Ezra 4 Bible Study (Adversaries Oppose Temple Rebuilding/The Letter to King Artaxerxes/The King Orders the Work to Cease) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Book of Ezra Series)

Let's turn in our Bibles now to the book of Ezra, chapter 4.

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

We have not been together in the book of Ezra for a couple of

weeks now, so I think it will be helpful to refresh our memories

of where we are in the study. The. 1st wave of exiles have

returned and established themselves back home.

They did not wait very long to re established the brazen altar,

to offer right sacrifices and to even lay the foundation of the

temple down. Now the site of this progress

got mixed reactions from the remnant.

The younger generation rejoiced those who lived long enough,

however. To see the grandeur in the

splendor of Solomon's temple. Interestingly, strangely,

perhaps wept, they could not help but compare the glory of

the former temple with the, in their perception, inferior

quality of this newer structure. And so they were broken about

it. And what you?

Had at the end of Ezra chapter 3 is this mingling of sounds.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

You had the shouts of praise from the younger and from the

seasoned Saints. You had sorrow and weeping.

But as we're about to discover in this new chapter, there is

also going to be reactions from a different group of people.

They have been relatively quiet since the Exiles have returned

to the Promised Land, but that's about to change.

And what we are going to discover in this new chapter is

that the response of this particular group is not only

disturbing. It's actually quite dangerous.

And that really sets up the main theme of this section of

Scripture, and we can really summarize it in one word,

opposition. Ezra chapter 4 is about

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

opposition. And I want to show you how

that's not something that's inferred or imposed.

That's actually what the author intends to convey.

And so if you're there in Ezra chapter 4, skip over to verse 7

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

for a moment. This is after Ezra describes how

this first group of returnees experienced many obstacles in

their attempt to rebuild the temple.

Ezra in verse 7 is going to Fast forward in time, and he is going

to bring to our attention a letter written by the enemies of

the Jews to a. King, who comes much later in

the story. Look at it with me very quickly

in verse 7. In the days of Artaxerxes,

Bishlam and Mithridath and Tabil and the rest of their associates

wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.

Now Scroll down to verse 16 because verse 16 really gives us

the essence of this letter of accusation.

We make known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and its

walls finished, you will then have no possession in the

province beyond the river. This is strange.

Why? Because at this moment in Ezra's

timeline, the Jews are nowhere near rebuilding the city or

resurrecting the walls. They just finished laying down

the foundation of the House of God.

So what is Ezra doing here by including this document that

comes way down the line with a different king who rises the

power far down in the chronology of the story and inserts it

here? Well, here's what you have.

Ezra is not concerned by providing us his book with

strict chronology. Instead, he actually wants to

emphasize a theme, and the theme is clear, the opposition that

these exiles face in their attempt, in their pursuit of

glorifying and obeying God. So what Ezra is doing is he's

reaching into the future because he's writing this as a

historian. And now he compiles this text

together to show us that these exiles not only faced obstacles

when they return and rebuilt the temple, but also as they

continued to restore all things. So this opposition, it, it began

under the reign of Cyrus, it continued during Darius, and it

extended even in the days of Azuris and Artaxerxes.

And you have to be mindful of that because not just in Ezra,

but in different parts of the Bible, there will be moments

when the author doesn't honor the chronology and instead wants

to present a. Theme.

And so he will bring things in that at first glance may seem

contradictory or a mistake, when in fact that's how many of these

ancient authors put together their information.

And so with this in mind, this is how we can understand this

chapter. Opposition is what?

The people of God should always expect in their desire to stand

for what is right and to obey what God has revealed.

And this is something that we are going to look at.

This is going to be to our benefit because opposition is an

ongoing reality even for the church.

And so as we come to this text, we are going to realize that

the. Evil 1 is determined to resist,

and he is determined to fight as long as you are committed to

living for the advancement of God's purposes.

But his consistency in this regard is not the only.

Thing that's on display, we also find in this chapter his

craftiness. Here's how we're going to

organize our thoughts. We're going to look at six

strategies, 6 devices, 6 schemes that Satan often employs in

order to hinder and harass the efforts of God's people to build

his house. Now this is going to be applied

on a corporate level, but it can be also understood and

experienced on an individual basis.

So, so be mindful of that. And though Satan does not

explicitly mention in this text, his fingerprints are all over

it. And we can find throughout the

Bible how he has a similar playbook to what we find here in

this portrait. And so we're going to begin by

looking at the first scheme by reading Ezra chapter 4 one to

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

three. And we'll continue from there on

and seek to accomplish reading and explaining this entire text.

And when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that

the return exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of

Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of

Father's houses and said to them, Let us build with you, for

we worship your God as you do. And we have been sacrificing to

them ever since the days of Essar Haddon, king of Assyria,

who brought us here. But Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the

rest of the heads of Father's 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.

Can we pray together and ask for the Lord's help?

