Ezra 4:1-5:5
~32 min read
TRANSCRIPT
I. Subtle Opposition
We saw last time at the end of chapter 3 this ominous hint of opposition to come, and now we see it in earnest. The Jews who have returned from Babylon to Jerusalem have rebuilt the altar, they've laid the foundation of the temple, the work is proceeding. But now the adversaries come, and they begin their opposition with apparently an offer of cooperation in verse 1 of chapter 4: the “adversaries” heard that they built the temple, and then verse two, “they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you” – it's not easy work rebuilding, you could use some help.
So they offered to help. They offered to cooperate. That seems like a good thing, doesn't it? They want to help. Why not accept the offer? Why not say, "Welcome! Join us. Build with us"? But notice the basis of this offer. Again, in verse two of chapter 4: “Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him”. The offer is based on this claim that they seek and sacrifice to the same God. The offer is based on this claim that we are just like you, we serve the same God that you do. We are true servants of the God of Israel. Therefore, let us join with you and build this house together with you.
But who were these people? They said here in verse two that “we do sacrifice unto Him”, unto your God, “since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither” (Ezra 4:2). In other words, they are the people who were brought up by the Assyrians. And remember, the Assyrian practice was to bring into these conquered lands people from all over. And it seems that the Syrian policy was to mix everyone up so that they would lose all sense of national identity, and then, hopefully, that would keep them subjugated. That was the Assyrian policy, after all.
If you leave people with a strong sense of identity, they might gather together and rebel. They might say, "We want to throw off the yoke of Assyria. We want to be sovereign again. We want to reclaim our sovereign nationhood. We retain that sense of identity." But if everyone is mixed up and no one knows who they are anymore and they're all just part of the Assyrian Empire, they assimilate more easily. They lose that spark of rebelliousness. That seems to have been the Assyrian policy.
And we read this, in fact, in 2 Kings chapter 17:24-29. “After the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, “the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them. Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
“Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.”
“So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.” Of course, this is not true fear of the Lord. So, in verse 34, "Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel."
These were not true servants of God. They did not truly fear the Lord. They were syncretists. They pretended to worship God, but in fact, they worshipped other gods as well. They worshipped all these gods. And this was not true worship at all. They broke the covenant that God had made. The terms of the covenant were, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them” (2 Kings 17:35). These were not true servants of the God of Israel. They had not committed themselves to the God of Israel to worship and serve Him only. But they joined His worship with the worship of all these false gods of all the pagan nations. Verse 40 and 41, "they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.”
II. Biblical Separation
And so, going back to Ezra chapter 4, when these people came and said, "We serve your God as you do, we do sacrifice unto Him, all along, we have been serving and worshipping the God of Israel like you,” it was not true worship, not true service. And therefore, Zerubbabel and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel could not accept this offer of cooperation. And so they said, in verse 3 of Ezra chapter 4, "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God”. “We are not the same. We have nothing in common. You have no business working with us to build this house because you do not truly serve and worship the same God."
This was not a true, sincere offer of cooperation. It was, in fact, a subtle attack. There was a danger here of infiltration, assimilation, and the destruction of Israel's witness. The same danger that Israel was warned of at the time of the Exodus when they were coming into the land for the first time. Remember, in Deuteronomy chapter 7, the people were warned, ‘When you go into the land, make no covenant with them. Don't give your sons to marry their daughters. Don't give your daughters to marry their sons because they will turn you away from the one living and true God. Keep yourselves separate’ (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). That's what Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel had to do here.
It might seem harsh at first, "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God. We ourselves together will build, not you." It seems harsh. But we have to keep in mind, again, this was not a civil project. This was not an offer to trade. This was not some kind of secular business. This was the worship of God. This was a house for the worship and service of God. This was a profoundly religious thing that they were doing. And God's work is really the exclusive duty of God's people. It is God's people who are called to serve Him, to worship Him, to praise Him, to do His work. The people in those days recognised the mistakes of the past, that it was precisely this failure to keep themselves separate that had led to the exile. They had become idolaters. They had become apostate because they had adopted the worship of these false gods of the nations that were around them. And they were not going to repeat that same mistake. And that's why they spoke so strongly here: "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God”.
