The ten women in this parable all expect the bridegroom to arrive. They carry lamps, wait through the delay, and get up when his arrival is announced. Yet five enter the wedding and five are shut outside. When I read that, I have to consider more than whether I look like someone waiting for Christ. It is possible to know Christian language and share in church life without having personally trusted the Savior everyone is talking about.
Matthew 24 Leads into the Wedding Scene
Jesus gave this parable in Matthew 25:1-13 while teaching His disciples on the Mount of Olives. They had asked about the temple’s destruction, His coming, and the end of the age. We commonly call this teaching the Olivet Discourse because of where He delivered it.
In Matthew 24, Jesus warned of deception and persecution, described the coming Tribulation, and spoke of His bodily return in glory. He assured the disciples that His words would be fulfilled without telling them the exact hour. Immediately before the wedding parable, He describes a faithful servant who continues his master’s work and an evil servant who uses the apparent delay as an excuse for cruelty and self-indulgence. Jesus continues to address readiness during the wait in the parable of the ten virgins.
I believe Christ will gather His church before the seven-year Tribulation and later return bodily in glory to reign. The study on the rapture explains the wider biblical grounds for that understanding. This parable does not, by itself, identify every prophetic group or establish every step in that sequence. It does warn us about real preparation for His coming. We could explain a prophetic chart correctly and still evade the question of whether we belong to Him.
The virgins are unmarried young women serving as wedding attendants. They go out to welcome the bridegroom, with lamps for the procession at night. Jesus does not describe them as enemies trying to disrupt the wedding. All ten have a place among those expecting him, and anyone watching them wait might assume they were equally prepared.
The call, “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” uses the Greek word apantesis for “meet.” It describes a meeting, and here the attendants are going out to welcome the bridegroom.
We do not need to reconstruct every detail of an ancient wedding to follow what Jesus says. The bridegroom’s arrival takes longer than expected, the attendants need light when he comes, and the door to the feast eventually closes. The promised joy of Christ’s people is considered further in the study on the marriage supper of the Lamb. Here, the celebration makes the exclusion especially dreadful: these women expected to enter, but their expectation alone did not admit them.
The Lamps Look Alike, but the Oil Reveals the Difference
Jesus calls five attendants wise and five foolish. Although all ten carry lamps, only the wise bring oil in vessels along with them. Before any midnight announcement, Jesus has already told us what will separate the two groups.
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
Matthew 25:4-5
All ten grow drowsy and sleep, so physical sleep cannot be the failure that excludes the foolish women. The wise sleep too, without becoming unprepared, because they have already brought what they will need. Jesus is not asking us to live in constant agitation, afraid to grow tired or rest.
In Matthew 7:24, Jesus calls the person who hears His words and acts on them wise. He is speaking about obedience, not merely intelligence. The wise attendants had considered what welcoming the bridegroom would require and brought the oil their lamps needed. They had done more than assume that carrying a lamp would be enough.
I understand the lamps as picturing the profession other people can see. Two people may sit beside each other in church, sing the same words, and both speak comfortably about Christ’s return. That tells us what they profess, but it does not establish that both have been born again. We need to distinguish what someone says about belonging to Christ from the new life God actually gives.
The oil represents the readiness the foolish lack. Some interpreters identify it with prayer, good works, Bible knowledge, or church involvement. Those things have their proper place, but none can produce regeneration, which means being born again. A person can pray often while trusting his own religious effort, or learn Scripture while refusing to trust the Christ it reveals. Doing another religious task cannot substitute for receiving life from Him.
Elsewhere in Scripture, oil is associated with consecration, or being set apart for God, and with His enabling work. Zechariah’s lampstand vision includes this message for Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts. Zerubbabel had laid the temple’s foundation, and God promised that he would finish the rebuilding. That promise of the Spirit’s help is one reason I connect the oil here with the spiritual life God supplies, though Jesus does not explicitly say that the oil is the Holy Spirit. Ephesians gives us a direct statement about the Spirit’s work in those who believe.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14
The believer hears the gospel, believes in Christ, and is sealed with the Holy Spirit. This is something God does within a person, not something supplied by his place in a religious gathering. I therefore understand the parable to expose a profession that lacks genuine new life, rather than describe a born-again person losing the Spirit. We should read the imagery alongside these clear statements about salvation, without turning every detail of a lamp into a separate doctrine.