Lord, the words of the apostle Paul come to mind where he said,

But this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and

straining forth to what lies ahead, I press on toward the

goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And Lord, we pray that you would use this study to help each of

us press on, to help us continue steadfastly in humility, in

dependency on you, with joy as we sang about unspeakable joy.

We pray that you would use this time to help us imitate this man

of God who said follow me as I follow Christ.

So though we we yield now and we ask for you to guide us through

every verse in this chapter, believing that you will speak to

our hearts. We pray these things in the name

of the living Christ. Amen and Amen. 6 schemes that

you and I have to be aware of if we really want to withstand all

that Satan would throw at us to thwart or to derail us from what

God has called us to do #1 compromise.

Compromise. That's quite obvious, is it not?

But not to some. There are those who look at the

response of the leaders in Judah here in the first few verses and

feel as though it was a little harsh, maybe insensitive, and

even unnecessary. Here you are moving back into

the neighborhood. There are still inhabitants in

the land. I think it would be good to not

just build a temple, but maybe build relationships, a foster

harmony, maybe even build some kind of alliance on top of that.

You can use some help exiles and they're willing to offer it.

Now, that might be a debatable thing if the author had not

included the detail in the beginning of this chapter.

Plain and clear. Whatever assumed innocence there

might be on the part of this group of representatives who

approach the Exiles, all of that is quickly dismissed by the fact

that we're told that they are the adversaries of Judah and

Benjamin. These are not friends, nor are

they friendly. We know from the beginning that

these residents have not come to help, that we can actually

question their motives because we're told that they're enemies

of God's people. So whatever they're presenting

here as a veneer, we have every right to see that this is

actually a veiled sabotage. This is something sketchy, this

is something to question. And the way that they're

actually going to try to take advantage and hijack the

resurrection of this temple is by trying to convince these

exiles to form an unholy alliance.

There's no hint here that they're going to physically

assault or damage the structure. That would actually be a foolish

move because they have some knowledge that the King of

Persia gave them permission and even the funds to actually build

it. So what are they going to do

instead? They're going to try to

contaminate the House of God. And we can confirm this further

when we understand the origins of these adversaries.

Where do they come from? Well, we have a clue here in

verse two. Look at it again at the end they

said, and we have been sacrificing him ever since the

days of Sr. Haddon, king of Syria, who

brought us here. So we studied second kings

together, 1st and 2nd kings. And we remember that before the

Babylonian invasion of the people of Judah and Benjamin,

there was an Assyrian invasion that removed the northern

Kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes of Israel.

But we also studied that not only were these tribes removed

from their land, but they were replaced.

And this was a common strategy of the Assyrian Empire.

It was a way of disorienting and demoralizing their captives.

They would take them from one place and put them in another

country, and from this country they would remove them and place

them into this region. And that's what they did with

the Israelites. They removed many of them, and

then they replaced them, according to Second King 1724,

with men and women from Babylon and Kuthan, Ava, Hemeth and

Sephirvaiam. And they settled in these vacant

cities in Israel. But these new residents realize

that there is a God of Israel, and so the Syrian leadership

sends back one of their priests to teach him about the God of

Israel. We learned that they attempt to

worship him, but their worship towards the true God was not

pure worship. Listen to this verse, it's very

important. It's actually worth putting in

your margin here in Ezra 4 in Second Kings 17 verse 33 it

2 Kings 17:33

reads. So they feared the Lord, but

also served their own gods after the manner of the nations from

among. Whom they had been carried away,

so they. Devoted themselves to Yahweh,

but they place them on the same level as other deities.

Here's why all of this matters. What you have here in Ezra

chapter. Four are the descendants of

these idolaters. These are the descendants of

those who were placed in the land of Israel and remained ever

since, who would later become known as who the Samaritans.

So this is a generational problem, actually.

It doesn't begin here and it won't end here.

But here's the point that we want to we want to understand if

they had assimilated with these exiles who had returned, it

would have proved to be disastrous for the spiritual

life and testimony of this people.

So many other temptations would have opened up.

You can imagine what kind of demands they would make on the

people of Judah had they helped build the temple.

Well, we helped you. So we want these rights and we

want to worship in this way. Or maybe it would have been less

threatening than that and there would have been intermarriage.

It would have been. Dangerous.

Had they accepted this offer? Here's a lesson for us to

consider. One of Satan's most prominent

devices in getting the church to accept and partner with

falsehood under the guise of honoring God and looking out for

the interests of his people is exemplified here.

And he wears many pleasant masks.

And he offers many ways of fulfilling supposed needs that

we might have in order to be more convincing.

And here's how you and I can protect ourselves from listen.

Dangerous friendships, regretful partnerships, heartbreaking

marriages, and even compromised ministries.

It's not by simply asking those who present themselves to us if

they worship God. That's not enough.

Do you worship the true God? And do you worship the true God

alone? That's what we have to ask.

That's what we have to discern. So you say you believe in the

gospel of Jesus Christ. What do you believe about it?

Don't just tell me you believe in the gospel.