And that's something for us to learn, building on what we saw earlier: the privilege of service. It is really the duty of God's people to serve Him. It is something exclusive to God's people. They are the ones called, called to serve and worship the living and true God. And so there is this principle of separation at work. When we want to serve the Lord, we must do so as a holy people, called out and separate. We must do so without compromising that witness.
As the Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:” – there's no cooperation with unbelievers in the work of God – “for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Those are the terms of the covenant. It's on those terms that Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of them said, "We are not like you. We are not the same as you. We cannot cooperate on that basis as if we are the same and worship the same God."
That's something that is still a problem today. That's still a temptation today. In fact, even more than before. There is the ecumenical movement. There is a very strong movement and impetus towards gathering together, organising together, coming together: all religions worshipping as one. "Why all these divisions? Why don't we all come together? After all, we all, in the end, worship the same God, just in different ways, under different names. It's all the same, really, the same sort of general spiritual, religious thing. Let's all come together. We can have joint worship services. We can all be as one." And that sounds very good, except it is not true. It is not real unity. Unity is something good, but it must be unity on God's terms, not at the expense of the truth, not by compromising our witness.
III. Overt Opposition
So that initial attempt at cooperation was successfully recognised and refuted. That initial deception, the claim to cooperate on that basis. But the opposition did not stop there. When they were rebuffed, then in Ezra 4:4 we read, "the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building". They tried to make it difficult for them. They tried to cause trouble so that they would not be able to build. "You don't want us to help you? Fine, then. Then we will make life very difficult for you, and you will wish you had not rejected our offer."
They made hindrances and obstacles to the work, spreading fear among the people, threatening them, spreading false rumors, making false accusations, hiring counselors against them, lawyers to cause trouble for them, to ensnare them in all kinds of legal red tape so that they could not continue the work. False accusations to the kings of Persia, not just Cyrus, but even unto the reign of Darius, king of Persia, and in the reign of Ahasuerus and in the days of Artaxerxes. This was an opposition that continued for a long time, administration after administration. They kept trying to cause trouble for the Jews. They caused trouble with Cyrus, with Darius, with Ahasuerus, with Artaxerxes. Every Persian king received false accusations from these opponents of the Jews. Every Persian king received these attempts to get the Jews to stop.
This chapter, Ezra chapter 4, in fact, spans a long period of time. And the point is to show that this opposition was continuing, this opposition was unrelenting. We have one specimen of their attempt from verse 9 onwards, a letter that was written to Artaxerxes. This is long after the time of Zerubbabel, but it's in line with this same kind of opposition. It's to give us an example of this kind of opposition. And we go back to the time of Zerubbabel back in verse 24 at the end of Ezra chapter 4. So keep that in mind in terms of the chronology in Ezra chapter 4. We are looking forward all the way to the reign of Artaxerxes, which is really the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. And then at the end of Ezra chapter 4, we come back to the time of Zerubbabel. But the point is to help us to see that throughout this period, the people of the lands were trying to oppose the Jews in their work of rebuilding and resettling and renewing the worship of God.
And again, we have this example of their attempt, this letter that was written to Artaxerxes. See how they portray themselves? Verse 9, ‘We are a large group of people. A large group of people, and we are loyal. We are loyal to you, we are loyal to the Persian king. We are writing because we care about the tribute that the Persian king is supposed to receive. We want you to have your due. That's why we are writing. We are writing out of that loyal concern. We are loyal subjects of Persia. Not so the Jews.’ See how the Jews are depicted here? Verse 12 of Ezra chapter 4: ‘Jerusalem is “the rebellious and bad city”. The Jews will rebel, the Jews will not pay taxes, the Jews will not pay their tribute if you allow them to rebuild. If you allow them to set up the walls’ – verse 13 – "then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom”. ‘The revenue of the kings will be damaged. This is a rebellious and bad city. They're known for this. They've done this in the past. They'll do this again. Therefore, you must stop them. They will revolt against you.’
False accusation. They had no intention of doing these things. But Artaxerxes apparently believed this accusation. And in verse 23, they had authority to go up to Jerusalem and force the Jews to stop, to cease the work of rebuilding. This is the same king again that sent Ezra and Nehemiah. The help of man is fickle, but our trust is in God.