The study on lamps being filled with oil examines that wider imagery. In this parable, the practical failure is already plain: the foolish have not brought what they will need when the bridegroom arrives.
The Delay Tests What the Attendants Possess
The bridegroom is delayed from the attendants’ point of view. Jesus is not suggesting that Christ has missed an appointment or lost control of His return. We are the ones who do not know how long the wait will be. The apparent delay gives no one permission to assume His promise has failed.
Someone may continue attending church because his family expects it or because his friends are there, without personally trusting Christ. Another person may point to a powerful past experience whenever the question of faith comes up. Those associations and experiences may persuade others that a person belongs to Christ, but neither a familiar routine nor a vivid memory proves that he has been made new. The delay does not create the lack Jesus is exposing; the foolish attendants were unprepared before the wait began.
At midnight, the waiting attendants are awakened by a cry. That hour brings surprise into the parable; it does not predict a date for Christ’s return or a coded stage of the Tribulation. They cannot choose a more convenient moment to get ready.
And at midnight a cry was heard: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
Matthew 25:6-7
When the announcement wakes them, all ten begin preparing their lamps. The foolish ask for oil because their lamps are going out, as Matthew 25:8 says. Unlike the wise, they have no supply to replenish their lamps.
Borrowed Oil Cannot Open a Shut Door
The wise women answer that dividing their oil could leave both groups without enough. We cannot use their refusal as permission to be selfish toward someone in need. Jesus is showing that the foolish have reached a moment when another person’s preparation cannot make up for their own neglect.
The foolish women leave to buy oil, but the bridegroom arrives while they are away. Those who are ready enter the wedding with him, and the door is shut before their companions return.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” But he answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.”
Matthew 25:10-12
The foolish know whom to address, call him “Lord,” and ask to enter. His answer, “I do not know you,” does not mean he is confused about who is standing outside. They expect him to welcome them as part of his company, but he refuses to recognize that claim. Knowing about the wedding and addressing him correctly cannot make them belong to him.
Matthew 7 contains a similar warning. People say, “Lord, Lord,” and point to impressive religious activity, yet Christ answers, “I never knew you.” His words do not describe people He once knew and then forgot. Luke 13 likewise describes people shut outside who appeal to having eaten and drunk in His presence and heard Him teach. In each passage, being near the Lord’s works and words has been mistaken for belonging to Him.
A Christian parent can teach a child Scripture and pray for him for years, but that parent cannot believe in Christ on the child’s behalf. A faithful husband or wife can be a strong witness without being able to give the other spouse new life. The church can proclaim the gospel, open Scripture with people, and urge them to respond. These are valuable gifts from God, but each person must personally trust the Savior to whom they point.
The wise attendants’ advice to go and buy oil does not mean that salvation can be purchased. Paul states plainly how we receive it.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
Isaiah 55 also invites the thirsty to buy without money and without price. God supplies what sinners cannot earn. The foolish attendants are trying to obtain oil after the arrival has been announced. Jesus is not teaching us to purchase the Holy Spirit or earn a place at the feast through last-minute religious effort.
I find the closed door sobering because Jesus leaves no promise of another opportunity after it shuts. God’s patience must not be mistaken for permission to postpone repentance indefinitely. But we are hearing the warning before that final exclusion. Jesus tells us now so that we will come to Him, rather than rely on a religious reputation until it is too late.
Watchfulness Rests on Christ, Not Panic
Jesus ends with an instruction to watch because we do not know the day or hour.
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Matthew 25:13
The Greek verb gregoreo means to watch or remain alert. Since the wise attendants slept along with the foolish, the command cannot require literal sleeplessness. Jesus calls us to be prepared for His coming. Guessing dates or panicking at each alarming headline does not accomplish that.
The faithful servant in Matthew 24 keeps doing his master’s work. The wise attendants in Matthew 25 have brought their oil before the announcement comes. Neither example requires constant emotional intensity or sinless performance, but both challenge the assumption that a delay lets us disregard the Master. I am responsible for how I live today even when His return does not feel immediate.
That responsibility includes telling the truth and keeping my promises when it would be convenient not to. It includes forgiving someone instead of preserving my resentment, and serving the people God has already put before me. We keep listening to Scripture, confessing sin instead of hiding it, and gathering with believers who help us obey the Lord. These are expressions of genuine faith; they neither purchase salvation nor keep us saved.