What? Gospel do you believe in?

You tell me that you submit to the word of God.

OK, To what degree and on what issues?

There's a lot of people who pay lip service to the Bible, but is

it the whole Bible? Is it part of the Bible?

You know, there are many people who are teaching in seminars

that don't believe that there's a single miracle in the Bible,

but they'll say they teach the Bible.

OK, what about it? OK, you claim to be a part of

the Church of Jesus Christ and that your church is worshipping

God. To what degree does the church

that you are a part of submit to the word of God?

And how much of your worship is actually instructed by the

principles of the scriptures? See, they, they approached the

Exiles and says we worship the same God as you.

And many people are making the same claim.

And here's the thing though. Those who actually profess

devotion to God oftentimes will expose themselves how by the way

that they live for him. And you find that even here,

what do they say? They said here that they worship

the same God and that they have been sacrificing to him ever

since that they were brought into the land through the

Assyrians. Here's a question.

How did you sacrifice to God when you had no altar or no

temple? Good question, right?

I think so. So you see there are false and

compromised worshippers who sometimes expose themselves and

if they're very clever, it takes a little bit of time.

So I know this may hard may be hard to believe, but you have to

know it that there are many who affirm a desire to honor God and

even build for God but have ulterior motives.

They have selfish agendas in mind.

They are harboring something else that is not in alignment

with the truth. They're out there, and they're

bold enough to even step foot into the Church of Christ and

claim that they are an ally and they're not.

And that's why each of us has to possess discernment and courage

unless we succumb to syncretism. That's you and I.

Open ourselves up to an infiltration of those who have

different ideas and can even harm what we want to protect.

And praise God, these leaders had it.

Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the others, they can smell it from a

mile away. They didn't entertain it for a

moment. They saw right through all the

facade and all the verbiage and all the supposed niceness.

They said no way. We are the pure breed.

We worship the true God. You don't.

And we have nothing to do with you in terms of working together

for the glory of God. This belongs to us and to us

alone. And here's where those who

promote ecumenical philosophies in the name of love, in the name

of Christian unity need to keep this in mind.

Because we see something here exemplary with Zerubbabel, but I

see something with a descendant of Zerubbabel known as Jesus

Christ. You understand that he himself

is a descendant of Zerubbabel, right?

And now only is he from this royal line.

He also had a conversation with a Samaritan.

And yes, Christ is filled with grace and emanating glory and

oozing compassion, but with this woman who is beaten and battered

by her own people, who is ostracized by her culture, when

Christ approached her, that was scandalous enough.

He never compromised in her pursuit, in His pursuit to win

her. You understand that, right?

They had a conversation about many things and one of the main

things was worship. And do you remember what Jesus

said in John 4 verse 22? Let me remind you, He says to

John 4:22

this Samaritan, a descendant of the same group that approached

Zerubbabel, you worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know, for salvation comes from the Jews.

He's drawing a line here. He's making something very

clear. In his desire and in his

endeavor to win her heart, he never compromised.

He says you don't worship the truth.

You don't we do. We have the truth because

salvation has come to the Jews. So this is this is something we

even see in our Lord and our Savior that when something's

false, he was willing to call it false and he wasn't unloving.

That's the most loving thing you can actually do.

And he didn't. Bend and he didn't massage and

he didn't twist and he didn't dilute anything to to try to

allure and to try to win. No, no, no.

He's stuck with the truth. He believed that it was powerful

enough to set the hearts of people who are captives free and

he proved it. He proved it.

But Satan loves to to come and to.

Present himself in a way that seems unharmful, that seems even

optimistic, that seems even fruitful, when in fact it's

compromised. Be aware of that.

But if he can't get God's people to compromise, he will find ways

to discourage. He will find ways to discourage

us in our pursuit of righteousness.

That's the next plan of action in our passage here.

Let's look at verse 4 together. Now then the people of the land

discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build

and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose.

All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of

Darius king of Persia, discouraged.

So the original word actually. Conveys the idea of sinking down

and letting go or relaxing, which is often what you see in

someone who continues in a disheartened state.

Dejection is one of the most common temptations implemented

to weaken Christians in their service to the Lord or to even

just give up altogether. It has claimed many victims.

It has hindered many, many men and women of God.

And though we are not explicitly told how or what they said to

discourage these exiles, we might have an idea from a

different part of the Bible. Nehemiah's own experience is

very similar to that of this first group of exiles.

Nehemiah will be the leader of the third wave of exiles 1/3 in

the final wave and as he sought to rebuild the walls.

You almost have a copy paste of what you find here in his book I

Want You. To see what happens in Nehemiah

Nehemiah 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, let's go with it together in Nehemiah chapter 4,

Nehemiah 4 · chapter mention

beginning in verse one. Remember, Nehemiah comes many,

many years after Zerubbabel and Joshua between the. 1st wave and

the third wave you have a span of 90 to 100 years.

But all the tactics of the evil one do not change.