And so again, verse 24 brings us back to the time of Zerubbabel. As a result of this continuing and unrelenting opposition, the work of the house of God ceased. They stopped. They stopped rebuilding. They were discouraged. And we can understand how they could be discouraged with such heavy and consistent opposition. And this is something that we face today. If we want to serve the Lord, there will be opposition. There will be concerted opposition. There will be very committed opposition. The world is opposed to God. The world does not want to submit to God. The world is in rebellion against God. And as Christians seeking to serve the Lord, we have an enemy in this world. We have an adversary who is very powerful and very active in opposing the work of God. An enemy who does not want souls to be saved. An enemy whose lust is death, murder. An enemy whose chief weapon is deception, the Father of lies. An enemy who does not want God to be glorified.
And the Devil is working very hard to hinder, to oppose, to stir up all manner of trouble against the work of God. And just as it was then in the days of Zerubbabel, so also today, the manner of the opposition is very similar. Just as in those days, they tried to stir up legal trouble with the government of Persia, so also today, it's very common. The work of God is opposed with these kinds of methods, false accusations, stirring up trouble with the civil authority.
That was the case in the time of the Lord Jesus. They brought false accusations to the Roman government. This Jesus is a teacher of sedition. He's an insurrectionist. He is teaching the people to rebel against Caesar. He's setting himself up as king. He wants the people to follow him and to throw off Caesar's yoke. Therefore, you must put him to death. He's guilty of rebellion.
Same with the apostles also. If we look at Acts chapter 13:45, the Apostle Paul faced this kind of trouble again and again. “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.” Verse 50, “But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.” They stirred up the people.
Acts 14:2, “the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.” Verse 3, “Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe”.
And then in Acts 16:19, when Paul had cast the demon out of this girl whose masters made use of her to gain profit by her soothsaying, “And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.” Again, a false accusation which led Paul and Silas to be cast into prison, as we heard this morning. It was a result of this kind of trouble and opposition.
Again, Acts 17:5, “the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” It goes on and on, and it is the same today.
IV. The Key to Overcoming Discouragement
The same today, the work of God is opposed. And the point is that just as we also face these kinds of legal threats and false accusations, it can be very discouraging. And there is a real danger that the work of God falls by the wayside. Our hands are weak and we, being discouraged, are easily distracted by other things. And we turn to focus on other things, and we put aside the work of God.
And we begin to ask ourselves, "Why go through all this trouble? Why put myself through all this pain and fighting? Why do this when I'm being opposed at every step? Everything is so difficult. Everything I try to do for God is opposed. Every time I try and accomplish something, a thousand and one oppositions. People are against me, false accusations are spread against me, my name is dragged through the mud, my reputation is ruined. Nothing seems to work. Every stone that I want to lay in the building of this house takes so much effort.” It can be very discouraging.
And the Jews in those days, in the time of Zerubbabel, gave up. God's servants face this danger. We think also of Elijah, how Elijah, after his great victory on Mount Carmel over the prophets of Baal, when he came down and when his life was threatened by Jezebel, First Kings chapter 19, we read how he fled and he asked the Lord to take his life. He said, "I am not better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4b). And when God questioned him, he said, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord of hosts. I have been preaching, I have been serving, but no one is listening. Nothing seems to be accomplished. The people are still full of the same hard-heartedness, the same stubbornness. All that preaching seems to go in one ear and out the other. And now they seek my life to take it away. I am the only one who is left faithful to the Lord’ (1 Kings 19:10). Elijah was very discouraged. Elijah wanted to give up.
So also for us, we can be discouraged. Sometimes we look in the world around us and we see the animals. Some of them accomplish very amazing feats. Think of the birds who migrate, sometimes vast distances, crossing continents and oceans, overcoming all kinds of obstacles. And the salmon, we all know about the salmon, right? How they swim upstream and have to go through a gauntlet of grizzly bears and all kinds of things just to get to their spawning grounds. They overcome all these obstacles. They do it by instinct. They just do it because it's as if they have no choice. But we don't do things by instinct. We think, we reason. That's why we can be discouraged, when we think wrongly, when wrong thoughts come in and we become discouraged, and we give up because of this persistent opposition.
So, given that this is a reality for us as we seek to serve the Lord, we can learn here from people in the time of Zerubbabel how they overcame these difficulties, how they overcame these obstacles, how they persevered despite this consistent opposition. We can learn and see here how God's Word motivates our perseverance and strengthens our trust in God's protection. And this is our antidote against discouragement.
And so, as we come to Ezra chapter 5, we see how the prophets were raised up by God to preach the Word, to encourage the people, to strengthen the hands that had been made weak by this consistent opposition. Ezra chapter 5, verse 1-2, ‘The prophets Haggai, the prophet Zechariah, the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews. And then Zerubbabel and Jeshua rose up and began to build the house of God, and the prophets were with them, helping them.’ That was what overcame this discouragement: the preaching of the Word of God.
The emphasis here is on the source and the direction of their message. They prophesied unto the Jews in the name of the God of Israel. They prophesied unto the Jews, even unto them, unto those who were supposed to be building the house of God. The Word of God came to them in their situation, a very specific message directed to them. And what was this message? Initially, the message was a rebuke. If you look at Haggai chapter 1, Haggai and Zechariah, towards the end of the Minor Prophets, just before the New Testament, in Haggai chapter 1:1, "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built."
That was their discouragement. “Look at all this opposition. Look at how difficult it is. Maybe now is not the right time. Let's wait a bit. Let's wait for this opposition to die down. Now it's so difficult. Let's wait until it gets a bit easier. The time is not come that the Lord's house should be built." But the Word of the Lord came to them by way of rebuke. Haggai 1:4: "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?" That was the result of their discouragement. They left off the work of God. That didn't mean they sat around doing nothing. They built their own houses instead. They became distracted by building very luxurious houses for themselves: sealed houses, paneled wood ceilings. They were doing all that while the house of God was lying in ruins, half-built.
And the Lord rebuked them: "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:5-6). The Lord was already dealing with them in these things, showing them the error of their ways by causing them not to prosper in the work that they were trying to do.
Because they had left aside the work of the Lord, all the things that they were doing were not working. They sowed but their harvest were very little, they had not enough to eat, not enough to drink, not enough clothes to wear. And even the wages they earned were very quickly lost because of all these things that were not working. The Jews needed this rebuke. God had sent all these things to awaken them, to call them back to the work that they were supposed to be doing. But they were insensitive to this. And so, the prophets had to rise up and preach the Word of God.
And that's the danger for us. When God's work becomes difficult, we become discouraged, and we lose our sense of calling, we lose our motivation to do the work of God, we become distracted with other things. And sometimes, we become insensitive to the voice of God, so that even when the Lord deals with us, we are not aware. Sometimes, we need this rebuke from the Word of God when we are neglecting His service, when we have allowed discouragement to get the better of us.
Sometimes, the antidote to discouragement is rebuke, strong words, because it is a great sin against God when we leave His work aside, when we fail to serve Him just because it's difficult, when we are not willing to bear the cross. It's a sin against the Lord to allow these things to overcome us, to allow these things to prevent us from doing what God has called us to do, when the difficulties become greater than God Himself, and we allow the difficulties to stop us when God has called us.
Remember in Luke 14:27: "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." And then also in Philippians chapter 1, which was read earlier, Philippians chapter 1:27: "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ:" But that means verse 28: "in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
The Philippians are reminded that just as Paul in Philippi was thrown into prison for the sake of the gospel, because he was serving the Lord, so also the Philippians are reminded: this is your lot. “[U]nto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29). This is part of what it means to be a Christian: to face opposition, persecution, and suffering for the sake of Christ. If our Lord and Master suffered in this world, shall we go free? No cross for us to bear?
These difficulties are part and parcel of serving the Lord, and we are not to let them prevent us. We are not to let them overcome us. Sometimes we need that rebuke, and that can be an antidote to discouragement. To be rebuked can help us to climb out of that pit and to see the truth, to see things clearly and rightly.
But then also, of course, the Lord is gracious. And with this rebuke, there was also from the prophets Haggai and Zechariah a great encouragement, a promise of God's help, a promise of God's presence. Again, in Haggai chapter 2:1-9: "In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.”
“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.”
This is a great encouragement for the people. They were discouraged by all the opposition. They were discouraged by looking at the building. Some of them remembered Solomon's temple, and now what they are rebuilding is nothing like Solomon's temple. Outwardly, materially, it cannot compare to the splendor of Solomon's temple. They don't have as much resources. They are not able to build something so splendid, so glittering.
And that was another aspect of their discouragement. Just like Elijah, they say to themselves, "We are not better than our fathers. We are struggling so much to build this. And even if we succeed, what is this house compared to the first temple? What's the use of it? Why are we doing this? Why are we going through so much trouble?"
