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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been part of a successful initiative which seems to be gaining good momentum, but it attracts the attention of those who, for whatever reason, are opposed to you and will do almost anything to stop the progress of your project or movement? That is what happened to the momentum which was growing in the rebuilding of the Temple of God in Jerusalem about 2500 years ago. For the past few days, we’ve been following the story found in the Bible book of Ezra.
Today we come to Ezra 4 which begins with these disheartening words: “When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, ‘Let us help you build because like you we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” (Ezra 4:1,2) Now that sounds like wonderful news, doesn’t it? So, I have an important question for all of us:
How is our level of discernment? Can we discern when we’re being lied to or manipulated or scammed? If you are a follower of Jesus, is the Holy Spirit of God actively, faithfully, cautioning you when the dark kingdom is scheming to harm you or at least draw you into some type of trap? (Ephesians 6:10-12)
As we saw yesterday, the initial stages of clearing the rubble and rebuilding at least the foundation of the great Temple in Jerusalem had begun. Progress was being made, and a great wave of enthusiasm had those Jewish exiles working feverishly! This offer of both encouragement and help from Gentiles who had been living in the area for a very long time seemed on the surface to be a remarkable work of God. These were descendants of the foreigners who had been brought in to resettle Israel after the Assyrian conquering of the northern kingdom Israel in 722bc. That would have been almost 200 years ago!
Could it really be true that they had been worshiping the God of Israel even while these Jewish captives had been in exile in Babylon? Could it be possible God had sent them to help in this massive attempt of rebuilding the Temple? Certainly, more hands and resources would be very welcome!
Now pause here a few seconds my friends and look back over your life journey. Have there been times you’ve been duped into believing a lie or joining a movement which was not what you thought it was? Are you learning important life lessons in those types of wrong assumptions? Is God refining your discernment capabilities? Are you helping your children and grandchildren to develop their discernment?
It seems clear to me the Holy Spirit of God gave both Zerubbabel and Joshua unusual discernment to quickly see through this deception and they wisely refused the offer of help from these Gentiles. The record says: “But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, ‘You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persian, commanded us.” (Ezra 4:3)
Well, that’s very straightforward and clear, isn’t it? The way this verse is phrased it tells me some meetings were held with these leaders of the returned Jewish exiles. Meetings to discuss and develop an appropriate response. I can only imagine what those meetings were like. Probably you and I have both been in such meetings. Regardless of the discussions or even debate, the conclusion was clear, and their refusal was without room for negotiation.
But have you found that opposition to a good thing is rarely easily stopped or diffused. The record says: “Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to continue building. They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.” (Ezra 4:4,5) Oh my, that sounds diabolical, sinister, even wicked. It sounds like a strategic plan which was working at multiple levels of regional government and was opposing the rebuilding efforts on multiple fronts simultaneously.
There’s a gap of considerable time between Ezra 4:5&6, perhaps about 15 years. How did I calculate that? King Cyrus issued his decree in 538bc, and this first major wave of exiles returned to Jerusalem from Babylon very quickly. After two years they began work on the Temple foundation and that puts us at 536bc. The reign of King Darius 1 began in 521bc, 15 years later. So, we can conclude work on the Temple was slow and a daily struggle against bureaucracy and bribery and angry opposition for 15 years!
Think about that my friends! For those who were showing up to work on the project each morning as well as the supervisors negotiating for supplies and permission from officials for the work to continue, each day was very frustrating with very little progress, lots of wasted time waiting, and growing animosity between the Jews and their opposition.
I wonder how many of us have found ourselves in that type of situation. What lessons did you learn? What did you see God do for His glory and your growth as God worked His purposes for His glory. Sometimes that means God seems to put things on hold, sometimes for a long time. Other times God miraculously pushes back on the opposition and things happen. Sometimes God launches an entirely new initiative.
So, let’s pause right here and I invite us all to look back over our lives to take account of important life lessons we’ve learned when we face opposition to what we think is a good thing we are attempting? Let’s thank God for those important life lessons learned, let’s worship with this song and tomorrow we’ll return here to see what God did in this difficult situation!
Today’s Scripture: Ezra 4:1-5.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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