Today in God’s Word

Today in God's Word—April 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ

April 7, Ezra 4

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 Zerubbzbel 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." Ezra 4:1-2

Would you be suspicious if someone who had made himself your enemy suddenly wanted to join you and help you with a project? Maybe you are sweetly optimistic, and would welcome such a good offer, taking it as a sign that the adversary wanted to reconcile with you. But I suspect that most of us would probably suspect an enemy's motive if he suddenly wanted to help us. Maybe we're jaded, but we may think that the enemy had an ulterior motive behind the offer.

Zerubbabel and the other leaders of Judah and the temple rebuilding project were justifiably suspicious of the Samaritan adversaries who said they wanted to help. They replied, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God." They said they would do it, just as King Cyrus had told them to do.

These Samaritans were people from different countries that the king of Assyria had displaced from their conquered homelands. They lived with the Israelites that had been left behind from the northern tribes when Assyria took Israel away into captivity. It was somewhat true that they had sacrificed to the God of Israel, alongside the pagan gods they also worshiped. The king of Assyria sent a priest from captivity to them to teach them about the God of the land of Judah. They were not true worshipers of God in any sense. They were polytheists, and had no problem adding one more god to their list. But their motive went far beyond offering neighborly assistance, as their subsequent actions showed.

When "Let us help" failed, they moved to the next tactic: intimidation. They tried to scare the returned exiles out of doing their work. When that didn't stop the builders, they tried to tie up the project by hiring counselors (bribing authorities) to issue an injunction against the work. When their hired counselors failed, they sent an accusing letter to the Persian king, slandering the Jews and flattering their captor.

The letter accomplished what the enemies of the returned exiles wanted it to do. The king took the accusations against Judah and Jerusalem seriously enough to order the records checked. Sure enough, there was some indication that the people of Judah had rebelled against the foes who had conquered them in the past, and they had fought a lot of wars and subjected a lot of people to serve and pay tribute to their kings. The king was convinced there was merit to their request to stop the building. He ordered the people of Judah to stop until he gave them permission to continue. With the authority of the king’s decree to back them up, the adversaries hurried to Jerusalem and stopped the building project for 18 years.

The adversaries used some dishonorable tactics against the returned people of Judah. But they did make a statement in their letter to the king that deserves our attention and even our imitation. They claimed they were informing the king because of their vow of loyalty to him. They wrote, “Now because we eat the salt of the palace, it is not fitting for us to witness the king’s dishonor.” They said they were duty bound to report these things about Judah to the king because they had taken a vow or made a pledge of allegiance to Artaxerxes.

Do you hear the principle we need to take from their words? We who call Jesus Lord and King should really be as loyal to him as these Samaritans professed to be to their captor king. How often do we stand by and remain silent when something that dishonors our king is happening around us? Worse still, how often do

we who profess to follow Jesus sometimes dishonor him ourselves by doing our will instead of his will? We should not be content with compromised or feigned loyalty to our King. We have pledged allegiance to the Lamb of God, and our lives and our testimony should reflect our loyalty to him.

Let’s notice a couple of other lessons from this story. We should remember the dangers of compromise with unbelievers. I am not talking about people who share our faith in Christ, but not all our opinions. Those who do not believe in God and do not confess our Lord Jesus as his Son will hinder, not help our work for the Lord if we become entangled in compromise with them.

We should also not be surprised when we meet with resistance as we try to do the work of the kingdom of God. Jesus told the disciples they would be hated because he had been hated before them. The forces of evil will not rejoice with us to see the kingdom of God grow. They will resist and oppose and try to limit or stop any good work that is making disciples of Jesus. Nothing has happened to us when we are opposed by the world that has not happened to generations of Christ’s followers before us. It happened to these ancient believers and servants of God, and we should not be surprised when it happens to us today.

Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.