“Know therefore…from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince…”

Chronicling the self-esteem movement since the 1960s in this country is an amazing thing to do. Its influence has been so ubiquitous that critics have accused it of psychologizing the entire culture to the extent that we can’t permit any negativity that might “harm” one’s self-perception, especially him/herself. Now, I’m all for helping kids grow up with a healthy and accurate view of themselves, but that view is not always comfortable or easy to accept. According to God, we’re all fallen creatures, meaning (1) we’re out of sync with God, and (2) our own perspective is necessarily flawed. Thus we vacillate back and forth thinking we’re either too good or too bad. Finding a proper balance between the two requires God’s help. That’s one of the reasons for God’s Word: it shows us ourselves from God’s perspective, clearly the most important perspective for anyone. And contrary to many famous psychiatrists that called human beings anything from waste to dogs to whatever, God simply tells it like it really is. God always deals with reality.

God’s view of reality on today’s average person — psychologically abused as s/he is — makes me wonder if we will ever see a character like Daniel rise on the world stage again. More than anything else, Daniel was a man of God who knew exactly who he was and what time it was. Not time as in time of day, but season of time. He knew God well enough to comb through his Word carefully, realizing that God was always at work with his people, the Jews. New Testament times haven’t changed that: he still works daily with the Church, his Bride.

Daniel gives a glimpse of his view of himself in the first half of chapter 9 when he lumps himself into the peanut gallery of other guilty, shameful and disobedient Jews. They were in captivity in Babylon, not on vacation at the beach resort. Everyone wanted to know, “When is this stinking captivity thing going to be over? We’ve been here for decades!” No doubt it was on Daniel’s mind too. In his search for an answer, he “understood…the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet” (v. 2). It was 70 years, and he knew the time was just about up. So in his prayer to the Lord he includes himself in the Jewish guilty party and uses the word we, us and our 27 times! He uses the word all twice. All in only 14 verses (5-18). Would today’s self-esteem saturated Christian pray like that?

In response, God reveals a prophetic panorama of breathtaking scope, yet specific enough that it identified the very year “Messiah the Prince” would “be cut off” (vs. 25, 26), or killed. Although the Messiah was still to come, he is contrasted with another “prince who is to come”, but Messiah is not described that way. Notice this about these two princes: (1) God knows who the latter prince will be, yet does not identify him except that he is future. Messiah may be coming to earth, but he is not limited to the future: he is, as he told the Jews later (John 8:58). (2) The coming prince’s work is associated with evil: his people “shall destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [Temple]. The end of it shall be with a flood… and on the wing of abominations [he] shall be one who makes desolate…” (vs. 26-27). In contrast, the Messiah will die for others, but not himself, giving his life for them to live.

We find the initial and ultimate results in verse 24: “to finish the transgression, to make and end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy [Place]”. Through the cross Jesus will bring an end to Israel’s and the world’s pattern of sin, judge it completely, make full reconciliation possible through his blood, bring everlasting righteousness on the earth, bring to an end the necessity of new revelation because God’s will is fully being done on earth, and restore the Temple as the center of worship on earth. These latter three appear to have their fulfillment later, the first three more immediately, starting with the resurrection, ascension and Pentecost. These are the markers of Messiah the Prince. This can only be God’s work. Who in their right minds think they have or can do what it takes to please God on their own merits? Who dares compare themselves to this Prince? We only bow to such power, grace, mercy, forgiveness and salvation. And when we do, we have all the esteem — from God — that we really ever need, rightly related to him.

How’s your self-esteem? Is it rooted in the Word and works of Messiah the Prince like Daniel’s?