This is also about Antiochus Epiphanes. When Antiochus comes, the persecution of the faithful people of God becomes very severe. Antiochus exalts himself, reflected in his assumed name, Epiphanes
, which means the appearance of a god. He regards himself as a god. He does not acknowledge the Lord as God and he certainly does not want to submit to the Lord as the only God. He aims to become more and more powerful. We also read about this in Daniel 8:23–25, which gives further explanation.
He regards himself as being so powerful that he even challenges the Prince of the host, the Sovereign of the starry host, the Lord. We can also think of Christ as this Prince. Antiochus thus directs his battle against the very Son of God. He is doing this by taking away the burnt offering, the continual sacrifice dedicated to God. This daily sacrifice represents the sacrifices that are to be brought in the temple, in the house of God, according to God’s precept. These are primarily the morning and evening sacrifices as the Lord prescribed for each day in Exodus 29:1–46. Antiochus Epiphanes proceeds to do so when just before or on October 1, 167 BC, he gives the order that no more sacrifices are to be presented in the temple. After there has been no sacrifice in the temple for several weeks, Antiochus has a statue of the Greek supreme god, Zeus, erected in the temple. Sacrifices are to be made to this idol right in the temple of the Lord! This continues until December 25, 164 BC.
The devil strikes at the heart of the worship of the Lord through Antiochus. The central ministry of the temple is the service of atonement, of reconciliation with God. In this way the devil seeks to alienate God’s people from God himself, in a brutal and harsh way. The attack on the church is therefore very serious. This would be comparable to a situation where the government says to us today that we are no longer allowed to go to church; we are no longer allowed to come and listen to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which today is the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:21.
11 It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.