Some readers worry that this parable means a true believer may lose salvation at the last moment. I do not understand it that way. The foolish attendants failed to bring the needed supply from the outset; the bridegroom is not described as taking it away from them. More directly, Jesus promises to keep those who truly belong to Him.
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:28
His sheep receive eternal life, and He promises that they will never perish. In 1 Peter 1:5, Peter also says believers are kept by God’s power through faith, while Paul describes them as sealed with the Holy Spirit. My assurance rests on Christ and His promises, not on whether I can sustain a feeling of readiness every hour.
At the same time, Scripture warns about people whose place among believers concealed their rejection of Christ. John describes such a departure in his first letter.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
1 John 2:19
John is speaking about antichrists who deny Jesus as the Christ, not declaring that anyone who leaves a particular congregation was never saved. Their departure exposed a rejection of the Son that their former association had concealed. The warning applies to religious profession without genuine faith; it gives us no excuse to question someone’s salvation merely because he no longer attends our church.
So I need to examine what I am depending on. A Christian family, a moral reputation, and years of ministry cannot give us the new life Christ provides. Neither can a powerful emotion from the past. We should look for the fruit of new life in our conduct, but that fruit is evidence of His work, not the price of acceptance. A believer who grieves over sin and turns to Christ should not read this parable as a command to despair.
If the parable exposes an empty profession, come to the Savior now. Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, who lived without sin. Wicked people tortured Him and put Him to death, but He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the sinless, perfect sacrifice for our sins. He completed that saving work through His shed blood and death before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son acted in unity to save us.
Christ died for the whole world, and God’s offer of salvation is genuine for every person. His grace can be resisted, and people can finally reject Him. But everyone who repents and trusts in Jesus is forgiven and born again as a new creation. The Holy Spirit lives within that believer and seals him, and his salvation is eternally secure in Christ. That assurance never gives permission for lawlessness, and merely claiming it does not prove a person has been converted.
The answer to false assurance is to trust Christ Himself. He receives those who come to Him, and His warning calls us to respond while the opportunity remains.
My Final Thoughts
I do not want to become so familiar with Christian life that I stop considering whether my confidence is actually in Christ. The foolish attendants were near the wedding and expected to enter, but expectation did not supply what they had neglected. Jesus gives this warning while we can still respond to Him. Those who belong to Him can rest in His promise to keep them, without using that assurance to excuse disobedience. We do not know when He will come, but we can trust Him and take seriously what He has given us to do today.
Daniel was praying for Jerusalem when Gabriel brought an answer that reached well beyond the end of the Babylonian captivity. Jerusalem would be rebuilt, Messiah would come and be cut off, and the city would face another devastating destruction. I understand the seventy weeks as 490 years, with sixty-nine weeks leading to Messiah and one future seven-year period still to be fulfilled.
Daniel’s Prayer and the Seventy Sevens
In the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel was reading Jeremiah’s prophecy about the seventy years appointed for Jerusalem’s desolations. Although Babylon had fallen, Jerusalem’s temple still lay desolate, and Daniel remained far from home. Jeremiah 25 and 29 gave him reason to expect the captivity to end. He understood those seventy years as an actual period, and he turned to God in prayer as the promised restoration drew near.
In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
Daniel 9:2-3, NKJV
Knowing what God had promised gave Daniel a reason to pray. He accepted that Israel’s exile was the consequence of its disobedience, and he asked God to show the mercy He had promised. Daniel repeatedly said “we” as he confessed the nation’s rebellion. Verse 20 also says he confessed his own sin, so we should not picture him as a faultless observer listing everyone else’s failures. If studying prophecy leaves me quick to condemn other people while making excuses for myself, I am responding very differently from Daniel.
Daniel asked for forgiveness as well as the restoration of Jerusalem. Bringing people back to their land could not, by itself, resolve their guilt before God. Jerusalem and the sanctuary bore God’s name, yet they lay desolate while His people had become a reproach among the nations. Daniel appealed to God’s mercy and asked Him to act for His own name’s sake, because Israel had no righteous record with which to plead its case.
“O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
Daniel 9:18-19, NKJV
Gabriel reached Daniel while he was still praying, about the time of the evening offering. The temple was desolate, but Daniel still identified the hour by the worship that belonged there. Gabriel explained that the command had gone out when Daniel began his supplications. God had heard him before he finished speaking, and the answer included much more than the approaching end of captivity.
