Abomination of Desolation? 🤔

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“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” Matthew 24:15-16

What is the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION 😈 and what did Jesus mean when he cited Daniel with this phrase? Think about it for a moment. Does it really make sense that Jesus reference of Daniel would point to anything other than the events which were relatively near on the historical stage?

After all, what good would it have done? Those people to whom he was speaking in the first century, many of whom were seeing him for the last time before his death, doesn't it just make more sense that he was giving them instructions that would directly help them in the days and years to come, as opposed to making a grocery list of super signs for a future generation that really wouldn't understand what he was talking about anyway?

In terms of Jesus' citation from Daniel, it was Daniel himself who most clearly prophesied the destruction of the Jewish temple 🔥 in the time immediately following the coming of the Messiah about this. He very clearly says, “the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:27).

Keep in mind that these words were spoken during a time where the temple lay in ruins because of its destruction by the Babylonians. Therefore, Daniel had to be speaking about a future temple and for him a future destruction. This is a spot-on prediction of what happened in the first century when the Roman emperor of Vespasian sent his son Titus, to finish the conquest of Israel, that he as Vespasian started as Nero's General a few years earlier. In other words, think of it like this: Titus, the son of the emperor (the “prince”) of the Roman people (the “people to come” from Daniel's perspective), overtook the city Jerusalem and destroyed the sanctuary, including all of the temple.

It's in this context that Daniel utilizes the expression, the “abomination of desolation,” and that's why it seems much more reasonable to see Jesus' words to his hearers as a warning that within their lifetime, Jerusalem and Israel would be left in ruin. It's like he was saying to them, “Look, I'm not going to be with you much longer, and the things that were written about long ago are about to take place. So, when you see the sign of Daniel spoken, of flee to the surrounding countryside!”

This makes much more sense as far as the phrase, the abomination of desolation. We can be assured that the ancient readers would not have taken this only to refer to the setting up of a physical image in the holy place of the temple. After all these things did take place, both during the Roman siege and after it was destroyed when they set up a temple to Jupiter. Yet this abomination also refers to all of the things that would precede the temple's destruction, such as the assailing of the city of Jerusalem by foreign armies.

But what do you think:

Do you think we will see an “abomination of desolation” in our lifetime?

How can history help us to better interpret Biblical prophecy?

How can a right understanding of Biblical prophecy help us in our Christian walk today AND give us more hope for the future?

Watch the Video 👉 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ah3o2oCllzE