It
set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the
daily sacrifice from the Lord, and his sanctuary was thrown down. Because
of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It
prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground. Daniel
8:11-12
The
prophecy Daniel saw revealed a future leader who would stop the practices of
sacrifices in the temple. One of the future Greek kings, Anthiochus Epiphanes, reigned from 175 to 164 BC. When a revolt occurred in Jerusalem, led by a
Jewish group called the Maccabeans, Anthiochus invaded Jerusalem, stormed the
temple, stole the treasures, erected a statue to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on
its altar. Daniel called this an
“abomination of desolation” or an “abomination that causes desolation.”
This
brazen act stopped the sacrifices in the temple until the pig’s blood could be
cleaned up. (NOTE: The Talmud said that
while cleaning the temple, a small jar of oil lit all the candles for eight
days and the Jews considered that a miracle. The
celebration of Hanukkah honors that miracle.)
Antiochus
stopped the sacrifices for many years. A
Jewish led Maccabbean revolt restored the control of Jerusalem to the Jews who
then reopened the temple.
Jesus
talked about this abomination saying that another abomination would come
later. Some think that’s when Rome
entered Jerusalem in 70 AD and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Others believe another future ruler (an
antichrist) will do the same if the sacrifices are somehow restored in the
temple.