Greg,

That was a great way to approach the subject! http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/oct2022/gregw109.htm

You were comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

You made a very compelling case regarding the use of covenant in the book of Daniel.

Also, I liked how you showed that it is about Jesus.

Hebrews 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

"in the volume of the book (the Bible) it is written of me (Jesus)"

The entire Bible is about Jesus.

Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: 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.

So, when line 27 starts out with, "and he shall confirm the covenant", who is he?

The previous two lines determine that, although I was initially taught that line 26 shows it to be the antichrist.

However, it sure seems to me that pointing to Jesus makes more sense.

Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

  26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: 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.

In line 25, it gives the description of the period from the going forth of the commandment about rebuilding Jerusalem, all the way unto Messiah.

The time frame in line 25 leads right up to Jesus.

Then in line 26 it speaks about the Messiah, again.

Also, line 26 starts out with the subject of the sentence being Messiah.

Then it says, "but not for himself" - the "himself", there, referring back to the original subject, Messiah.

The second part of line 26 has, "the people", as the subject.

The prepositional phrase, "of the prince that shall come", is phrase modifying the subject, "the people".

"the prince", of the phrase, "of the prince", is not the subject of the sentence, but the object of the preposition.

So, when line 27 starts out, "And he shall confirm the covenant", the "he" more likely refers to Messiah of line 26 (and 25).

It would not make too much sense for the, "he", in line 27, to be referring to the object of the preposition, "of", in line 26.

But rather, like the word, "himself", in line 26, the word, "he", in line 27, is more likely to also be referring to the same thing, the Messiah.

Another point some make is that they agree that the people in line 26, do destroy the temple some 600 years after Daniel was told this.

But they believe that the prince of the people, is not the prince of those same people.

Rather, they believe that the prince comes some 2600 years after Daniel heard this.

So, to them, the prince is the prince of the future descendants of the people who destroyed the temple.

That seems to be a far more complicated way of looking at this.

General Titus was a prince of Rome, whose father was the emperor.

Titus commanded the armies that came against Jerusalem, when the city and the temple were destroyed.

Titus, himself, became emperor of Rome after his father died.

It seems more likely that, "the prince that shall come", was Titus, and "the people of the prince that shall come", were his armies.

The reason that explanation is immediately rejected, is because of the desire to have the, "he", of line 27 to be the antichrist.

The, "he", of line 26 was not Titus.

So in order to make it the antichrist, the need, then, is to have the, "he", of line 27, refer back to the object of the preposition in line 26.

But for that to work, they say that the prince will be the prince of the descendants of those who destroyed the city and the sanctuary.

And then they change narrative of chapter 9, where Daniel is praying about Jerusalem, the temple mount, and the temple.

7 times, "covenant", is used in the book of Daniel.

They agree that the other 6 times it is related to the covenant that the LORD had with his people.

But, they insist, that in line 27, the same word suddenly changes to mean a peace treaty or a strong military agreement.

All of the is to avoid the obvious conclusion that the, "he", of line 27 refers back the Messiah in line 26 (and 25).

Because they cannot accept that Jesus confirmed the covenant.

In many letters, over many months, Garry B masterfully dealt with this subject, showing that, indeed, Jesus confirmed the covenant.

Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

The LORD has multiple covenants with his people, the first was the covenant he made with Abraham:

Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

Then the covenant of the law, the Mosaic covenant:

Exodus 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

  28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

Then the covenant with David:

II Samuel 7:12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

  16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

Psalms 89:3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,

Then the promised new covenant:

Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Jesus confirmed all of them:

Romans 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

The covenant with Abraham:

Luke 1:72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

  73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

Acts 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

The covenant of the law:

Jesus fully kept the law and never sinned.

Also, Jesus fulfilled all the types and patterns of the law: of the tabernacle, of the priests, and of sacrifices.

He ultimately fulfilled the sacrifices, with the blood sacrifice of himself on the cross.

The covenant with David:

Jesus was of the lineage of David through Nathan, one of Davi'd & Bathsheba's sons, down through the lineage to Mary, shown in Luke 3.

Jesus was the rightful heir of the throne, passed down through the lineage of Solomon, David & Bathsheba's other son, down to Joseph, seen in Matthew 1.

Down that lineage, Coniah, the king, was told:

Jeremiah 22:28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

  30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

So, even though Joseph was the rightful heir to the throne of David, neither he nor his seed could sit upon it, because of what the LORD said to Coniah.

But Jesus was not the seed of Joseph, but rather Jesus is the Son of God, come into the world as the seed of the woman, Mary.

Yet Jesus had the right of firstborn, of Joseph, by adoption, therefore Jesus, a descendant of David, does have the perfect legal claim to the throne of David.

Luke 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

Acts 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

The new covenant:

Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Hebrews 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

  12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

  15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

By Jesus' death on the cross, he not only fulfilled and confirmed the covenant of the law, but he made any further animal sacrifices null and void.

He thus made the need of the animal sacrifices to cease, and he thus made those sacrifices to cease to be effective at all.

From that point, they can only approach the LORD, by the blood that he shed for sin.

Jesus confirmed the covenant during his earthly ministry.

And from the moment the veil was rent in twain, there remains yet three and a half more years of that final seven years, of the prophecy given to Daniel.

Which will be the time of Jacob's trouble, where Jesus will prepare the remnant for the complete fulfillment of that prophecy.

During which time, Jesus will prepare them for thousand year blessings of the completion and fulfillment of the covenants.

Israel will have the land, the feast of tabernacles will be fulfilled, Jesus will sit as King on David's throne, and the people will enjoy the blessings of the new covenant.

Again, Greg, thank you for writing about this wonderful subject.

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