Look at Nehemiah chapter 4, verse one.

Nehemiah 4 · chapter mention

Now when Sanballat heard that they were building the wall, he

was very angry and greatly enraged, and jeered at the Jews.

And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of

Samaria, what are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore for themselves?

Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day?

Will they revive the stones out of these heaps of rubbish, and

burned ones at that, to buy the Ammonite was beside him, and he

said, yes, what are they building?

If a fox goes up on it, he will break down their Stonewall.

So let's point out a few things of this mockery and this

scornful verbal attack. The first thing that Sambala

does here in terms of his discouragement is that he

targets the condition of the Jews.

What are these feeble Jews doing?

So he, he, he. Wants to under score their

weakness, their inability that they're unqualified, that

they're they're uncapable in themselves to actually do

anything of worth. Another tactic you use is to

emphasize the unlikelihood of finishing it in a reasonable

time. Will they finish up in a day?

What do you guys are actually going to do?

How do you think you're going to actually do this?

You think you're going to do it in your lifetime?

Who knows how they added to that?

Most of you won't even be alive to see half of this build.

You can only imagine. Finally, he underscores the

magnitude of the damage as just to suggest that this, this whole

thing is not even worth it. Your, your efforts are a waste.

Those are you going to revive these stones out of the heap?

These are burn stones, maybe even showing them their lack of

resources. This is all pointless.

If it wasn't disheartening enough, you got this.

Tobiah the Ammonite who chimes in, and what does he do?

He attacks the quality and the effectiveness of the work.

Even if you were to build it, if a little fox walked on this

wall, it would just crumble. So I want to suggest to you that

these seeds of doubt by these men are no different from the

thoughts that frequently arise in the hearts of servants of God

today. You're too weak to accomplish

anything. You're now you're not going to

be able to achieve anything significant or realistic amount

of time anyway. You're too old, you got saved

too late, you wasted most of your life.

Oh you have these big dreams to serve God, huh?

Be realistic. You don't have the resources to

even do anything. Where?

Where are your partners? Who's going to support you?

And even if you do, is it really even going to matter?

Is it going to have an impact? Is it going to bless people?

Nobody knows your name. But Nehemiah here shows us at

least one thing that we have to do in order to prevent these

seeds from taking root in our hearts.

Look at verse 4 of Nehemiah 4. In the middle of this journal

entry. He he breaks out into prayer.

Hear, O our God, for we are despised.

Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be

plundered in a land where they are captives.

What an example, what an instruction for us that when

voices internally, even externally ambush your faith,

you take every threat, every criticism, and you go to the

Lord and you lay it at his feet and say, Lord, you do something

with this. There are times where you have

to respond to people and there are other times you give it to

God and let him respond to them. And you have to develop a

discernment to know when. There are times where Paul spoke

up in defense of his credentials as an apostle, and there are

other times where you don't say anything because it's a waste of

time and energy. Nehemiah, at this point, he

comes straight into the presence of God and he says, Lord, you

deal with these lies. I refuse to believe them.

Be aware, believer, that discouragement is one of Satan's

favorite weapons to deflate us in our faithfulness.

Let's come back to our main tanks and look at the third

scheme that Satan will employ to stop us from building something

for God. It's in the same.

Verse Verse 4 The people of the land discouraged the people of

Judah and made them. Afraid.

That's point #3 fear. Satan loves fear.

And again, like the discouragement, we aren't given

the exact details of his fearful tactics.

But what is clear is that if the enemy cannot discourage you, he

will seek to intimidate you, to frighten you, to make you second

guess, to make you reconsider. And if you and I want to be a

church that is prepared to make a difference, we also have to be

prepared that Satan has his vessels, his instruments, his

tools to threaten you. If you dare to expand or you

dare to reach out and do greater things for God.

Many years ago, I knew of a church that wanted to equip the

members of how to defend and how to evangelize Muslims.

And so they just started, if my memory serves me right, they did

one evening service. They had evening services and

then the second one came along the second week and I was told

this that they had received, I don't remember if it was an

e-mail or a YouTube comment from an anonymous individual that

said because you were speaking against Islam, I will come and

bomb this church. What do you think that church

did? They didn't delete the comment.

They deleted their videos and they stopped that series of

teachings in Islam. What did it take?

All it took was an anonymous comment from somebody

threatening them to snuff out that light that could have built

up the church and even opened the eyes of those in.

Darkness. That's all it took.

You know, for other ministers, it doesn't even take that much.

Sometimes it just takes some bad Google reviews to reconsider

their biblical methods. That's all.

It takes a thumbs down on your Facebook page for them to have a

meeting. Well, what do we do?

You can't, you can't even entertain the thought of doing

something significant for the Kingdom of God if you are a

fearful Christian. Yes, I understand that there is

wisdom, but a lot of things that people say is wisdom is actually

cowardly fear. And you and I have to decide

we're either going to be a ministry that's going to

interpret things like I just gave as an example to say we

must be doing something right, or allow fear to convince us

that the work is not worth the risk.

