Part 1 of a narrative that comes just after the narratives recently given re: the AOD (parts 1 and 2) found in the New Interpretations commentary on Daniel (if you want a free copy, please PM me or if you have an interest to purchase it directly from Amazon, PM me and I will give the the ISBN # - released as of 3/10/26):
Reflective Narrative:
The identity of the AOD through the lens of Leviticus
The Abomination of Desolation: When the Holy One Is Treated as Unclean
The phrase abomination of desolation has stirred the imagination of readers for centuries. Most interpreters immediately turn to ruined temples, defiled altars, or future political events in Jerusalem. The focus tends to be on stones—walls torn down, cities laid waste, altars polluted by pagan armies or future tyrants. But what if the center of this warning is not ultimately a building, but a Person? What if the “abomination” reaches its fullest meaning not in the destruction of the Temple but in the crucifixion of the One to whom the Temple, the sacrifices, and the whole Levitical system were pointing?
If we dare to let Scripture define its own terms, and if we read Daniel together with Leviticus and the Gospels, a surprising picture begins to emerge. The cross itself stands at the very heart of what abomination means, and the desolation that follows is not merely architectural; it is relational. The holy place that is finally left desolate is not a room of stone, but the covenant relationship between God and His people,
Abomination in Leviticus: Profaning What Is Holy
We begin with the law, because Leviticus gives us our first vocabulary for “abomination.” There, the word is not just a label for “really bad sins.” It is used in specific situations where God’s order is overturned and His holy things are polluted. Leviticus calls it an abomination when holy sacrifices are mishandled—when meat set apart for God is treated as though it were ordinary, or even spoiled. It uses the same language for crossings of the boundaries between clean and unclean, when Israel eats what God has forbidden or imitates the corrupt practices of the nations. It is the language of polluted worship, blurred distinctions, and covenant betrayal.
In other words, an abomination is not just rebellion in general; it is the deliberate reversal of what God has called holy, clean, and precious. It is when His symbols are treated as common, His boundaries are ignored, and His covenant identity is trampled underfoot. With that in mind, ask a simple question: If mishandling animal sacrifices is called an abomination, what happens when the true Sacrifice, the true Temple, the true High Priest stands before His people—and they condemn Him, mock Him, and hand Him over to be crucified? Leviticus gives us the categories. The Gospels show us their ultimate fulfillment.
The Cross as the Ultimate Levitical Abomination
Jesus steps into history as the living fulfillment of everything Leviticus anticipated. He is the Lamb of God, the true Passover, the great High Priest, the embodiment of the Temple in human flesh. Every symbol, every ceremony, every sacrifice was a shadow cast before Him.
And how is He treated?
He is seized by the leaders who guard the Temple and the Law. He is accused by false witnesses in a mock trial. He is scourged, spit upon, crowned with thorns, and nailed to a Roman cross outside the city walls. The testimony of Scripture is that He who knew no sin is “made to be sin for us,” counted as the unclean thing, the cursed One.
Leviticus warns Israel not to mishandle holy offerings, not to imitate the abominations of the nations, not to bring corruption into God’s holy place. Yet at the cross we see the entire pattern reaching its climax: holy flesh (in the deepest sense) is mocked and destroyed; the only truly clean Person is treated as defiled; the covenant people choose a murderer over the Author of Life and openly declare, “We have no king but Caesar.”
If abomination in Leviticus is to treat what is holy as common, to blur God’s boundaries, and to betray His covenant, then the cross is the ultimate Levitical abomination. It gathers every warning into a single, terrible moment: the Holy One Himself is handed over to die. And Daniel has already told us that such an abomination will bring desolation.
Daniel’s Abomination and the Desolation That Follows
When Daniel speaks of the abomination that causes desolation, most interpreters immediately rush to ruined temples. The focus becomes stone, architecture, and armies. But the pattern of Scripture pushes us deeper. First, the Temple itself was never an end in itself. It was a stage, a picture, a set of shadows arranged to point to a reality greater than itself. That is why God could allow the first Temple to be completely destroyed, but not permanently. It had to be rebuilt. Everything had to be restored—priesthood, altar, sacrifices—so that when Messiah came, the whole Levitical system would be ready to find its fulfillment in Him. That restoration was in place by the end of the sixty-nine weeks, so that on the first day of the seventieth week, Jesus could step onto the stage of history and begin His public ministry as the One who would “put an end to sacrifice and offering.”
Only after the reality arrived and fulfilled every shadow would God allow a permanent destruction. He could permit the first Temple to fall and rise again, because its purpose was not yet complete. But once the true High Priest, the true Sacrifice, and the true Temple had come—and had been rejected—there would be no going back to the old system. When that abomination occurred, the desolation that followed would be of another order entirely. So when we look for the abomination that causes desolation, we must look beyond the fall of a building and ask: where do we see the most concentrated violation of God’s holiness, the most profound pollution of His holy things, the deepest betrayal of His covenant? The answer the New Testament quietly but firmly points to is the cross.
