Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,
they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.”
But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build
Truth: When we are in the midst of building a work for God, there will be opposition to that work.
The book of Ezra is about the exiled people of Israel returning to Jerusalem, after years in captivity, to rebuild the Temple. One king of Persia, Cyrus, decreed that they could go back to establish the proper worship. They actually were able to start the building and even had a celebration service of sacrifice and praise sung to God. Yet, as we read above, we see that there was resistance from those in the land. Out of jealous and a desire to control, they attempted to join the work. But, the leadership recognized their plot and stopped them from joining the effort. But, that didn't stop them. Once King Cyrus died and a new king was in place they wrote disparaging letters to the authority to have the work stopped. Their jealousy about the work caused them to stop others from doing the work. They proposed joining the work, but when they couldn't be "large and in-charge" they fought to stop the work. Nothing has changed much today. When people are envious and jealous about the glory and credit others are getting, they want to discourage the work. Writing abusive and untrue letters is a main weapon for these type of folks. We have to realize that others will do this when the work is not their work and they can't have credit or a part they want in the work.
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