TUESDAY, 5 January, 2021 “Opposition”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Tuesday January 5, 2021.

Today and tomorrow in America there will be political battling that perhaps has not been seen in many years. In truth what is at stake is the moral soul of America and our future as a society.

If the Georgia runoff election today goes Democratic, and if the Presidential election is ratified tomorrow by the US Congress, there will be Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress and also in the White House. Further, there is a strong and growing momentum within the Democratic party to move America much further into being a very liberal, even socialistic society. While the American Supreme Court has had three Justices appointed, in the past four years, who have historically been more conservative, the actions of the High Court very recently show that the Supreme Court is still leaning strongly liberal.

How fast and how far America will move left, away from our historic Conservative, Biblical values is not clear, but one thing is certain… America will change! And many of our Biblical values will be strongly opposed by American leadership in almost every aspect of life. I wonder how this will affect you, your family, your community, your church, wherever you live in the world? Could it be that OPPOSITION will become a normal part of your life in the very near future, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ?

History and the Bible are filled with times of great opposition to God, God’s Word, God’s people and anything which honors God, so it is not difficult for us to look back and find opportunities to learn important lessons which may help us today.

Let’s continue our journey in Ezra 4 as 50,000 Jews who had been exiled in Babylon for 50 years, have returned to the ruins of demolished Jerusalem and begun rebuilding their city and the great Temple of God. Look at the record: “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 the heads of the families and said “let us help you rebuild because like you, we seek your God…” (Ezra 4:1,2) May I briefly explain?

Mr. Zerubbabel is the man who led the 50,000 exiles in their return from Babylon and he was considered their leader as they began rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple. These so called “enemies” are the people from many foreign lands who had moved in as squatters and settled in the ruins of Jerusalem and began rebuilding it as a non-Jewish city. “Judah and Benjamin” are the names of the two tribes of Jews who had lived for centuries in and around Jerusalem. You may recall when Joshua led the people into the promised land from their desert wanderings with Moses, they conquered and divided the land according to the family clans or tribes of Israel, as God directed them.

Finally please note the important statement the foreign squatters made to Zerubbabel… “Let us help you rebuild because like you, we seek your God…” That statement was a gross distortion of truth. While it is true they were somewhat fascinated by the miraculous stories they’d heard of the God of Israel from times past, they had NO interest in worshiping or submitting to the Holy, Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel and the Jewish people. Watch that friends, for this distortion of truth is what you may be hearing a great deal in weeks, months and years to come, as people, totally opposed to God, God’s Truth and God’s purposes, try to manipulate laws and media and public opinion, to push God much further out of every society in our world!

Notice how Mr. Zerubbabel and the family leaders responded to this deceitful tactic. “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God.” (Ezra 4:3) Now in our day those words would be attacked by media and political correctness as intolerant and prejudice and maybe even bigotry. In reality it is a truthful response and one which holds the line of distinguishing between the Jews who had returned to their rightful land which had been given to them by God more than 1000 years before, and the squatters, the foreigners claiming the land for themselves. Truth is not variable, flexible or relative. Truth stands immovable while all else may change around it. God’s Word is unchanging truth. God’s promises and covenants are unchanging truth. God’s values and His standard of moral right and wrong is unchanging truth. But our human race, from the beginning of time, has resisted God’s unchanging truth and worked hard to twist, or skew or distort or totally reject God’s truth. Look around where you live, do you see efforts to distort or reject God’s truths?

Now in closing today look at Ezra 4:4: “Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans…” Oh my, does that sound like something off the front page of today’s newspaper in most every city in the world? Look around your city. What efforts, even at the highest level of government, are corrupt efforts to counter the 10 Commandments, or other Biblical values God has clearly given to us for building God honoring families and societies? And how long did this situation last in Jerusalem? “during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia, down to the reign of Darius king of Persia”, that’s almost 50 years!

My friends, once corruption finds a foothold in the lives of normal people, and then in business and politics and health care and education… eventually corruption becomes a way of life and it will always oppose people who seek God and seek to live in God honoring ways.

That opposition will begin as peer pressure at first, then media pressure, then political pressure and finally those seeking to live God honoring lives will be ostracized from their society, even locked up in prison as troublemakers. My friends, 2021 will bring new challenges and overt opposition all around the world, to those who seek to know God, honor God with their lives and obediently follow God’s leading. In these next days we’re going to look closely to see how God walked these difficult days in the past with His people, as we attempt to walk faithfully in similar times today.

Take heart my friends. No matter what happens this week in America and how it may affect our entire world, God is on His throne. God is Sovereign over all, and Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord is walking with His people, everywhere in the world. Oh friends, here is a powerful song based on Scripture, Psalm 130, to help us gain proper perspective this day. . . “I will wait for YOU Oh God”

Today’s Scripture is Ezra 4.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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