In a previous blog I wrote of the “Abomination of Desolation” and showed how it had more to do with what the high priests had done in disobedience to God than with what Antiochus Epiphanes had done in the Temple. The matter of the abomination of desolation did not reflect the act of a foreign king or ‘strong man’ but the condition of the people of God. The Jews wholeheartedly deserted their God and his customs. It was a matter of their desiring to be more like those around them, rather than obeying or honoring God. They were led away, not by a foreign despot, but by one of their own, a betrayer or son of perdition—the high priest. They placed their confidence in a man, rather than remaining faithful to God.
The first time the word abomination (H8251) is mentioned in the Bible is in Deuteronomy 29:17 where it tells of the idols of Egypt. It is the sin of the nations, and Israel was commanded not to copy them but to be faithful to the Lord. The first time abomination (H8251) is mentioned in connection with Israel is in 1Kings 11:5, where it records Solomon went after the abomination of the Ammonites. It was the sin that divided the kingdom in two, and thus began the destruction of Israel. In almost every one of its occurrences in the Old Testament, this word is connected with idol worship.
The second word, desolation or astonishment (H8074), is either connected with the judgment of God upon evildoers or the astonishment of witnesses at either God’s judgment or a national sin. In 1Kings 9:6-9 at the dedication of the Temple that Solomon built, God promised Solomon the nations will be astonished at Israel’s fate, if he or his people would abandon their Lord and go after other gods. In 2Chronicles 7:21, the companion scripture, God said the Temple that Solomon built would be an astonishment to all that passed by, if he or the people went after other gods.
The facts are a matter of history. Solomon began the way of destruction in departing from the presence of God by going after the idols of the nations around Israel. It was this act that brought God’s judgment upon Solomon and Israel as a whole (1Kings 11:4-13). The kings of Israel and the kings of Judah led the people away from God. Even periodic revivals were not enough to undo the harm created by Solomon, when he began to practice idolatry. Indeed, all kings were measured in the light of David’s faithfulness to God, but Solomon’s reign, though more splendid than any before or after him, was remembered for beginning the abomination (2 Kings 23:13) that eventually destroyed Israel.
Therefore, in the matter of Jesus’ mention of the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15) that culminated in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the abomination, itself, occurred long before the act of Titus and his army. The abomination that brought the desolation of Jerusalem and the Temple occurred much earlier. The abomination of the Jews’ national desertion of God occurred at the stoning of Stephen in Acts, chapter seven. This was the first time blood was shed since the crucifixion. At the crucifixion, the Jews as a nation chose Caesar as their king rather than their Messiah (John 19:15). Space was given them to repent (1290 days after Christ’s resurrection), but they chose once more to follow a man (the high priest) and condemned Stephen to death for preaching the Gospel and showing his people their sins (Acts 7:51-60).
The Man clothed in linen (Daniel 12:7) told Daniel that the abomination that makes desolate would be set up 1290 days after the Daily Sacrifice was taken away. Daniel says something interesting about this, when he recorded the 70 Weeks Prophecy earlier. Notice:
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)
In other words, he who confirms the covenant with many is the same who causes the Daily Sacrifice to be taken away or removed. Who is it that confirms the covenant for one week? Daniel points to the Messiah:
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)
The Hebrew word translated cut off[1] is also used of God’s covenant with David in 2Chronicles 7:18 and the covenant he made with Israel through Moses in Haggai 2:5. Therefore, the Messiah confirmed the covenant for seven years and also caused the Daily Sacrifice to cease. When would Jesus have caused the sacrifices to cease being accepted as far as God is concerned? Wouldn’t it have been at the time of the Wave Sheaf Offering on the morning of Jesus’ Resurrection? At that time, he presented himself before the Father to be accepted for us. He was the Firstfruit that had to be accepted, before the rest of the harvest (of souls) could begin. This Offering was presented before God on the first day following the weekly Sabbath during the Passover season. It was the first day which counted toward Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks).
If this is logical and true, 1290 days[2] from the day of Jesus’ Resurrection and our Wave Sheaf Offering, would point to the abomination of desolation. In Israel’s history past abominations that brought desolation was initiated by the national leader (Solomon, the high priest)
By the order of the high priest, Stephen was slain and the persecution of believers in Jesus had begun. This event represented the wholesale abandonment of the Jewish leadership of their Messiah, who happens to be God in the flesh. Just as the high priesthood had led the nation away from God in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, so the high priest, led the Jewish nation away from God and the New Covenant he offered through Jesus. This the high priest (viz. the family of high priests under Annas) had never ceased to persecute Messianic believers. He was the leading high priest responsible for Jesus’ death and responsible for the three major persecutions of believers of the Way that occurred from Stephen’s death to the time of the Jewish war with Rome in AD 66 to AD 72. He is the man of sin who sat in the Temple of God and opposed and exalted himself above all called by God’s name. He, exalting himself above God, who alone is worshiped, sat in the Temple of God showing himself as though he were God (2Thessalonians 2:3-4) and led his people away from the Lord of Israel and thereby caused the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
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[1] According to Strong’s Concordance the English: cut off is translated from H3772 – kârath – A primitive root; to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication to destroy or consume; specifically to covenant (that is, make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces): – be chewed, be con- [feder-] ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league ([covenant]), X lose, perish, X utterly, X want.
[2] See my study: The 1290 Days of the 70 Weeks Prophecy.
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