” He will write His law in the hearts and minds of His people in contrast to being set before them externally on tablets of stone.
Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:” Spiritual regeneration,”
Romans 11:26, And so all Israel (12 tribes) shall be saved:”
And given a new spirit, speaking of the Holy Spirit,
Acts 1:8, “after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me.” See also John 14:15-27.
Another feature of the New Covenant is its ability to deal with sin both mercifully and permanently,
Jeremiah 31:34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Concerning this new covenant, God lays down no prerequisites for its enactment. He said many times, “I will,” not “if you will.”
The covenant is everlasting, unbreakable, and its fulfillment belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The last provision of the covenant had to do with the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple.
Ezekiel 37:26-28, God said, I “will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle (dwelling place) also shall be with them: I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Note, it’s the Lord himself that will set His sanctuary on His Holy Mountain, not the Jews during the 7 years of tribulation.
Question 3; what does the word confirm mean? To confirm is to strengthen, to make firm, or certain, implying the removing of any doubt by either making an authoritative statement or by a verifiable action. The verse also teaches the new covenant had its beginning with the Lord Jesus, and though cut off after 3 ½ Years, it will be fulfilled as prophesied. It will not be broken after its completion because it has the seal of God on it.
Question 4: When were the temple sacrifice and oblation to cease?
Distinct from the temporary “taking away” of the daily sacrifices as done first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by Antiochus the 4th, Jesus death caused all sacrifices and offerings to cease permanently.
To permanently cease in the sense that his shedding of blood and death were to be the last sacrifice, and that any and all sacrifices from that point forward would not be acceptable unto the Father.
Also, the “rending of the veil” marked the cessation of sacrifices through Christ’s death. So, Jesus sacrifice terminated all other sacrifices. After the cross, the priests of the temple could have offered ten thousand blood sacrifices and given a million offerings, none, not one would have been accepted by the Father.
Question 5-6-7-8: What is the “overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate,” mean? who is going to make it desolate? And, when is the consummation meaning the conclusion or end of the overspreading of abominations going to end? Consummation means to destroy altogether.
Because of the abominations committed by the Jews against the Lord Jesus, God would not only destroy the city and the sanctuary as he did in 70 A.D., but continue its desolation until, Daniel 7:25, “a time and times and the dividing of time (after the last 3 ½ Years of the great tribulation is finished)” A time determined by God as to when all world-powers are to be judged.
Question 9: And what has been determined that shall be poured upon the desolate”? Israel will have reached the summit of abominations, which has for the past 2000 Years draw down desolation from God.
Matthew 24:28, “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”
After the Jews had murdered the Lord, they continued temple sacrifices in form only, but evil in spirit.
Isaiah 1:13, God said 700 Years before the Temple was destroyed, “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure: it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.”
Also, Ezekiel 5:11, “Surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.”
600 Years later, we find Jesus in the temple, Luke 19:46, “saying to them (merchants), It written, my house is the house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves.”
There are three verses in Daniel that answer to Matthew 24:15, “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, –”
The first is found in,
Daniel 9:27, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the middle 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.”
Now let me paraphrase the verse: The Lord Jesus shall confirm his new covenant with the Jews for 7 Years. But, in the middle of the 7 Years, he shall be cut off by His death at the cross. By his death he caused all temple sacrifices to cease. Therefore, any and all sacrifices made by the priests until the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. were an abomination unto God.
And because of the murder of the Son of God, the Lord sent the Roman armies into the city to destroy both Jerusalem and the temple, and give it over to the Gentiles.
Some 600 Years later, in the year 692 A.D., Islam’s Dome of the Rock was set up and remains on God’s Holy Mountain. It stands as a monument to the sins of the Jews.
Secondly, we have,
Daniel 11:31, “and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.” Place here is the same Hebrew as found in Daniel 12:11, “the abomination that makes desolate set up.”
Set up and place are the same Hebrew, both meaning, God has permitted the occupation of the Temple Mt. to be temporally placed under the control of the Gentiles allowing them to set up, or put in place their Temple, the abomination that makes desolate.
In Daniel 11:31: we read about a future antichrist. Antiochus IV, had sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Temple, as did Titus the eagle standard, the bird of Jupiter, sacrificed by his soldiers. The soldiers set up an idol-altar and an image of Jupiter Olympius, on the altar of burnt offerings upon the destruction of Jerusalem. These two events are anti-typical of what can be expected when the future antichrist makes his move against the Jews.
Thirdly we have,
Daniel 12:11, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate (is) set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days (meaning 1290 Years).”
In the Year 598 B.C. the temple in Jerusalem was ransacked by king Nebuchadnezzar, and the sacred vessels of gold, silver and bronze were carried away to Babylon, thus causing the daily sacrifice to be taken away.
From the years 598 B.C. until the completion of the Dome of the Rock in 692 A.D., on Mt. Moriah, exactly 1290 Years had passed, thus fulfilling Daniel’s prophesy found in Daniel 12:11.
One day soon the antichrist will fulfill Matthew 24:15, “When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.”
Stand in, is opposed to falling down. First, we have the abomination of desolation “set up,” then we see the abomination of desolation “standing in” God’s holy place.
The Holy place speaks only to the place where the Holy of Holies once stood. Jesus completes the picture in Matthew 24, when the Jews shall see the antichrist sitting on his throne in or near the Dome of the Rock (his temple) where the Holy of Holies once stood.
Antichrist is the one,
2 Thessalonians 2:4, “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God (but he’s not) sits in the temple of God (which the Dome of the Rock is not) showing himself that he is God (but is not).”
In other words, the antichrist is a man having a high inordinate opinion of his own importance, his merits, authority and superiority, claiming to be Jesus, then taking his place on his own throne in or near the Dome of the Rock.
Once he’s defeated, the Lord will establish His own throne in the place where the Holy of Holies once stood in king Solomon’s Temple.
That ends my thoughts concerning Daniel 9:27. The He in Daniel 9:27 is Jesus Christ who shall confirm His covenant with the Jews in the last days.
My next article will concern the two witnesses of Revelation 11 and their part in finishing the conformation of the new covenant with the Jews for a period of 3 ½ years, see Revelation 11:3, “they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days (3 ½ years).”
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com