“… and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,” (Daniel 9:27b).

In the last chapter we talked about the sacred last week of seven years of the seventy weeks of years. That last week ends ten Jubilee cycles. Therefore, that week will end when everything will be restored (outlined in verse 24). The covenant promises lead to destruction of Satan and his followers. If he can create a barrier to the restoration of a holy people, his claim as the “prince of this world” remains. That last “week” must be disrupted. If so, he is preserved from doom. The setting in Daniel 8–12 reveals that Satan proceeds under that premise.

Here in the midst of that week, “he” will cause something to end. The previous pronoun (vs 26) goes back to the people of the Prince (nagid) or those helping to fulfill God’s plans.

In the “middle” or midpoint of the shabuwa the Messiah will cause the ceremonial Jewish system to cease. In the previous verse it said that after the sixty-nine weeks (nothing specific – a generic time declaration), the Messiah would meet a violent death. Here in the midst of this last week the theocracy of sacrificial ceremonies ceases. We know this was the point of Christ’s death because the moment Jesus “yielded up the ghost” (Matthew 27:50) “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom” (vs 51). The sacred divide between the Holy and Most Holy ceased for the Jewish people. Type had met antitype. Jesus became that veil – the portal to the Most Holy, God’s throne. He became the confirmed way.

“The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all. No longer need sinful, sorrowing humanity await the coming of the high priest. Henceforth the Saviour was to officiate as priest and advocate in the heaven of heavens. It was as if a living voice had spoken to the worshipers: There is now an end to all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according to His word, ‘Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.’ ‘By His own blood’ He entereth ‘in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.’ Heb. 10:7; 9:12.”[1]

The “he shall cause” implies His death leads to “the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” At the three and a half year point (“midst of the week”) the sacrifices, ceremonies and oblations ceased. The sacrificial lamb was supplanted by the Lamb of God. Type met antitype. There is no longer any need for the intricate ceremonial worship rituals.

“Little did the Jews realize the terrible responsibility involved in rejecting Christ. From the time when the first innocent blood was shed, when righteous Abel fell by the hand of Cain, the same history had been repeated, with increasing guilt. In every age prophets had lifted up their voices against the sins of kings, rulers, and people, speaking the words which God gave them, and obeying His will at the peril of their lives. From generation to generation there had been heaping up a terrible punishment for the rejecters of light and truth. This the enemies of Christ were now drawing down upon their own heads. The sin of the priests and rulers was greater than that of any preceding generation. By their rejection of the Saviour, they were making themselves responsible for the blood of all the righteous men slain from Abel to Christ. They were about to fill to overflowing their cup of iniquity. And soon it was to be poured upon their heads in retributive justice. Of this, Jesus warned them: ‘That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.’ [Matthew 23:35] …

“Divine pity marked the countenance of the Son of God as He cast one lingering look upon the temple and then upon His hearers. In a voice choked by deep anguish of heart and bitter tears He exclaimed, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’ This is the separation struggle. In the lamentation of Christ the very heart of God is pouring itself forth. It is the mysterious farewell of the long-suffering love of the Deity….

“Israel as a nation had divorced herself from God. The natural branches of the olive tree were broken off. Looking for the last time upon the interior of the temple, Jesus said with mournful pathos, ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ Hitherto He had called the temple His Father’s house; but now, as the Son of God should pass out from those walls, God’s presence would be withdrawn forever from the temple built to His glory. Henceforth its ceremonies would be meaningless, its services a mockery.”[2]

We can grasp the rich meaning of this prophecy by looking at the gospels when Messiah the Prince came and was cut off. The gospels fill in the details of the exact time this final week would begin and this “midst” or midpoint would occur. It began at the anointing of the Messiah. At its middle, Jesus was crucified at Passover.

The leaders of the chosen nation of Israel and the rabble that followed brought Jesus to His death. They railed against the Messiah, bringing to an end the sacrifices and oblations that had grown ever more burdensome by tradition.

And that brings us to one of the most important and, unfortunately, opinion-filled issues. What did Jesus mean when He said:

1.  The blood of the righteous will come against that generation in Jesus’ day (Matthew 23:33-36) as part of a severance “woe” or curse?

2.  “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:38)?

3.  “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matthew 21:43)?

There is no other conclusion that one can come to – the Jewish nation would cease to be God’s chosen people. When? When Messiah the Prince was “cut off” – the guilt of millenniums fell on that people. They were, as a nation, to bear an eternal curse.

Missing that point has brought in terrible misunderstanding and woe to the Protestant and virtually all of the evangelical world. Here’s why. Gabriel told Daniel several minutes ago that 490 years were “determined” or decreed for “thy people” to become holy and have everything ready for a Jubilee restoration. Daniel’s people “blew it.” Their probation ended at the cross. That was 31 A.D. That was three and a half years short of the 490 years. And – that’s a problem many expositors simply ignore or find fertile ground upon which to speculate.

“The once favored people of God were separating themselves from Him, and were fast becoming a people disowned by Jehovah. When Christ upon the cross cried out, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30), and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, the Holy Watcher declared that the Jewish people had rejected Him who was the antitype of all their types, the substance of all their shadows. Israel was divorced from God. Well might Caiaphas then rend his official robes, which signified that he claimed to be a representative of the great High Priest; for no longer had they any meaning for him or for the people. Well might the high priest rend his robes in horror for himself and for the nation.”[3]

Before we can finish this verse, this issue must be explored in greater depth. The verse finishes with comments related to the end of the wicked people. The matter of perfecting a holy people and the completion of the covenant is not commented on further in chapters 8–12. But enough hints will be given from Gabriel and twice more by Jesus in person to tell us that the details of the last part of the three and a half years will be unfolded in the book of Revelation.

Recall – this is all part of the mareh vision, which was not sealed. Yet, its revelation was “cut short” at the “cutting off” of Jesus. There is simply no contextual gymnastics or linguistic exposition that can add to what is not. The nation of Israel ceased to be God’s holy people at the cross. What do we do with the last three and a half years? It is not discussed in Daniel 9! Jesus personally returns to tell what will happen in the last three and a half years – the final time of the prince of this world – all in Daniel 12.

A probation is put on hold. That will be our study in the next chapter.