THE DESOLATOR

DANIEL 9:27b – this is where it gets tricky!...                               

We must put aside our Christian pre-conceptions and read this with Daniel, a Jewish prince recording divine prophecy for his people and their holy city Jerusalem...

“On the wing of detestable things the desolator (shamem) will come and continue until the already decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator (shamem).”          (Jewish Publication Service version of the TANAKH (OT)

Mmm...very strange !        

What does ‘greatly beloved’ Daniel, elder statesman of Persia, know so far?                           

• The 2^nd temple must soon be built, only to be defiled by some tyrant (Antiochus Epiphanes) during the coming Greek Empire.
• This time-line from reconstruction of Jerusalem leaves Messiah ‘cut off’ after 483 years!
• The city and temple will be destroyed for a SECOND time!... probably by that 4^th dreadful empire (Rome)
• To cap it off, THIS SAME EMPIRE will sometime in the distant future make a 7 year pact with Daniel’s people but break it halfway thru, stopping the sacrifices i.e. there must be a THIRD TEMPLE built!... and be in place during the days when they make a pact with the Gentiles!

This unholy ‘covenant’ must be appalling to a godly Jew like Daniel, and here it is in Isaiah 28:18... “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are in agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass thru, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”

Now he learns that... in place of sacrifices there comes a DESOLATOR (shamem)  introducing what is overwhelming (kanaph) and detestable (shiqquts) – until he gets his just desserts.

Yes, Messiah has been violently done away with, in favour of what is utterly disgusting – only briefly though! Everlasting righteousness must come next!

There are 3 persons here, in fact 4!...

• Messiah is the star player
• ‘the prince that shall come’ (Vespasian)...and TWO OTHERS, unnamed and obscure:
• the ‘he’- another Gentile leader confirming a covenant, and...
• this DESOLATOR.

No wonder Daniel says nothing - he must be absolutely gobsmacked.