The Greatest Prophecy Ever Fulfilled

The Greatest Prophecy Ever Fulfilled.

The 70th Week of Daniel.

By L.R. Shelton.

Message #8.

We come now in our continued message on the general theme, THE GREATEST PROPHECY EVER FULFILLED, to the last verse of Daniel 9. Listen to verse, 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."

We have come now to see the fulfillment of the 70th week of Daniel. We shall see the consummation of the purpose of God, the climax of all prophecy, the supreme event of all ages, which was the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory. You see it was by His accomplished eternal redemption that He opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness, sealed the everlasting covenant, and set aside forever the sacrifices appointed by the law.

Also, in His atoning death upon the cross, by His resurrection and His ascension into heaven, our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fulfilled the six things given in verse 24. He, and He alone, could accomplish these things, to finish the transgression, make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy, and anoint the most Holy.

Oh, what a blessed climax is given us here in verse 27; a climax so great that the whole Bible speaks of it. We have here the eternal purpose of God, in giving His only begotten Son so that He might open the fountain of cleansing for His people, confirm the everlasting covenant with His people, and forever cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease by the sacrifice of Himself.

Listen now as we go into this verse! The first part reads, "AND HE SHALL CONFIRM THE COVENANT WITH MANY FOR ONE WEEK." Here we have the Messiah, the anointed One, opening up the everlasting covenant to many, to His people, during the 70th week, the one week left in this prophecy. The words "one week" do not refer to the duration of the covenant, but to the time when it was confirmed. You see, this covenant which He confirmed was an everlasting covenant, confirmed by the shedding of His own precious blood. Let me repeat it again, it was in the one week, the last of the seventy which had been determined, that our Lord "entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" and thereby opened up the everlasting covenant of grace for His people.

Now, how do we determine that this is the correct interpretation of this expression "He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week"? Well, first of all, we can eliminate the false interpretation which says that the person spoken of here is the antichrist who is to come, who is supposed to make a seven year covenant with the Jews which will allow them to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem and again offer animal sacrifices. What is not Scriptural must be discarded.

But, on the other hand, if you will apply the person "He" to the Messiah of verse, 26, then you will have an abundance of New Testament Scriptures that will perfectly show the fulfillment of this 27th verse. Also, if you will keep in mind that this prophecy is all about Christ. and that this 27th verse is the climax of it, then you will have no trouble in understanding this expression.

Let us look now at the New Testament Scriptures that bear out this verse and this view. Our Lord Himself said that this expression "He shall confirm the covenant with many" was fulfilled on the night of THE LAST SUPPER. He said in Matthew, 26,28 when He gave the cup to His disciples, "This is my blood of the New Covenant, shed for many for the remission of sins." If you will examine these words closely you will find four things which agree with the prophecy here in Daniel, 9,27. First, the One who was to confirm the covenant was Christ Himself; second, He speaks of the "New Covenant;" third, this covenant was confirmed by His own precious blood; and fourth, those who were to receive the benefits of the covenant were "many." This to me is very plain and corresponds perfectly with the words of our prophecy—"He shall confirm the covenant with many."

Now, how do we know that our Lord brought in an everlasting covenant of grace which, here in Matthew,, 26,28, is called the "New Covenant"? The Book of Hebrews brings this out so beautifully in chapters 8 & 10. In Hebrews, 8,8thru13; & 10,15thru17, the writer quotes from Jeremiah 31,31 thru 34, and shows that Messiah, the Christ, would by His death and resurrection bring to light God's everlasting covenant of grace and that the prominent feature of this covenant is the forgiveness of sins. You see, the most significant thing of our Lord's mission in coming into the world was to save His people from their sins" (Matthew,, 1,21), and this is the prominent feature of His gospel (Luke 24,47).

Here, in Hebrews, 8,8 thru 13, we have the wording of the covenant confirmed with many, by His blood shedding at Calvary. "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, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 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."

How do we know that this new covenant is the everlasting covenant of grace brought to light by our Blessed Lord at the last supper, confirmed in His blood shedding, and is the same one spoken of in Jeremiah, 31 and Hebrews, 8? Listen to Hebrews, 13,20! "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will." You see. God only had two covenants; the covenant of works, that He made with Adam; and the covenant of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ brought in when He came into the world to die for sinners. The covenant of works the children of Israel had broken, and so have you and I. If there had never been a new covenant, if it had not been an everlasting covenant, then you and I would have never been saved. But it is a covenant of grace, signed and sealed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how blessed and precious this is to know that the great Shepherd of the sheep has made and confirmed this covenant with many, and that it is an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.

Let us take this thought further. Although the promise which we read in Hebrews concerning the new covenant was made to the entire "house of Israel and house of Judah," not all of them entered into its benefits. Those who rejected Christ were "destroyed from among the people" (Acts 3,23). They were, as branches, "broken off" (Romans, 11,17). We see then the accuracy of Scripture in the Words of the prophecy that He would "confirm the covenant with many," and in the words of Jesus that "His blood was shed for many.''

Dear friend, this word "MANY", is used in quite a few places to show this same truth. In Isaiah, 53,11 we read, "My righteous servant shall justify many." Again, in Luke 1, 16, "And many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God." Also, in Luke 2,34, we hear Simeon saying when he saw the child Jesus, "This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel." Again, our Lord Jesus said in Matthew, 20,28, "For the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Also, in Romans, 5, 19, where our blessed Lord Jesus is set forth as the Federal Head of the spiritual race, it is said of Him, "So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." So we see that in each of these Scriptures the word "many" applies to those who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ and the benefits of the New Covenant which our Lord made sure by the shedding of His precious blood upon the cross.

With such an abundance of Scriptural proof, should we not praise the living God for His new covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace, and Him who came down from heaven's heights to earth's depths to confirm it unto our never dying souls?

The next expression that we need to look at in this 27th verse of Daniel 9 is, "IN THE MIDST OF THE WEEK." Now, as we have seen in our past studies, the 69th week, or 483 years, brought us up to the anointing of our Lord Jesus as the Christ of God in the river Jordan at His baptism by John the Baptist when He began His earthly ministry. So we know from this that the 70th week began here and that our Lord's earthly ministry lasted 3 one half years. Therefore, it was in the midst of the week "that Messiah was cut off, but not for himself;" He was cut off, He was crucified, he was slain, for the sins of His people, for the "many" to whom the covenant was confirmed.

Oh how precious then is this prophecy, for in it we are told of the coming of Messiah, the glory He would get by the sacrifice of Himself for the sins of His people, and the everlasting covenant of grace which would be opened up to us, that covenant of grace ordered in all things and sure.

One other thing I would like to bring out before we close this message is this, the Jews of Christ's day were without excuse for not believing, trusting in, following and falling down before Him in obedience and praise, for this GREATEST PROPHECY EVER FULFILLED told them the very year He would come and what He would do. It even told them that He would be cut off, yet they believed Him not, but were the very instruments used to put Him to death. No wonder Paul told the crowd in his sermon at Antioch in Acts 13,27, "For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him."

So dear friend, you who have been brought up to hear and read the Word of God, and have heard over and over again the way of salvation, if you continue in your unbelief, shall have no excuse in the day of judgment for not closing with Christ and believing Him to the saving of your soul.

The woe pronounced upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, shall one day be pronounced upon every Christ rejecter, "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell, for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee" (Matthew,, 11,23thru24).