Resistance to Building The Temple
January 1, 2022
Commentary
When the Samaritans heard that the Jews were making good progress in building the temple they came to them with an offer of assistance (vv. 1-3). Outwardly they pretended to be friendly and cooperative while in reality they intended to hinder and stop the work. Zerubbabel, Joshua and the other leaders saw through their scheme and refused to compromise with these people and dogmatically rejected their help. To some it may seem these men of God dealt in a hard, cold way with these Samaritans who seemed friendly and offered to help. However, if they had agreed to the Samaritan proposal, their whole godly project would have been utterly hindered. These people were sacrificing on other altars and were not true worshipers of God.
After this rejection these adversaries openly opposed the work in various ways (vv. 4-5). It says they “weakened the hands of the people” (v. 4) which suggest that they probably threatened the people with physical force and thus made them fearful. Also they vented their anger by sending letters to Ashasuerus and Artaxerxes (vv. 6,7). They accused the Jews of fortifying their city with the purpose of rebelling against the Persian king and refusing to pay him the various kinds of taxes required of them. Apparently Cyrus and Ashasuerus had ignored the complaints addressed to them but when Artaxerxes came on the scene he sent a directive that the work be stopped.
Application
If I do God’s work I can expect opposition. (II Tim. 3:12). I must be alert to those who claim to be Christians but whose actions clearly reveal that they are using Christianity to serve their own interests.
Ezra 4:1– 5 (NET)
1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin learned that the former exiles were building a temple for the Lord God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders and said to them, “Let us help you build, for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him from the time of King Esarhaddon of Assyria, who brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.” 4 Then the local people began to discourage the people of Judah and to dishearten them from building. 5 They were hiring advisers to oppose them, so as to frustrate their plans, throughout the time of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Darius of Persia.