The opposition arrive.
When Assyrian overran the northern kingdom of Israel, they shipped in foreigners to mix with the remnant of Jews left in the northern kingdom. That created the Samaritans and other mixed people, who did honor some Jewish traditions, but also followed their own, for a syncretistic religion. Syncretistic means a blending of religions. You can be a Christian and let syncretistics beliefs in. Fro example, if you believe in crystals, or yoga, or if you're afraid of voo doo, or if you have other superstitions. Or if you're OCD and you think you are able to control things that are under God's sovereignty, these are syncretistic beliefs. We always have to be on the lookout for these tiny corruptions, because they can alter the trajectory of our faith and the faith of those around us.
I'm really guilty of this. Being raised in an unchurched household and attending public school and college, the secular worldview saturated my thinking. I'm constantly having to repent of misunderstandings and plain old bad theology. While I have good excuses for how the errors in thinking came in, I am responsible to seek the Lord all of my days and learn everything I can in the time I've been given.
So, back to our story. These hybrid groups stayed behind and were living on the land for the 70 years of the Jewish captivity. When word arrived to them that the Jews were back and rebuilding the Temple, they came and offered to "help". Verse 1 clearly labels them as enemies of Judah and Benjamin.
Here's the case they made for why they wanted to "help": "“Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here."
How many time do we hear people claim to be Christians. Not to mention actual cults such as Islam, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses. And maybe some of those people believe it; but mostly, they know they are lying and it's a way for the camel to get his nose under the tent.
Jerubbabel and the leaders refused the help with this response:
But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.” Ezra 4:3
Notice what they didn't do...they didn't use inclusion as an excuse to let the enemy into the rebuilding process. They didn't change what they believed out of compassion and love. They stayed faithful to the Lord and the commandment from King Cyrus. We cannot compromise on our worship. There is loving acceptance of others. There is a place for compassion and caring; but it cannot deteriorate our faith. It showed faith to believe they could do it with those who returned from Babylon. Not only that, but part of what led to the captivity was trusting foreigners, instead of trusting the Lord. These leaders passed this test.
Here's how the enemies (who claimed to be seeking the same God) behaved in response when their first plan failed:
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building,
and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. Ezra 4:4–5
First, they tried frightening them. A direct threat to safety. How many times does God tell us, do not be afraid. He knows the enemy starts with frightening us with our physical safety and stop us from the gifting given to us. As long as our embodied spirits are exposed through our five sense, we are vulnerable to fear. We have to fight back with prayer, discernment, and faith.
Second, the enemy went to the government and paid for lobbyists to counsel the government against the Jews. Because Daniel had passed away by this time, there was no high government official to lobby back.
This official, paid lobbying happened from kings Cyrus, Darius, Ahasuerus (Xerses I), and then to Artaxerses. The letter was written in Aramainc, which was the commercial language of the time, so it had to be translated out of Aramaic. That is a very specific detail to be included. the letter was against Jerusalem. (Ezra was originally written in Aramaic.)
- They included a long list of people who they claimed supported them in their letter.
- They claimed to be servants to the king.
- They called those who returned to Jerusalem rebellious and evil.
- They described the rebuilding of the Temple.
- They claim that once the Temple is built, the Jews will stop paying any tribute and revenue will dry up. [Which should be true. The Jews only owe God their sacrifice. He is their King.]
- They claim the letter is sent out of honor for the king.
- Notice the use of flattery, deception, partial truths, and bad intentions. This is how the enemy still comes after us today. We are completely dependent on God for our defense. We have to remember that bad people have been telling lies and trying to dishonor God's people for millennia.
- The letter goes on to send the king into the history of the region to see that Jerusalem has been rebellious in the past, leading it to be laid bare. Sadly, the history was of God's people indeed being rebellious by making peace with these enemies. Very ironic.
The king replied to them all.
- He confirms that he had the records searched and found it true that Jerusalem had been rebellious against these foreign kings. [Which wasn't rebellion but occasional faithfulness to God.]
- He also found that Jerusalem had been paying tributes to other kings.
- He demands that they stop building until he can make a decree.
- He warns them of failing to do what he says.
Now that they had this letter from the king, they raced to Jerusalem and stopped the rebuilding by force of arms.
Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. Ezra 4:24
Dark days. How utterly discouraged they must have felt.
Ryrie states that the building was halted until 520 BC. I'm not sure, but it seems like the first letter was written in 486? If so, the building was on hold for over 50 years. That is a very long time for this remnant to live on "pause".
God is playing the long game. None of this came as a surprised to Him. As long as we're faithful to our part, results belong to God.
Amen.