But God reminds them that it is His purpose, it is His glory. "The silver is mine, the gold is mine." And because of God's purpose, the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former. Because in this second temple, the Prince of Peace will walk. The desire of all nations will come to this house. The Lord Himself, the Messiah, will teach in these porches, will minister here in this temple. That will be a greater glory even than Solomon's temple. That's what they're doing. That's what they're building.
Because again it is God's purpose, it is God's work, it is God's will, and God's glory. It is God's house. So they are encouraged by this, not to compare in terms of external splendor, but to see God's work and God's purpose, and to be encouraged by their part in fulfilling that purpose. Likewise also, Zechariah, Zechariah 4:6, “This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel”. Who hath despised the day of small things?
Again, that was their discouragement. What we're doing seems so small. Think of what has been done in the past. People have done great things, and what about us? It's the same discouragement that we face. Surely we read of episodes in the past in the history of the church, times of great revival when thousands came to the Lord, thousands were saved, thousands were added to the church. Churches were filled, there was not space in the pews, they were overflowing. Tens of thousands came to hear the gospel when it was preached. And now it seems so difficult, such a struggle. No one is interested. We can be discouraged by this. We can begin to think, "Oh, we are not better than our fathers. What's the use of going through so much trouble? What's the use of having a gospel service? No one will come, no souls will be saved."
But let us not despise the day of small things. God is at work. We're doing this not because we are great, but because God has called us. The silver is His, the gold is His, the glory is His. He will glorify Himself if we are faithful to serve Him. After all, it is precisely the weak and the base that God chooses to glorify Himself. He has chosen us not because we are strong, but because we are weak. Not because we are noble, but because we are base. Not because we are something, but because we are nothing. That's why He has chosen us. That's why He has sent us. That's our calling, so that the glory is His, “treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
So again, the people are encouraged, are exalted, though they themselves are small and weak and helpless, though their enemies are many, though they are opposed even by the great government of Persia, yet God is with them. "Be strong, for I am with you," saith the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:4). And therefore, they ought to persevere without the fear of man. “The fear of man bringeth a snare”, as the proverb reminds us; those who “trust in the Lord”, they are the ones who are “safe” (Proverbs 29:25). They are the ones who persevere. They are the ones who succeed.
And so we read that this encouragement from the Word of God, this rebuke and this encouragement, had its intended effect. And the people rose up to build, Ezra 5. Even Zerubbabel and Jeshua, even Zerubbabel and the high priest, even they had been discouraged, even they had left off the work. But now, when the Word of God came to them, when they were rebuked, when they were encouraged, they rose up to build. And the people rose up together with them. And the prophets were there also, helping them. A wonderful picture, the work continuing again.
But as soon as the work continued, immediately the opposition also came. Verse 3: "At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river,” – that’s the province where Judah and Jerusalem were, the province of the Persian empire. It was called “this side the river”. The governor came to them and said unto them, "Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall?" And asked them, verse 4, "What are the names of the men that make this building?"
It's a scary thing, right? Especially when you have stopped already, you've been discouraged already. Now you're just starting, and immediately you're questioned. Immediately the officials come, "Who gave you permission to do this? Who gave you permission to hold this service? Who gave you permission to do this evangelism? What are your names?" And then they take down your names. That's a scary thing. And it would be very easy for the people to be discouraged again. It would be very easy for them to say, "See, I told you. Now is not the time. Just as we pick up the tools to start building again, immediately we are questioned. It's all going to start again. Now the Persian king is going to command us to stop again. Now it's going to be even worse for us. Maybe he will punish us more than before. I told you we shouldn't have done this. We should have just left the work of God aside." It would be easy for them to think this way.
But by the grace of God, and because they had been encouraged by the Word of God, they did not give up. They persevered, even though it seemed that the opposition was going to continue. They responded well. They answered the question calmly, and they would not cease. Verse 5 of Ezra chapter 5: "But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius". They were trusting in God. They haven't told us to stop yet, they're just asking us questions. So we answer the questions, and we continue the work. They responded well because they were now well grounded in the Word of God. They were conscious of the eye of their God watching over them. They had confidence in God's protection. And where did this come from? From the Word of God, believed by faith. God had said, "I am with you. Be strong and work, for I am with you” (Haggai 2:4).
