Ezra - Chapter 4

OPPOSITION TO RESTORATION

In verses 1-5 in chapter four, we begin to view a matter that always seem to find its way into labor done for the Lord, which is opposition.

Certain adversaries appear who are against Judah and Benjamin and bring an offer to those who had returned to rebuild. The offer made in verse 2 was “...let us build with you.” These offering made the offer in a most interesting way. They say that they seek your God as you do. We notice they did not say they seek OUR God, but your God. They claim they have been sacrificing to Yahweh since the king of Syria brought them to the land. We do know from 2nd Kings 17 that many people were indeed resettled into the land while it was under Assyrian rule. The scripture in 2nd Kings does confirm these people did worship the God of the Jews, but the fact is that they did not do so exclusively. They viewed the God of the Jews as one god among many and in such worship were in clear and direct violation of the Lord's holy commandment number one.

Yahweh requires a full trust in Him only.

Zerubbabel and Jeshua refuse the offer not on religious grounds, although that refusal would have been correct. They refuse because they apparently knew that the decree from Cyrus allowed the rebuilding only by those who had chosen to return from Babylon.

We see that the offer was from those who opposed Judah and Benjamin so the first plan was to infiltrate the Jews who were working hard to please God. When that plan did not succeed they went to plan number two which was to trouble the building work by hiring counselors to appeal to Persian officials to frustrate the work. Verse 5 teaches us that plan two seemed to have some effect and the work was delayed after the time of Cyrus until the new king arrived on the throne who was King Darius. This was a period of approximately 16 years.

In verses 6-23 we find other examples of opposition. More effort was made in the court of Persia claiming that the rebuilding effort was one to make rebellion against Persia and therefore was begun under false circumstances so it must be ended. The King seemed to accept this lie and decreed that the work must be stopped. Opposition was a success initially. Verse 24 is clear that the work ceased.

But there is more to this story than meets the eye in the verses above.

God raised up a prophet named Haggai and we see in Haggai 1:3 that the Lord had become displeased that those who returned had spent far more time building their own houses than His house. The description was that they had built their own “paneled”

dwellings while neglecting construction on the new Temple. Their procrastination was evident and it seemed only God could correct them and this is exactly what He did by allowing positive reception at the court in Persia of those who were seeking to end the work.

Here was spiritual warfare at its highest level. Those who had once begun such good work to please God were tempted to leave off that work and to begin more selfish work of personal benefit at the expense of the assigned work of building God's house. Here was wrestling against spiritual wickedness in high places, not against flesh and blood exactly as Paul later warned in his writing in our New Testament.

Opposition prevailed not because it was stronger, but because those who had been stirred in spirit by God to do His work lost their will and yielded to the temptation to do for themselves rather than for the Lord.