After World War II, Emperor Hirohito of Japan was portrayed as a passive ruler overshadowed by militarists. However, this post-war image of him as a symbolic figurehead underwent seismic changes with the release of imperial documents and testimonies in the 1990s. These revealed Hirohito's active involvement in military expansion and his role in wartime atrocities.

  It's often said that what goes around comes around. That proves true for the destroyer of God's people in today's text. The "one who makes desolate" will have God's wrath "poured out on" himself.

  The immediate context of this passage describes the destruction of God's temple in Jerusalem by Titus. Jesus often taught in the temple, but before leaving its precincts for the last time, He told the Jewish leaders, "See! Your house is left to you desolate" (Matthew 23:38). Because God had abandoned His temple, it was no longer His house but "your house." Before that generation passed (Matthew 24:34), the Romans would surround Jerusalem (Luke 21:20), pitching their idolatrous standards on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24:15).

  Centuries later, "on the wing of [these] abominations," would come "one who makes desolate." In other words, following pagan Rome's destruction of the earthly temple, papal Rome would attack the heavenly one. The little horn power obscured Christ's high-priestly ministry with a counterfeit Christianity-most notably through the sacraments of the Eucharist (in which the bread becomes the literal body of Christ) and Reconciliation (in which one confesses to a priest and performs penance).

  But when all things are "consummated," this desolating power will become desolate itself (Revelation 18:19). Thus, Daniel 9 takes us from the beginning of the 2,300-day prophecy (457 BC) to the eschatological end-when the little horn is unmasked and held accountable for its atrocities against God's truth and His people.

  Reflect: What other attacks have I observed, besides those from papal Rome, on Jesus' heavenly ministry?