I refuse the latter. I refuse the latter because if

you understand how the enemy operates, that you are better

prepared when fear comes knocking in your pursuit of

obedience to Christ. Fear.

I wonder what they said to them. We're not told, but we come to

the fourth point here in verse 5 of Ezra 4.

And bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose.

All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of

Darius, king of. Persia, Frustrate, frustration.

This phrase really struck me as I was meditating on it because

the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin went so far as to

actually hire people to actually pay.

People to counsel against the remnant from building the

temple. This could have been done by

people actually going into the community of faith and advising

them why it's not smart and and maybe they should reconsider.

It could have been sowing discord among the group, but

what's even more likely is that they went out to those who

partnered with the Exiles and tried to persuade them to

reconsider their investments. So you remember back in Ezra 3

seven that this same group received a grant from Cyrus to

do what? Hire the Lebanese workers and

and cedar from Lebanon to build a temple.

And it could be that these same counselors that were bribed even

went out to the Persian courts and spoke to officials and

governors and leaders to maybe change the amount of money that

they're giving to put into different use or to even just

stop the flow of funds altogether.

We don't know. But all we do know is that,

listen, they were so filled with hatred that they were willing to

to reach into their pockets and actually make expenses in order

to stop what God was doing. That should convict us.

These, these were so opposed to righteousness that they were

willing to spend their own resources to stop this thing

being built for God. They bribed these counselors.

How much do you have to despise something or someone to do that?

People love money. They're willing to hold on to

every penny if they could. But for these adversaries to

actually make payments says volumes about their passion.

And on the other hand, you have some Christians who love money

in their possessions more than fulfilling their part to support

God's work. It's a convicting thought.

Here you have Satan's representatives willing to

spend, to hinder, I don't know, just talking about money.

I'm talking about our time, our energy, our efforts.

This is just another illustration, at least for me as

I read it, of how it's possible for those who serve darkness to

outshine those who serve the light in their commitment and

determination for their 'cause God forbid.

Frustration. They they try to make things

more difficult, they try to actually hinder and divide this

group. Whispers from inside, whispering

outside, and now we come to our fifth tactic and it really takes

up most of this chapter. And I labeled it defamation.

Defamation. Look at verse 6.

Now remember Ezra now is fast forwarding in time.

This is a parenthetical part of Ezra chapter 4.

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

He stops the chronology. And he now inserts something

from the future because again, he's trying to present and

emphasize a theme. The theme is opposition.

Look what God's people had to go through.

And so he goes to what? Look at verse 6.

And in the reign of Asuras, in the beginning of his reign, they

wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and

Jerusalem. So now they're slandering.

Now they're actually putting together letters and and

arguments, and they're trying to compile evidence to try to put

an end to this endeavor. And so they reach out to the

Asuras. This is the same Asuras, by the

way, who is ruling and reigning. The world at the time?

In the days of who? Does anybody remember Esther the

same as Asuras and Esther? And doesn't seem like he gave

any attention to it. But it didn't stop this group.

The resilience of these foes is evident in verse 7.

So what did they do? They sent another letter in the

days of Arctic Xerxes showing us that they were not deterred all

again, all that believers would have this kind of commitment

assures didn't answer them. So what do they do?

I just let him build it. No, we're going to wait for the

next king to come up and this is a new opportunity and we're

going to jump on it because he's a fresh mind.

He's removed from the actual historical elements of it, and

we can inform him so that we can actually gain what we're trying

to accomplish. So he's giving us a glimpse of

the future and he's showing us here that even after the temple

was completed, opposition didn't end.

The Samaritans continue to harass and to.

Prick this remnant even as they sought to rebuild the city and

the walls. And as we read this letter, now

we're going to notice some features of satanic slander, how

the devil will actually malign our reputation.

If you're able to overcome compromise and you're able to

conquer discouragement, and you're not given to fear.

And you're not easily agitated by circumstances when there's

things happening in the background that are trying to

frustrate your commitment to the things of God.

Be ready. Listen carefully.

Be ready for your reputation to be dragged.

And to be bruised by those who hate what you do for God.

Let's begin. I want us to rehear verse 7 down

to verse 12. In the days of Artaxerxes,

Bishlam and Mithridath and Tabil and the rest of their associates

wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

The letter was written Aramaic and translated.

Rehab the commander and Shimshi the scribe wrote a letter

against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows.

Rehab the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of

their associates, the judges, the governors, the officials,

the Persians, the men of Iraq, the Babylonians, the men of

Susa, that is the Elamites. Wow.

Pause there. Like who's left?

Everybody you can think of is behind this letter.

Let's go on. And the men of Susa, that is,

the Elamites and the rest of the nations, whom the great noble

Asanapar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria, and in

the rest of the province beyond the river.

This is a copy of the letter that they sent to Arctic Xerxes.

The king, your servants, the men of the province beyond the

river, send greeting. And now, being known to the king

that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to

Jerusalem, they are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.

