What we read in Daniel 9:26–27 happens after the sixty-two weeks. The temple is rebuilt. By then Cyrus will have died. Thus, when an anointed one
is mentioned now, it no longer refers to Cyrus but to the Messiah. God’s people have been worshipping the Lord in the temple for a long time. After this time an anointed one appears again. This is not the same anointed one
as in Daniel 9:25. This person lives in a different period than the first one.
The anointed one of Daniel 9:26 indeed refers to Christ. When the Lord Jesus is born, the last week has started. He grows up and journeys throughout Israel to bring the gospel of the kingdom everywhere, in order to present himself as the promised Messiah. He points to himself as the man of true peace, the man who brings eternal salvation to sinners. He is anointed to atone for sins. The sacrifices offered in the temple have always and repeatedly pointed to him. They pointed to the anointed one who is coming to work true and eternal peace with God.
What is going to happen to this anointed one? He “shall be cut off, but not for himself (NKJV; other translations read here: and he shall have nothing
). Here Gabriel is prophesying about the condemnation and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. The covenant people will then have fallen so deep into sin that they even kill the Son of God, the Saviour. He let this happen to him. He had all the power to prevent it, but he does not. In no way does he seek himself. This anointed one is killed while he is completely innocent. He sacrifices himself. He does not die for himself but only for others—to save them from the eternal punishment they deserve. In this way he earns forgiveness for believers and a life of glory with the Lord.
More than 500 years before these events, Gabriel (talking to Daniel here) shares what will happen. A foreign king will come with his armies. The number of soldiers will be so great that it may be compared to a flood. These soldiers will not disappear. They will not stop the war until Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed. It will be this way until the destruction that the Romans have then decided to carry out is actually carried out fully. The Romans moved up against Jerusalem in 70 AD, that is, about forty years after Christ’s death on the cross. The reason was that the Jews had rebelled against the Romans. The Romans then decided to act as a destroyer. It was Titus who at that time fought against the Jews with many troops. He marched with his armies against Jerusalem and left a trail of horror and misery in the Jewish country. The judgment of the Lord would then be carried out all the way, to the end. The Lord will even intervene to such an extent that he will see to it that, by force of arms, the sacrifices in the temple will come to an end. Gabriel tells about this definitive end in Daniel 9:26b and Daniel 9:27b.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.