Gabriel came to give Daniel “skill to understand” and told him to consider the message carefully. The answer concerned the very people and city Daniel had been praying about: Israel and Jerusalem. Gabriel called them “your people” and “your holy city.”
At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision: Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city.
Daniel 9:23-24, NKJV
The Hebrew shavu’im, translated “weeks,” is the plural of a word for a period of seven. A week ordinarily measures seven days, but the word can also describe a seven-year period. Daniel had been reading about years, and the events Gabriel described extend far beyond seventy ordinary weeks. I understand these as seventy sevens of years, totaling 490 years.
Those years are “determined,” meaning decreed or allotted. Gabriel was announcing a period God had appointed, rather than offering Daniel his best estimate. He also specified Israel and Jerusalem. Messiah would bring salvation to people of every nation, but that wider blessing does not turn this particular answer into a general outline of church history.
The Six Goals and the Starting Command
Gabriel first explained what God would accomplish through the seventy weeks. Daniel had asked about a ruined city and a sinful people. The answer addressed both the guilt that had brought Israel into exile and the lasting righteousness that rebuilding a city could never produce on its own.
Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
Daniel 9:24, NKJV
Transgression emphasizes Israel’s rebellion against God’s authority, while sin describes its failure to live according to His righteous standard. Iniquity includes the crookedness of that conduct and the guilt it brought. These were the people who had disregarded His commands and refused the prophets He sent to warn them, so their problem could not be solved merely by winning back control of their land.
To “finish the transgression” and “make an end of sins” therefore involve far more than a change in government. I understand these promises to look ahead to God’s final answer to Israel’s rebellion, rather than to claim that no one sins in the present age. Reconciliation for iniquity requires that the guilt itself be answered, and Christ’s atoning work provides that reconciliation. Returning to Jerusalem could not accomplish what only the Messiah could do for sinners.
Everlasting righteousness also reaches beyond the reforms of a conscientious king. Jerusalem had experienced reforms before, only to return to the sins those reforms opposed. Even the return from Babylon would not establish permanent righteousness. Gabriel’s promise looks ahead to Messiah’s righteous kingdom and the enduring order He will establish. To “seal up vision and prophecy” looks to their fulfillment, when the events God foretold have come to pass.
The final phrase, “to anoint the Most Holy,” has been understood as referring to Messiah Himself or to a holy place consecrated for worship. Readers differ over which is intended, since the phrase names neither Messiah nor a particular sanctuary. Anointing sets apart the person or place for God’s purpose. I leave that identification open here while recognizing that the anointing belongs to the completion Gabriel announced.
Christ’s death provides the atonement on which this promised future depends, but I do not understand all six goals as having been completed at the cross. The rest of the prophecy describes a sequence that includes Jerusalem’s rebuilding, Messiah’s death, further destruction, and the final week. We need to follow that sequence before deciding where each part reaches its fulfillment.
The starting point is a command to restore and build Jerusalem. Gabriel specifically mentions the city’s street and wall, so a decree concerning the temple alone does not settle the question.
Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.
Daniel 9:25, NKJV
Ezra 1, 6, and 7 record Persian decrees concerning the Jewish return, the temple, and the restoration of worship. Those decrees deserve consideration, but I find the commission in Nehemiah 2 the clearest fit for Gabriel’s description. Nehemiah approached King Artaxerxes about rebuilding his fathers’ city, whose walls were broken down and whose gates had been burned.
And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”
Nehemiah 2:5, NKJV
Artaxerxes granted Nehemiah’s request, providing letters for his journey and permission to obtain timber for the work. Nehemiah and the people then faced determined opposition while restoring Jerusalem’s defenses. A commission directed at the city itself, followed by rebuilding under those hostile conditions, fits the street, wall, and troublesome times Gabriel described.
Sixty-Nine Weeks to Messiah the Prince
The period from the command to Messiah is divided into seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Seven sevens give us forty-nine years, and sixty-two sevens give us another 434, totaling 483 years. I understand the first division as the initial period of Jerusalem’s restoration, followed by the longer period leading to Messiah.
Some calculations use prophetic years of 360 days. There is a biblical reason for considering that model: Revelation 12 describes the woman’s protection as 1,260 days and as a time, times, and half a time, while Revelation 13 gives the beast authority for forty-two months. Those matching measures support reckoning three and one-half years as forty-two months of thirty days each. On that basis, 483 years amount to 173,880 days.
