Ezra 4:4,5 Discouragement, Fear, and Frustration

If you have been a Christian long, or it really doesn’t have to be that long, you will have times and circumstances where you think God could and should have done a little more than He did at the time.

I had to laugh when I read this story again in the book of Ezra about all the problems they encountered while trying to rebuild the Temple.

The people had just returned to their homeland after having been exiled far away in another country.  The center of their religious life was the Temple.  It had been built centuries before by King Solomon but was destroyed by the Babylonians who then took the remaining people back to Babylon.

A later king gave them permission and his blessing to return to their land and rebuild their Temple.

The people who were living in the land weren’t too happy with thousands of people moving into the neighborhood, and they were suspicious of the people associated with the Temple.  They shared the same religion, sort of.  The people then living in the land had what we would call a more liberal view of God and religion.  They accepted more than one way to do things, to serve God, and even the idea that there were other gods who also should be recognized and served.

They offered to help them in their work, though some may suspect the offer wasn’t sincere.  The newcomers turned them down, and when they told them that they had nothing in common with them and that they would build the Temple on their own, any idea of friendship was gone.

So they started causing trouble.

It doesn’t go into details here, but it says they discouraged them, frightened them, frustrated them, and then they accused them.  To the king, nonetheless.  And the king made them stop their work.

I don’t know how long the work was stopped.  It’s not an easy number to find out.  At least two years.  It didn’t start until the second year of the next king.

Several prophets of God, Haggai and Zechariah, encouraged the people to get back to work, and they followed. 

Their neighbors complained again.  They want to send another letter to the king.  This time the king told them to leave them alone.  But not only that, he told them to help them.  He told them also to use money from the royal treasury, their tax dollars, to help them.  And if any of them were to give them a hard time, they would be committing a capital offense.  They would receive the death penalty.

So, yes, the building project was delayed for several years.  But now, not only were they protected from any future hostilities, they were receiving material and significant assistance from the royal government as well as from the previously hostile neighbors.  Government assistance today might not seem a good thing, but then having the favor of the king was a very highly desirable thing.  And the kings apparently honored the decisions of their predecessors. 

The Bible doesn’t come right out and attribute this to God’s intervention.  And that’s okay.  As you read the Bible more and more, you learn to see the hand of God all the time.  Difficult circumstances often come to even the best of God’s people, and they have learned not to panic, but to continue in thankful praise to God and to wait to see what God will do.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NASB95) 9 “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.