July 5, 2024
Passage Read: Daniel 8-11
Meditation Verses: 9:26-27
Thought
This prophecy came in the first year of Darius, so the command to rebuild the temple hadn't come yet, not to rebuild the city. But both city and sanctuary are mentioned in this prophecy, telling Daniel and all who read it that the city and temple would surely be rebuilt, just as it came to be. But then it sounds like a future ruler of foreigners will come and destroy city and temple, and stop the sacrifices and set up the abomination of desolation. After Jesus was crucified, the Romans came and destroyed temple and city. There was an attempt to negotiate surrender, but it failed, so they set siege to the city and ended up destroying just about all of it. Antiochus Epiphanes didn't destroy the city or temple, but made a covenant with the people, broke it, stood in the temple and claimed to be God manifest and stopped the regular sacrifices to the Lord. That suggests strongly that these are two different rulers, but out of order. The Roman general Titus fits the first one, the destroyer of city and temple, and Antiochus Epiphanes fits the second, but came before Titus. Which suggests another in the likeness of Antiochus Epiphanes will come later, but another Titus is not needed. That agrees with the prophecies that remain unfulfilled, including New Testament prophecies about the time of the end. The city and sanctuary must exist at the end for the second Antiochus Epiphanes to do his antichrist thing, but there is no additional prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple once again.
Application
This has to have two different rulers in mind, who do two different things. One destroys everything and the other uses city and temple for his own aggrandizement. The first has no need of the city and temple, but to destroy them. The second needs the temple to remain as a symbol of his power; he has no intention of destroying it, at least not in the near term of his schemes. Antiochus Epiphanes didn't destroy the temple, neither will the Antichrist destroy it, according to prophecy. There are no outstanding or reiterated prophesies about the destruction of Jerusalem and the sanctuary, so that has been accomplished and fulfilled. But there are outstanding and reiterated prophecies about the one who stops the daily sacrifice and brings in the abomination of desolation. The real Antichrist has not yet come. The city has been rebuilt; all that remains is for the temple to be rebuilt. What seemed impossible in Daniel's day seems impossible in ours, but God kept His word, and after seventy years, temple and city were rebuilt. His word is still trustworthy; the temple will be rebuilt. Then the Antichrist will show himself.