OCT 30 

Daniel 9:27
Memorise Matthew 24:15
“whoso readeth, let him understand”

With the cutting off of the Messiah, the “prophetic clock” seems to have stopped ticking. In Daniel’s “prophescope” what is in the distant future is brought into focus, viz the last or 70th week. The prince mentioned in Daniel 9:26 (different from Messiah the Prince in verse 25, who is Christ) is the Antichrist, the last World Dictator: “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week”. Commentators generally say this covenant is with the Jews, but we view that it is with Gentile powers too, as many as come within his orbit. In this covenant he brings Jews and Arabs together. This event will signal the beginning of the 7 year period of the Great Tribulation, which as we have seen earlier, is divided into two 3½ year periods. This first 3½ year period will be a time of relative peace, as the world comes unto the global rule of the Antichrist, and a diplomatic solution is sought in the Middle East. 

But after 3½ years, in the middle of the week, the Antichrist will cause “the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.” Bible students generally conclude that since the Old Testament sacrifices will be revived, the Temple will have been rebuilt by this time. There are others who do not necessarily see it as a prediction of an actual Temple being rebuilt, but that a compromise will somehow be sought and that offerings will be allowed to be made in accordance to the Jewish law. Whatever the case may be, what we do know is that this breaking of the covenant and the abomination that the Antichrist will commit will certainly shatter the fragile peace that would have been established in the Middle East.

What will then follow is a redoubling of Satan’s efforts against the Jews, which will result in intensifying persecution against them. This second half of the tribulation will thus really be a time where Israel is troubled, as was prophesised by Jeremiah, who called it the time of “Jacob’s Trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). Yet it will end with victory for Christ, for at the end of this seven years (the consummation), a determined judgement will be poured down upon the Antichrist (the desolate) – referring to the final battle of the Armageddon that we shall read about later.

Thought: Follow Christ, not Antichrist.
Prayer: Lord, Thou art my Shepherd, and as a faithful sheep I want to follow Thee always.