So both this rebuke from the Word and encouragement from the Word worked together to cause them to return to the work and to persevere in it. To cause them to fear God and not to fear man. They persevered because they trusted in God's protection, they trusted in His promise, they trusted in His presence. They recognised that they were doing God's work, therefore He was with them. He would enable them to see the work through.
You see, discouragement works, discouragement succeeds in overcoming us, in hindering us, because it causes us to think of ourselves. It causes us to focus on ourselves rather than on the Lord. It causes us to magnify these oppositions more than the glory, the presence, the help of God. That's the snare the fear of man brings, a snare because it causes us to think of ourselves, causes us to forget God and His work that we are doing, and His purpose that we are fulfilling, and His presence that is with us. Fear of man brings this snare.
Remember in Numbers 13, when the twelve spies had gone through the land? Remember how the ten spies came back with the evil report? Numbers 13:26-33, “These spies went through the land and “brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.”
“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
That's the fear of man. Our opponents are giants, we are grasshoppers. They look down on us, they despise us, they can crush us. We are nothing to them, we are nothing to ourselves. But where is God in all this? Absent. Caleb said, "We are able to overcome it." Why? Because his trust was in the Lord. ‘If the Lord delight in us, then he will give us the land’ (Numbers 14:8). ‘He will give us strength to overcome.’ “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). But the danger with discouragement is that we forget. We forget God. Therefore, we are helped to overcome discouragement.
Our antidote to discouragement is to remember the Word of God, to remember that we are doing God's work, that we are doing what He has called us to do. That's our strength, that's our confidence. He is with us. And that recognition comes by faith. It comes when we can tie what we are doing to the Word of God, when we can see our directive in Scripture. There's great strength in that. And we can say, "We are doing the work of God. We are building the house of God. We are doing what He has commanded us to do." There's great strength in that, there's great confidence in that.
And we can maintain that recognition, then we can persevere because we know we are doing what God has called us to do, then we can trust that He will be with us, then we can trust that He will enable us to overcome, then we can trust in the promise of the Lord when we are building the house of God, when we are serving Him and building the church, then we can rest secure in what the Lord said: "I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." That's the Lord's promise. He said, "I will build my church." If that's what we are doing, then we can rest in that promise.
Nothing can prevent God's purpose from being fulfilled. If we are working out that purpose, then we need not fear. No opposition can overcome, no opposition can overturn or overthrow what God has purposed to do. That's our antidote, to see and recognise that we are doing God's work and He is with us. That will enable us to persevere because we can trust in His protection. May the Lord help us to do that because again, as we seek to serve the Lord, there will be opposition. We need the strength that comes from understanding these things rightly in light of God's Word. Let's close with a word of prayer.
Oh Father in Heaven, once again, we give You thanks and praise for this encouragement from Your Word that we are called by Your grace with this great privilege to serve You, to do Your work. We have this great promise that You are with us. The Lord Jesus Himself promised this, "Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world." Surely, we can trust in that promise. It is a Word that cannot fail. So we pray You will strengthen us against all discouragement, when the enemy opposes, when the hindrances and obstacles seem very great. We pray You will strengthen our hands, that we may rise up in faith and continue and persevere, trusting in Your protection. For You never fail, and You never break Your promises. We pray that You would keep us from the fear of man and from that snare, and give us strength for the work that lies ahead. And commit all this once again into Your hands. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
THE BOOK OF EZRAMessage 1: Privilege and Promptness in ServiceMessage 1: Privilege and Promptness in ServiceEzra 1:1-11
Message 2: Precept and Praise in ServiceMessage 2: Precept and Praise in ServiceEzra 2:1-3:13
Message 3: Perseverance and Protection in ServiceMessage 3: Perseverance and Protection in ServiceEzra 4:1-5:5
Message 4: Prudence and Providence in ServiceMessage 4: Prudence and Providence in ServiceEzra 5:6-6:22
Message 5: Preparation and Perspective in ServiceMessage 5: Preparation and Perspective in ServiceEzra 7:1-28
Message 6: Purpose and Prayer in ServiceMessage 6: Purpose and Prayer in ServiceEzra 8:1-36
Message 7: Piety and Penitence in ServiceMessage 7: Piety and Penitence in ServiceEzra 9:1-10:44