They're finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.

See how they call? Jerusalem, what they call

Jerusalem, a rebellious and wicked city.

That might have been true of their past, but this is a

chastened, renewed, redeemed generation.

It no longer applies to them. And yet they were characterized

as evil even in their obedience. Be prepared to be deemed evil,

unrighteous, unloving. Fill in the blank

mischaracterized for doing what was right.

But look at the second part of verse 12.

There might be an element of exaggeration here since they

mentioned how they were finishing the walls and

repairing the foundations. If this letter was put together

before Nehemiah, which is likely the case, then these reports

were likely overstatements. They were inflated.

To make the situation seem more dire and urgent.

O king, did you not realize they're almost done?

They have the walls up the city, the foundations are there.

It's about to get very ugly for you, Artaxerxes.

So there might be exaggeration here.

In order to make their case more convincing, more dramatic.

Be prepared, servant of Christ, for others to exaggerate about

your shortcomings or suppose it flaws.

Or situations or circumstances that make you look bad, that

make you look unfair, make you look unwise.

We all. Have this, humans have this,

that when we want to try to persuade or to convey something,

we rely on exaggeration, not even realize it.

You might have seen this too. You might have heard this where

there might be even a complaint of the church or somebody might

be saying something and they say, well, many are saying when

you actually ask, OK, who? It's like one or two people, but

it sounded like a multitude. Many, many.

Well, what do you mean many? Like who?

Exaggeration. This is what we find here

potentially. But look at verse 13.

What do they say here? They go on from there to say now

be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the

walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom or toll and

the royal revenue will be impaired.

You're assuming now these are just now plain lies.

This is speculation. There is.

No evidence whatsoever that if the people had restored

themselves that they would refrain from giving their

tribute to the king. In fact, you actually see the

opposite in Nehemiah. Nehemiah, as a leader maintained

honor and respect to their overseers and their rulers as

they continue to do what God called them to do.

But at this point, they're just now just accusing they're,

they're actually assuming the motives of this remnant and then

projecting it as fact. And I said this earlier about

Paul, that he had to face that more than one occasion in his

letters, we see that the Corinthians, the Corinthians

were being seduced by false teachers.

And one of the accusations that they were making against Paul

was, you know, this man Paul, he's just preaching for money.

He wants financial gain. He's taking advantage of you.

And Paul had to lower himself and say, I can't believe I'm

doing this. I feel like a fool.

Let me tell you how I'm not doing this for money.

Let me remind you how it came freely to you.

Let me remind you that I actually had to reserve my

Apostolic right to win you and to free myself from any

potential accusation. So you find this.

You find this consistently. So be prepared to be lied about

as you serve God. Be prepared to have words

falsely put in your mouth, to have your intentions misjudged

by those who are determined to smear you.

It is very, very common. Well, there's more that we can

say, but let's go over and finish this in verses 14 to

verse 16 and the rest of this letter we read now because we

eat the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to

witness the kings dishonor. Therefore we send and inform the

king, Oh, how pious we're doing this.

For you, O king, this is flattery.

Verse 15 An order that search may be made in the book of the

records of your father's. You will find in the book of the

records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to

kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it

from OF. Old These guys are good.

They now encourage art exerses to look back in the Royal

Archives. And to examine and investigate

the key highlights of the people of Judah that would reveal that,

yeah, we've seen it. And 2nd Kings especially, they

have rebelled and they have resisted and they have refused

their overseers, which ultimately led to their exile.

And they're doing this in order to persuade Artaxerxes that the

same will happen if they regain their autonomy, if they regain

their sovereignty. Say bye bye to your revenue out

of Xerxes. And we have the history to prove

it. Now, listen, some defamation,

some slander is just out of thin air.

It's just pure fabrication. The sophisticated ones, though,

they know how to weave in truth in order to make their case that

much more believable. And that's what they're doing

here. This is true.

They do have that history and it's going to validate their

lies. And I remember reading this

months ago when I was just going through Ezra and my personal

devotions. And when I came to this part, I

rejoiced. I still remember the feeling to

this day, reading this and meditating on it, how it stirred

my heart. It was actually on a Wednesday

because I remember sharing about it on a Wednesday night.

And rejoice about what? Well, here's what you have to

consider. This moment serves as a

historical example of a spiritual reality.

Today, Satan is titled many things, including this, The

Accuser of the Brethren. And he accuses you and I day and

night before the throne of God. And I'm sure that in his

accusation he brings up what we have done in the past.

He showcases and he seeks to remind God all our failures, all

our defiance, every moment of disobedience.

Here's the part that's most exciting.

There's a massive difference, though.

There's similarity between the accusations here and the spirit

behind this work. Our king doesn't believe it.

Our king, more specifically, never holds our past against us,

unlike Arctic Xerxes. We're going to find out here

that Arctic Xerxes actually trust these adversaries and

gives them what they want. And this is where I got so

excited. Lord, I thank you that you are

not like the kings of the earth who are blinded, who are easily

lied to. Who?

