Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed. Sermons
I. THE DEATH OF THE CHRIST. 1. It was to be violent. "Messiah was to be cut off." An ominous and portentous phrase to every Jewish mind. Ever used of the close of the career of the wicked (Exodus 31:14; Psalm 37:9; Proverbs 2:21, 22). The phrase implies a supernatural agent too; so in this case (Acts 2:23). 2. Without cause. In Hebrew, literally, "There is nothing to him." The Septuagint gives the meaning doubtless: Καὶ κρίμα οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῳ. "In him was no sin;" he "did no sin;" he "knew no sin." Pilate's verdict: "I find in him no fault at all." II. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH POLITY. 1. The instruments. "And the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." That the prince is not the Christ is evident: (1) Because of his designation - simply "a prince." (2) He is to "come" clearly from without the Jewish state. (3) His invasion was to be after the death of Messiah. So the context indicates. History shows that the prince was Titus. 2. The mode. "And its end with inundation, and to the end, war; decree of desolations." The foreign army should sweep everything before it. The war was to be exterminating. No intermission of calamity until no city was left on which calamity could fall. 3. The reason. Note the inner connection of the passage between the cutting off of Messiah and the fall of the city and polity - between Calvary and the coming of Titus (Luke 19:41-44). When Christ wept over the city, the nation in heart had rejected him. Formally, and in so many words, in the course of a few days they discarded their only Saviour. For that rejection, city and nation descended into the abyss. As it was at the end of the Jewish economy, so shall it be at the close of the Christian. The condemnation will not be sin, but rejection, or neglect of the sinner's Saviour (John 3:18). III. THE CONFIRMATION OF THE COVENANT. 1. The Confirmer. The Lord Jesus. His august Personality has been prominent throughout. The actions described in ver. 24 are his. In Isaiah 42:1-7, specially in ver. 6, Christ is described as Divine Covenant incarnate. 2. The covenant. Neither the old nor the new, but that one comprehensive covenant of salvation, of which they were transcripts. 3. Its confirmation was by the Redeemer's words of grace, miracles, and death; by the Pentecostal effusion; by the first preaching of the gospel, especially to the Jews. 4. The time. From the commencement of the Lord's ministry to about the time of the death of Stephen and the scattering of the Jewish Church - about seven years. By that time the nation rejected both the Messiah and that Spirit who came with Pentecostal power and grace. Then was the nation dead, waiting for the fire of the Divine judgments. The "hebdomads seventy" were ended. Henceforth the history in the Acts of the Apostles turns to the Gentiles. 5. With whom. "With many." But all showed the nation's sin. IV. THE CESSATION OF SACRIFICE. "He shall cause the sacrifice," etc., that is, Christ the Lord. 1. In mercy. The sacrifices might cease: (1) either literally; (2) or, their object accomplished, they might become useless, and in time disappear. In the latter sense they were made to cease. No need of the finger of the type, when the glory of the Antitype filled the world. Herein mercy. He offered up sacrifice for the people's sins "once, when he offered up himself." "Once in the end of the world" he "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 2. In judgment. Not long was it ere in judgment they ceased literally. 3. In permanence. Ceasing, they cease for ever, and no power of man can ever restore what has been doomed by God. (See description of the signal attempts of Julian the Apostate to restore the sacrifices, and its remarkable failure, an Dr. Smith's Dict. of the Bible, art. Jerusalem, by James Fergusson, vol. 1:1015, b.) "The Word of our God stands for ever." V. THE CONSUMMATION We read, "And upon the wing of abominations, a desolator; even until destruction, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate." The passage would be difficult before the events, intentionally so, but not so difficult after. The design was, perhaps, to throw out fragments of thought rather than give a continuous idea; to light up with lightning rather than with sunshine. After speaking of the cessation of sacrifice, attention is fixed on the temple, some high point of it, soaring portion, "wing." A "wing of abominations," the temple hateful on account of its corruptions. The temple must become detestable (1) by corruption; (2) from within, ere any desolator is allowed to touch it. Note the lesson well. But having become abominable, look! watch! behold the desolator, i.e. the Roman! But how long shall the Roman eagle look down upon the temple threateningly? "Until destruction, and that which is decreed, shall be passed upon the desolate." Daniel's prayer was offered in sight of a desolate Jerusalem; the vision opened by the angel ends with a desolation more appalling. "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" - R.
Shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself. The Messiah here mentioned is the great and only God, who, in reference to His office as the anointed Saviour, was called Messiah, and also Christ. He is said to be "cut off, but not for Himself." His being "cut off" denotes His being made a sacrifice. His being "cut off," but "not for Himself," implies His being made a sacrifice for us — that is, as our substitute. In no other way can justice be appeased; in no other way can sins be forgiven. The expression implies that He died as a sacrifice for the general good, and as a vicarious sacrifice. Christ died to make an atonement for our sins; and without that atonement we could never have been saved.(W. Durham.) (Dean Farrar.). In the third year of Cyrus. The law of gradual development seems to pervade the government of God, and may be treated alike in the material and spiritual departments of his administration. The revelation which God has given to men has grown into its completeness. The primal promise to our common parents in paradise, was the first faint ray that emanated from the common sun of righteousness; but as the morning of the race wore on, that solitary beam expanded, through the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic economy and the prophetic writings, unto at length, foreheralded by the Baptist as the morning star, the Divine luminary arose "with healing m his wings." What was thus characteristic of revelation as a whole is equally apparent in the communications made to individual prophets. Daniel, in this wonderful series of predictions, goes on from the general to the particular, and brings in at every stop new details by which accuracy may be tested, and by which, if his writings stand the ordeal which they have themselves prepared, his inspiration may be abundantly established. The date of the present revelation was the third year of Cyrus, King of Persia. This, therefore, is the last communication which he gave to his people, and the last glimpse which we get of himself. He had not set out, probably on account of his extreme old age, with the exiles who returned to Jerusalem after the issuing of the edict of Cyrus. The testimony of tradition is that Daniel died at Susa... This description of the conflicts in the spirit-world between the rival angels foreshadows the opposition encountered by Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and their compatriots during the reigns of the Persian kings, Darius, Hystaspis, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes, and also that which, at a later time, the descendants of the restorers of Jerusalem met with at the hands of the Syrian representatives of the Greek Empire. The prophecy in the eleventh chapter may be divided into three parts, increasing in circumstantiality as they advance. There is first, a brief description of the Persian and the Greek Empires; then a sketch of the more important events in the struggles between the kings of Syria and Egypt; and third, a detailed and minute account of the character and actions of Antiochus Epiphanes... It remains that I should look for a moment at the opinion of those who believe that we have in this prediction a reference to the Antichrist of the New Testament as well as to Antiochus. For such an idea we can find no sure foundation. There is nothing in the chapter to indicate that a transition from one subject to another has been made. Some refer the prophecy to the Papacy; but it is a question not yet settled whether the papacy really is the Antichrist of the New Testament. Learn from this portion,1. That God prepares his people for special trial by special grace. His assistance is ever beforehand with our emergency. The relation of this portion of God's word to the circumstances of the people under Antiochus is precisely that of all his promises to our trials, temptations, and necessities. Every promise of God is a prophecy. 2. That faith in the Invisible is essential to our getting the full benefit of Scripture. Much may be gained from it in history and in morals, even if we should repudiate everything that is supernatural in its pages. To obtain the utmost benefit from its words, we must accept its revelation of that which is hidden from mortal sight. The promises of Jesus are not to us like the legacies of one long dead. They are the assurances of a living and present, though unseen friend, and when so accepted they are full of power. The Bible will be to us no better than the moral maxims of Antoninus or Epictetus, unless we receive its revelation of the unseen in connection with its forecasts of prophecy and promise. (William M. Taylor, D.D.) People Ahasuerus, Daniel, Darius, Gabriel, Jeremiah, NahumPlaces Egypt, Greece, JerusalemTopics Anointed, Continue, Cut, Decreed, Desolations, Destroy, Determined, Fixed, Flood, Holy, Leader, Making, Messiah, Nothing, Oil, Overflow, Overflowing, Prince, Ruler, Sanctuary, Sevens, Sixty, Sixty-two, Thereof, Threescore, Till, Town, War, Waste, Waters, WeeksOutline 1. Daniel, considering the time of the captivity,3. makes confession of sins, 16. and prays for the restoration of Jerusalem. 20. Gabriel informs him of the seventy weeks. Dictionary of Bible Themes Daniel 9:26 2354 Christ, mission Library Daniel: a Pattern for Pleaders"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God; for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."--Daniel 9:19. DANIEL was a man in very high position in life. It is true he was not living in his own native land, but, in the providence of God, he had been raised to great eminence under the dominion of the country in which he dwelt. He might, therefore, naturally have forgotten his poor kinsmen; many have done so. Alas! we have known some that have … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915 The Man and the Book. Whether the Time of the Future Judgment is Unknown? That Whereas the City of Jerusalem had Been Five Times Taken Formerly, this was the Second Time of Its Desolation. A Brief Account of Its History. From the Supplement to the Summa --Question Lxxii of the Prayers of the Saints who are in Heaven The Blessing of God. Three Things Briefly to be Regarded in Christ --viz. His Offices of Prophet, King, and Priest. General Account of Jesus' Teaching. Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason, Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature The Fulfilled Prophecies of the Bible Bespeak the Omniscience of Its Author "And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee," The Sin-Bearer. Jesus Heals on the Sabbath Day and Defends his Act. The Being of God The Manifestation of the Messiah The Intercession of Christ Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold. Christ's Priestly Office The Scriptures Links Daniel 9:26 NIVDaniel 9:26 NLT Daniel 9:26 ESV Daniel 9:26 NASB Daniel 9:26 KJV Daniel 9:26 Bible Apps Daniel 9:26 Parallel Daniel 9:26 Biblia Paralela Daniel 9:26 Chinese Bible Daniel 9:26 French Bible Daniel 9:26 German Bible Daniel 9:26 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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