SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/22/2023 9:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Abomination of Desolation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 24:15
Message of the verse: “15 "So when you
see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in
the holy place (let the reader understand),”
I
continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary on this verse.
“In
Matthew 24-25 Jesus was speaking of that coming time of indescribable horror in
the world that will focus on the nation of Israel, a time of which Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Daniel, and Zechariah had already spoken in considerable detail. Although Israel
as a nation and the Jewish people in general have endured many periods of great
suffering throughout history, including the destruction of Jerusalem and the
Temple by the Romans in A. D. 70 and the extermination of many millions of them
by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia in modern times, the holocaust of the end
time will vastly exceed those.
“In
24:4-14 Jesus foretold of six signs of His coming again that would be like
birth pains, which come at the very end of a pregnancy and with increasing
rapidity and severity until the child is born.
Now He predicts the sign that will follow those birth pains (parallel to
the sixth seal in Rev. 6:9-11).
“As
explained in the previous chapter, Jesus’ use of you in the Olivet discourse
does not refer to the disciples or to anyone else living at that time rather
refers prophetically to those who will be living in the end time, just before
He returns.
“The
event that succeeds the birth pain signs will be the abomination of desolation and
will be like the abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet. In his parallel passage, Luke adds that Jesus
said, ‘But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her
desolation is at hand’ (21:20). In other
words, it is while Jerusalem is encompassed by enemy nations who threaten to
destroy her that this sign will occur.
“For
several decades, the modern nation of Israel has increasingly become a major
focal point of world events, events that involve not only the Middle East but
also the great powers of the United States, Russia, China, and many nations of
Europe. Naval fleets from the Untied
States and Russia continue to grow in strength and readiness in the
Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the other great
bodies of water in that part of the world.”
Now I mention that this commentary was written in 1989 and as we look at
what is going on in Israel today we see that things seem to be moving rapidly
to what will be going on during the Tribulation period which is what Matthew 24-25
describes.
“During
the end times, the Antichrist will head a confederacy of European nations that
will generally correspond to the territory of the ancient Roman empire (see
Dan. 7:24; cf. 2:40-43), and he will at first pretend to be Israel’s deliverer
from her enemies, and she will make an alliance with him (9:27). But after he is victorious over the nations
from the south, north, and east who have come against Israel, he will reveal
his true evil character and his hatred for Israel and for God (Dan.
11:40-45). It is while occupying Israel
under the guise of being her protector that the Antichrist will commit the
abomination of desolation.
“Bdelugma (abomination)
denotes an object of disgust, repulsion, and
abhorrence. In Scripture it is used
primarily to denote things associated with idolatry and gross ungodliness. The Hebrew equivalent was often used of rites
and paraphernalia associated with the wicked conduct of pagan religions. In the book of Revelation it is used to
represent the immoralities and spiritual uncleanness of the false religious
system known as ‘Babylon the treat, the mother of harlots’ (17:45). In the new heaven and new earth there will be
‘nothing unclean and no one who practices abominations and lying’ (21:27).
“The
abomination of desolation may be translated, ‘The abomination which makes
desolate, or lays waste.’ In other
words, the abomination causes the desolation.
The
prophet Daniel referred to the abomination of
desolation three times (9:27; 11:31; 12:11).
Virtually every Bible scholar, no matter what his views on eschatology,
identifies that abomination as the sacrilege committed by Antiochus IV the
Syrian king who ruled Palestine from 175-165 B. C. as a surrogate of the Greek
empire. He took to himself the title
Theos Epiphanes, which means ‘manifest god,’ but his enemies nicknamed him
Epimanes, which means ‘madman’ or ‘the insane one.’ Ironically, when he died in 163, he was
totally insane, outraged to the point of madness because of his military
defeats by the Jewish rebel Judas Maccabaeus. The text of Daniel 11:21-35
perfectly describes the rule of Antiochus, who gained his throne ‘by intrigue’
(v. 21), made numerous excursions into Egypt (vv. 24-27), broke his covenant
with Israel (v. 28), and desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem (31).
“The
apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees vividly portray the time Antiochus and
the Jews’ zealous resistance to his brutal and sacrilegious tyranny. He slaughtered countless thousands of Jewish
men, sold many of their wives and children into slavery, and tried to
completely obliterate the Jewish religion.
He desecrated the Temple by sacrificing a pig, the most ceremonially
unclean of all animals, on the altar and forcing the priests to eat its
flesh. He then set up in the Temple an
idol of Zeus, the pagan deity he fancied himself as manifesting. That horrible defilement by Antiochus was a
preview of the even greater abomination of desolation to be committed by the
Antichrist in the end time.”
In
the next SD I will begin with talking about what Daniel predicted in chapter
nine of his book.
12/22/2023 9:47 AM
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