Are who are so lacking in their understanding because here's the

reality in the gospel, no matter what Satan pulls out of his

files and no matter what he points to, every single thing

that we have done in the eyes of Christ is stamped with this

glorious truth paid in full, and it's never, ever, ever going to

change. That's the glorious thing about

the permanency of our salvation. You can't know the joys of the

New Testament and the New Covenant if you believe that

that statement, paid in full, can be erased.

Depending on how God feels about your level of faithfulness.

But to know that there is a concrete reality to our

salvation makes us be able to go to sleep so sweetly even though

Satan is staying up all night accusing you.

Now, it's important to note as we wrap up that verse 23 is

going to mark the end of Ezra's parenthetical inclusion of the

future letter and how its impact was made on the rebuilding of

the city and the walls. But let's just read it here from

verse 17 down to verse 23. This is the King's order.

After receiving this letter, the king.

Sent an answer in verse 17 To Re Hum the commander, and Shim Shy

the scribe, and the rest of their associates who lived in

Samaria, and then the rest of the province beyond the river.

Greeting. And now the letter that you sent

to us has been plainly read before me, and I made a decree.

And search has been made and has been found that the city from

old has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have

been made in it. And mighty kings have been over

Jerusalem who ruled over the whole province beyond the river,

to whom tribute, custom, and toll were paid.

Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease, and

that the city be not rebuilt until a decree is.

Made by me. And take care not to be slack in

this matter. Why should damage grow to the

hurt of the king and the copy? Rather, when the copy of King

Artaxercy's letter was read before rehab and Shimshi

describe and their associates, they went into haste to the Jews

of Jerusalem by force and power made them cease.

That's not how this chapter ends.

This is where the parenthetical comments end.

And now verse 24 brings us back to the chronology what happens

in verse 24 and the work on the House of God that is in

Jerusalem stopped and it ceased until the second year of the

reign of Darius king of Persia. Do you see how now he now comes

back to present time. Verse 24, look here carefully is

connected to verse five of the same chapter.

Look back at verse 5 and bribe counselors against them to

frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia,

even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

So whatever they did with Zerubbabel and the leaders and

the remnant of their time, it worked.

It put an end to the building of the House of God, and it wasn't

for a short amount of time. This time stamp in verse 24

should remind us of a different part of God's Word.

Does anybody know where a part of God's Word starts or a book

rather starts with the same time stamp?

Somebody said it. Close, but it is a prophet.

No? Well, I won't keep you too long.

You got it. Hey Guy, look at Hey Guy chapter

1. And this is where we are ending

tonight, because it is here where we will find our final

scheme that Satan uses against God's people as they seek to

build his house, build their faith, build their testimony,

build their ministry. It's found here in Haggai.

Haggai one verse one in the second year of Darius the King

in the 6th. Month.

On the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the

hand of Haggai the prophet, to Zerubbabel the son of Shaltial,

governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high

priest. So back in Ezra 4 we learned

that the work on the House of God ceased until the second year

of the reign of Darius. You come to Haggai, and the book

opens up with what in the second year of Darius the king Haggai

has something to do with the continuation of the building of

the house. And this is partly why look at

verse 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts.

These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the

House of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came

by the hand of Haggai the prophet.

Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses,

while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the

Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

So there was an effort from the adversaries to delay.

The building of the House of God.

But because of this and Haggai, we learned that the delay was

much longer than it needed to be.

And Haggai highlights the justification for their

unwillingness to rebuild. What did he say?

These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the

House of the Lord. What does that mean?

Well, when you collect the evidence from Ezra 4, as we've

been doing, and you merge it with Haggai, here's how this

makes sense. It could be that because of the

opposition, because of the difficulties.

Because of the obstacles the remnant determined, maybe this

is not the right time to build God's house.

Maybe we should just pull back, ease off a little bit, focus on

other things and we can come back to when things.

Are a little easier. Here's the problem, if you

actually do the history and the numbers from when they began to

when they resumed, 16 years, 16 years, and it could have been

more had not God raised up Haggai to step in and say hey,

hey, hey, hey, hey, it's time to get back to work.

What happened here? This is the final point to

consider, Distraction. Distraction.

Satan hinders and prevents us from building God's work on

earth. If he can't discourage you, if

he can't frustrate you, if he can't get you to compromise,

then he can slip in some distraction and that may be

enough. Is God against renovations for

homes and building projects and personal hobbies?

No, What's the issue at hand here?

Priorities. You are working on your houses,

and God's house is still in ruins.

The very reason why I called you out of Babylon into this land is

so that you can rebuild my house.

And that's been pushed to the side.

And we have to be careful because many Christians with

misplaced priorities will justify them with challenging

circumstances, just as this generation did.

You can imagine the excuses that they had in their minds that

they shared with one another. Again, what they said was this

is a must not be the time. And So what did they do?

