"Confirming the Covenant"
Daniel 9:27 states: "And he ('the prince that shall come' [Daniel 9:26] the
Antichrist) shall confirm the covenant with (the) many for one week: and in the
midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease".
This short but fact-filled sentence
comes at the end of one of the most significant prophetic passages in all of
Scripture, for Daniel 9:24-27 gives the precise unfolding of future Hebrew
history as given to the prophet Daniel in a vision from the Lord.
This statement speaks of a future covenant
that the Antichrist will confirm with the 'many'
or the majority of Daniel's people the nation of Israel. Isaiah prophetically reveals the true nature
of this agreement in Isaiah 28:14-19 and calls it "a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement"
(Isaiah 28:15). Even though it will be seen as a protective measure for the
Jews at that point in time, it will bring about the exact opposite at the midst
of Daniel's Seventieth Week when the Antichrist reveals his true identity and
purpose!
In the interim, during the first 3-1/2
years of Daniel's Seventieth Week, this covenant will bring a false sense of
security to the Jews as they trust in the promises of man rather than the
promises of God. Amos 9:10 reveals the
attitude of the people of Israel
in the last days when God says: "All
the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not
overtake nor prevent us." Here the Jews proudly proclaim that no
wicked thing will catch up to them, or face them in these last days.
Ezekiel 38:11, also in an end-times
passage, shows just the opposite as the army approaches the Jews who are living
in false security, peacefully, without protection against dangerous intruders:
"I will go up to the land of unwalled villages;
I will go to them that are at rest that dwell safely, all of them dwelling
without walls, and having neither bars nor gates."
The Antichrist and his promise of peace,
along with the humanistic religious fervor of that day, will be the final push
necessary to bring about the "falling
away" of Israel
recorded in II Thessalonians 2:3 as they place their full loyalty in him. This total abandonment of the God of their
fathers by the majority of the Jews will open up the opportunity for the
Antichrist to gain political/religious influence and make his way up to 'the
top rung' of the political/religious ladder of the world, giving him full and
complete access to the temple in Jerusalem! (II Thessalonians 2:4)
And, it all starts with the unprecedented
confirming of the covenant. This action on the part of the physical people of
God, the nation of Israel, will set in motion God's prophetic time-clock,
initiating the Seventieth Week of Daniel, the last seven years of the times of
the Gentiles when God again begins to deal with the Jews corporately as a
nation, causing them to atone for their sin, as prophesied by Daniel almost
2600 years ago: "Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
and to make and end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity"
(Daniel 9:24).
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