Traditional calculations using this approach place the end of the sixty-nine weeks at Jesus’ public presentation to Israel. The calculation still depends on identifying the starting decree and making decisions about ancient dates and calendars. Daniel does not supply a modern calendar date, and we should explain those decisions when presenting one. Nor does this model require us to claim that every ancient civil year contained exactly 360 days.
Gabriel’s instruction to “know therefore and understand” includes both the measured time and the person to whom it leads: “Messiah the Prince.” Messiah is the Hebrew title for the Anointed One; the Greek title Christ has the same meaning. Gabriel was announcing the coming of the promised ruler with the right to reign.
Jesus, the Son of David, is that Messiah. Luke 19 records His public approach to Jerusalem, where His disciples praised Him as King because of the mighty works they had seen.
Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Luke 19:37-38, NKJV
As Jesus drew near, He also wept over Jerusalem. His disciples were praising Him as King, yet the city would reject Him and suffer the judgment He foretold. Luke says Jerusalem did not recognize the time of its visitation. I find it sobering that the King whose arrival we discuss in terms of years and decrees was grieving over the people who would refuse Him. He knew what lay ahead for the city as He continued toward the cross.
Messiah Cut Off and Jerusalem Destroyed
After the sixty-nine weeks, the Messiah with the right to reign would be put to death. Gabriel placed His death before describing another attack on Jerusalem and its sanctuary.
And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
Daniel 9:26, NKJV
The NKJV’s words “but not for Himself” direct my attention to the innocent Messiah dying for others. He had no sin of His own that required His death. Isaiah 53 explains that the righteous Servant would suffer for people who had turned away from God.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6, NKJV
Jesus is the eternal Son who became fully man without ceasing to be fully God. Born of a virgin, He lived without sin. He gave Himself willingly to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, enduring the torture and crucifixion inflicted by wicked men. Father and Son acted in unity; the Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. His shed blood and death completed the work of redemption before His burial and bodily resurrection.
Christ died for the whole world and is the propitiation for the whole world. Propitiation means that His sacrifice provides the sufficient answer to sin so that sinners can be reconciled to God. God genuinely offers salvation to every sinner, though people can resist His grace and refuse to believe. When someone turns to Christ in repentance and faith, God forgives and justifies that person, declaring him righteous through faith. He is regenerated, meaning genuinely born again. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within him and seals him, securing him eternally in Christ.
That security does not give us permission to live however we please. Someone can call himself a Christian without having been born again, and his conduct may contradict the faith he professes. Good works show the reality of that new life; they neither earn salvation nor keep us saved. I need to receive the Messiah who died for sinners, rather than assume that knowing how His death fits into a prophecy is the same as trusting Him.
After foretelling Messiah’s death, Gabriel spoke of “the people of the prince who is to come” destroying the city and sanctuary. Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70. Jesus had warned His hearers to recognize the approaching desolation when armies surrounded the city.
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.
Luke 21:20, NKJV
Gabriel distinguished the coming prince from the people who carried out that destruction. He did not say the future prince personally led the attack on Jerusalem. The Romans destroyed it, and the prophecy associates them with a ruler still to come. I understand this as a connection between the future ruler and Roman power. It does not identify him with a particular modern politician or alliance.
Destruction “with a flood” portrays Jerusalem being overwhelmed. The invasion fulfilled a judgment God had announced, but that did not make the soldiers’ cruelty righteous or remove their responsibility for it. Daniel had confessed that God’s judgment through Babylon was just. Recognizing that justice does not make Babylon innocent of its violence, and the same distinction applies when we consider what Rome did to Jerusalem.
Daniel places Messiah’s death and Jerusalem’s destruction “after” the sixty-nine weeks. The destruction in AD 70 falls well beyond seven years immediately following Jesus’ death. I read these events as belonging to an interval before the remaining week, rather than assuming that the seventieth week began as soon as the sixty-ninth ended. The arithmetic shows that seven years remain, but it does not establish when they begin. My reason for placing that final week in the future also rests on the ruler described next and the later prophecies about his actions.
The Final Week and the Abomination
The final verse describes a covenant confirmed with many for one week. Using the same measure as the earlier weeks, this is a seven-year period. At its midpoint, sacrifice and offering are stopped, and the prophecy describes abominations and desolation continuing until the decreed end.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.