They. Gave no time to God's house.

Maybe. Maybe there's a more profitable

time, a more favorable time. We're not there yet, so let's

just focus elsewhere. And years have gone by.

Makes you wonder how much sooner you could have had the House of

God if you had just had the same tenacity and holy ambition.

That's unfortunately exemplified by who?

The enemies, The enemies of this people.

And when they couldn't get into compromise, they discouraged.

And when they weren't discouraged, they put fear in

their hearts. And when the fear didn't have

its complete control, they sought to frustrate.

When that didn't really come through, they bribed and they

start spending money. They send one letter to Axers.

He didn't answer. Whoa, wait to art exerts they

sent. What is that and all it took was

a little bit of frustration, a little bit of persecution and

one of these guys do they put their hands in the pocket and

said, I guess it's not time. This is pathetic.

And that's why God had to raise up a prophet to confront their

complacency. Your priorities are not right.

It's time to go back to God's house.

It's time to place him first. And if you.

Read the rest of the chapter, we'll get there.

I don't know, I guess a few years from now, but when we come

to Haggai, we'll see that. This group wasn't blessed the

way they could have been had they prioritized God's house.

Everything that they sought to do and everything that they

sought to, to, to grow in and to build for their future never

reach its full. Potential and God actually says

that in his own way because their priorities weren't right.

Here's my question for you tonight.

Do any of these schemes resonate with you?

I'm I know I'm talking to many here who are servants of Christ.

Why else would you be here on a Friday night to study the Old

Testament? Are you tempted to compromise?

Do you find it difficult to stand for the truth because in

your understanding, you think that we can be more effective

as, as Christians and as a church if we just accept others

who have different views that clearly contradict God's word.

But they come in the name of God and they, they claim to hold the

same Bible and, and they seem like they're, they're in the

right place. Even Jesus looked at the smear

and says you don't know who you worship and what you worship.

We do though, and I'm going to tell you what worship means.

That's Jesus. What about discouragement?

Are you haunted by discouragement?

When's the last time you brought it before God and you spilled

your soul? When's the last time you went to

a trusted friend said, look, I got to tell you something.

I've been keeping this inside but I'm hanging by a thread.

When you, when is the last time? You brought that to the light.

So that counsel and prayers can strengthen you and fortify you

so that you're not trapped by Satan's lies and that the

dejection that that paralyzes you.

What about fear? Are you fearful?

Do you love your life? Do you want to just be a

Christian as long as you don't step on anybody's toes?

Or do you love the glory of? Christ more than your life?

What about frustration? Are you easily agitated by

internal and external problems? Are you ready to quit when

things get difficult? Maybe it's not your life that

you love so much, it's your reputation.

And you have this ungodly addiction to make everybody

happy, no matter what it costs you.

That will kill your testimony and your fruitfulness.

Mark my words, one famous revivalist said one of these old

men. I placed my reputation where I

placed my soul in the hands of God.

I think this final one is more relatable than any of the other,

I'm sure. Distraction in this day and age,

it could be that some of you are itching to check your phone

right now. Throughout this whole study

distraction, it has sabotaged so many people's potentials.

I'm not saying that we can't do anything else in life.

No, no, no. But prioritize God.

Where is he? Where is he?

Only you know and only God knows.

But today, through this Bible study, we've exposed many of

Satan's favorite devices, and we can now come before the Lord and

say, oh God, I don't want to be a victim to any of them.

I don't want to be captive to any of them.

Help me overcome each of them so that I may thrive for your glory

and be a part in building your house.

And that's a cry that he will answer.

Amen. Let's do it together.

We thank you, Lord God Almighty. How something like Ezra chapter

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

4 can make us ready for spiritual warfare.

And we ask, O Lord, that everything that we've heard

would not just be understood, but retained.

Retained for when it matters the most.

That we may be able to quench all of the fiery darts of the

Evil 1. All of them, not just some of

them. So, Lord, we pray tonight that

you would help us identify any of these things that are

beginning to have a foothold and that by your strength and by

your grace, we would slam that door shut and that we would live

secure and steadfast in our faithfulness to you.

And Lord, if there is anybody here who is fearful,

discouraged, frustrated, who might be even in a place in

their ministry where they're having to make a decision, one

that might be compromising. One that might be costly for

standing for the truth. For those who are hurt by what

others have said about them or saying about them.

This very hour, we pray that you would infuse life.

Into our hearts that we would rise above these things and that

we would soar, knowing that you will vindicate us, that you will

keep us, and that in the end, what matters the most is Your

word and what you ask of us, though we now will stand in

triumph, knowing that you have infused on us.

Truth. To endure another night.

And we pray that it would go beyond this evening that would

remain in us for the days to come.

In Christ's name we pray, Amen and Amen.

All right, soldiers of Christ, let's stand on this Friday

evening. Let's turn our attention to the

captain of our salvation and give him thanks for equipping us

to wage war against the evil. 1 He is a good God.