Ezra 4:1-24

Opposition is always to be expected when the work of the Lord is being accomplished in this sin cursed world.  It comes in many forms and in many ways, but we can be sure that it will come.  The work of rebuilding the temple started with great joy, determination and unity of purpose.  However, this was not an easy or a quick task.  The reality of the situation was that it was a long, difficult and dangerous job that the other inhabitants of the region did not want to happen.  Whenever we set out to serve the Lord, we must recognize that there will be opposition.  We are serving on enemy territory and Satan will always do all that he can to distract us, threaten us, discourage us and put an end to all that we are trying to accomplish.  In many ways, opposition should encourage us, as it is an affirmation that we are doing the right thing for the glory of the Lord.  We see two distinct strategies that were used to oppose Ezra and the work he had come to do.

OPPOSITION COMES IN THE FORM OF INFILTRATION: The first strategy the people from the region used was to try to infiltrate the group so that they could distract and destroy it from within.  They came to offer their help and to be faithful worshipers of the Lord.  They claimed that they too wanted to have a temple to the Lord raised up so that they could continue worshiping the Lord.  This was a lie, their true strategy was to hinder the progress of the work from within and if that did not work, they wanted to have influence over how the temple would be used in hopes of being able to institute idolatry in this temple like their forefathers had been successful at doing prior to the destruction of the original temple.  Satan is not very creative; he uses the same tactics over and over again.  Unfortunately, they are far too often successful.  We must stand firm and not allow the world to influence and distract us from the work to which the Lord has called us.

OPPOSITION COMES IN THE FORM OF ACCUSATION: These same people who claimed that they wanted to help suddenly decided that since their tactic of infiltration was thwarted; they now decided to make false accusations.  By this time the leadership in Persia had changed and a new king was in power.  The opposition decided to send a letter to the new leader warning him of the rebellious nature of the people who were building the building.  They accused the people of being rebellious by nature and appealed to the king’s desire for loyalty and taxes as an argument to stop the work of the building of the temple and the city of Jerusalem.  In order for false accusations to work, they have to have enough of the truth in them to make them palatable.  The people knew enough about the past history of the land to know that Judah had rebelled against foreign kings in self-defense in the past.  They manipulated this past history in order to try to infer that this group was now following this same path of rebellion.  We must always remember that Satan does not play fair.  He is a specialist at manipulating the truth until it sounds right.  Satan is an accuser and will stir up falsehoods in order to keep us from doing that which God has called us to do.  We must learn to expect false accusations and do our best to stand firm against them.