Daniel 9:27, NKJV
I understand “he” to refer to the coming prince introduced in verse 26. Messiah has been cut off, the people of a future ruler have destroyed Jerusalem, and the next verse describes the covenant and destructive conduct of that ruler. His actions fit what Scripture elsewhere says about the Antichrist. For those reasons, I read this as the Antichrist’s covenant followed by his betrayal, rather than Christ confirming the New Covenant. Daniel says the covenant is with many; he does not give us its full terms.
The middle of a seven-year week leaves three and one-half years. I understand that latter half as the Great Tribulation, when the ruler openly blasphemes God and persecutes His people. Daniel’s references elsewhere to a time, times, and half a time correspond to that length. Revelation uses the matching measures discussed above: the holy city is trampled for forty-two months in Revelation 11, and the beast receives authority for forty-two months in Revelation 13. These are measured periods of suffering and defiance, not an indefinite stretch over which the ruler has unlimited control.
Stopping sacrifice and offering also requires a functioning sacrificial system. That prediction does not give those sacrifices the ability to remove sin. As Paul explains in Hebrews, Christ offered one sacrifice for sins forever. A future religious order cannot undo His atonement, add to it, or provide another way of salvation. Daniel is describing a practice the ruler will suppress and a holy place he will desecrate.
Jesus directed His hearers to Daniel when He warned about the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. He treated it as something they needed to understand and recognize.
Therefore when you see the “abomination of desolation,” spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand),
Matthew 24:15, NKJV
In His warning, the abomination was still ahead. I understand the final fulfillment in connection with the ruler Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians 2, who claims divine status in the temple. That is a particular act of sacrilege, far beyond a politician making an arrogant speech.
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, NKJV
The man of sin will try to usurp the worship owed to God. He will persecute people and desecrate the temple, but he will have no power to extend the time God has allotted him. Daniel closes by announcing the desolator’s decreed end, and Paul goes on to say that the Lord will destroy the lawless one. We should take the coming suffering seriously without becoming so preoccupied with the Antichrist that we overlook the certainty of his defeat.
Israel, the Church, and the Right Response
The references to Jerusalem, sacrifice, and the holy place return us to the concerns of Daniel’s prayer. He had prayed for Israel and the sanctuary on Jerusalem’s holy mountain, and Gabriel answered about those people and that city. I see no reason within the answer to change their identity halfway through it. The church receives salvation through Israel’s Messiah and shares in the spiritual blessings He purchased, but that does not require us to turn Jerusalem into a symbol for the church.
Romans 11 also looks ahead to Israel’s restoration. Paul describes a blindness in part that lasts “until” the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. It is partial, as Jewish people can and do believe in Jesus now, and Paul’s wording looks ahead to a future turning of Israel to the Lord. God has not canceled His promises because of the nation’s present unbelief. This does not create two gospels: Jews and Gentiles alike must receive Jesus Christ by faith.
I understand the present church age to fall within the interval before Daniel’s final week. The church will be gathered to Christ before the future seven-year Tribulation. After that period, Jesus will return bodily and establish His literal thousand-year reign. Daniel 9 supplies the framework of the seventy weeks; other passages explain the gathering of the church and the events surrounding Christ’s return. I am bringing those passages together, rather than claiming that these four verses contain every detail of the end-times timeline.
Reading the weeks as actual periods allows us to follow the rebuilding of a real city, the coming and death of Messiah, and the later destruction of Jerusalem. It does not authorize us to set a modern date for Christ’s return. If someone claims to have discovered that date, I want to know which calendar assumptions his calculation requires. He should make those assumptions plain instead of presenting them as Gabriel’s own words.
Daniel believed God’s promise and brought Israel’s need for forgiveness before Him. Knowing that a promised time was approaching gave him reason to pray earnestly. I should be willing to face my own disobedience just as honestly, rather than use confidence in Christ’s return to rationalize how I live now. The outcome God has announced also gives me reason to serve Him without panicking over every change of government.
My Final Thoughts
Daniel received this prophecy while asking God for mercy toward his people. We can work carefully through the numbers without losing that concern. Messiah came and died for sinners, and detailed knowledge of His coming cannot substitute for receiving Him in repentance and faith. If you have not trusted Christ, the Savior who shed His blood and rose bodily offers forgiveness you cannot earn. For those of us who belong to Him, the promises still awaiting fulfillment give us reason for patience and faithful obedience. God has not forgotten Israel or left the future at the mercy of the next powerful ruler. Christ will return and fulfill what He has promised.
