Daily Devotional For Monday, February 16, 2026
Good day Southside. As we are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew for these devotionals, we come now to Matthew 24:15-28. Due to the length of this passage, we are going to take several days to work our way through it. Here is the whole passage below:
“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), (16) then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. (17) Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. (18) Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. (19) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! (20) But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. (21) For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. (22) Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. (23) Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or There He is,’ do not believe him. (24) For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will ]show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (25) Behold, I have told you in advance. (26) So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. (27) For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. (28) Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (NASB).
Jesus knows our desire for signs and how vulnerable we are to anyone who claims they know signs pointing to the end. Here, Jesus gives His disciples and us the major sign that the end is near. It is a prophecy spoken through the prophet Daniel – “the abomination of desolation” – a prophecy about something horrible being done to the Temple. Jesus is referencing the antiChrist, who will lead a confederacy of Ten nations against Israel against Israel. We read this in two passages in Daniel (see Daniel 2:40-43 and in Daniel 7:24). The antiChrist will appear at first to be Israel’s ally and in fact, he will make an alliance with Israel. After he is victorious over nations in the north, south and east, he will turn his attention and hatred against Israel and God (see Daniel 11:40-45). It is while occupying Israel under the guise of her protector that the antiChrist will commit “the abomination of desolation.”
What is this? “Abomination” is the Greek New Testament word [βδέλυγμα; bdelugma]. This word connotes an object of disgust, repulsion and abhorrence. In Scripture, it is primarily associated with things attributed to idolatry and gross, wicked, and perverted sexual ungodliness in pagan religions of Babylon, Greece and Rome. “The abomination of desolation” can be translated as “the abomination which makes desolate, or lays wastes.” In other words, “the abomination that causes desolation or waste.” When we read the prophet Daniel, he mentions this 3 times (see Dan. 9:27, Dan. 11:31, and Dan. 12:11).
Every Old and New Testament Bible scholar I have ever read says that Daniel is referring to a future sacrilege that would be committed from 175-165 BC by Antiochus Epiphones IV, a Syrian king, who ruled over Palestine. He took the name “Theo Epiphanes,” which means “manifest god,” which his enemies nicknamed him, Epimanes, which means “madman” or the “insane one.” When he died in 163 BC, histories write he had gone totally mentally insane due to all of his military losses, especially by a Jewish rebel by the name of Judas Maccabaeus. This happened in 167 BC and for the next 100 years, Israel was a free and independent nation under the Maccabees until Rome conquered them in 63 BC.
What was the “abomination” that Antiochus did between 175-165 BC? He not only slaughtered thousands of Jewish men and sold their wives and children into slavery, he attempted to exterminate the Jewish religion. How? To prove his power and that he was a god, he entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar, the most ceremonially unclean animal according to the Mosaic Law. And then he forced the Jewish priest to eat the flesh of that pig, making them unclean. What Antiochus did was a preview of a worse abomination of desolation that a future antichrist will do when he comes. We will look at this tomorrow.
Reflection Assignment: Is there anything in your life that is an abomination that makes desolate or lays waste? Is there anything in which God is displeased with in your life that you ignore, overlook or act like is not a problem?
Scripture To Meditate On: Ezekiel 38:23, “I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I never want anything in my life to be an abomination to You. It is so easy for me to make light of it or to excuse my sin. Look I do not want to look good publicly but have hideous sins hiding and lurking in my heart. I love You Lore. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly