Difficulties in God’s work and His purposes (Ezra 4:4-24)

There are periods in our lives when everything goes swimmingly, the timings are perfect, the details fall into place and difficulties evaporate like the morning mist. There are other phases when everything goes wrong, and we wonder why our circumstances are so hard when we seek to do God’s will. As in real life, our passage gives us no obvious answers. Where is God who stirred the heart of a pagan king, as well as His own people and kickstarted the process? Why is He letting the enemies gain the upper hand? Surely the temple building is His work! It is tempting to turn to the contemporary prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to gain perspective on the people’s internal state and, indeed, I shall do so soon, but there is value in sticking with Ezra for now and learning from this sparse account.

Unrelenting opposition

Even at first glance, it is apparent how unrelenting the difficulties were. We have already read about the enemies who tried to join the builders (Ezra 4:1-3, see What does it take to build God’s Church?), now there are attempts to stop the work (Ezra 4:4-5). The Hebrew indicates habitual and repeated actions so that the locals keep discouraging the exiles from the early days of building (about 536 BC) to the second year of Darius in 520 BC (Ezra 4:24). Imagine the effect of having your efforts undermined constantly for sixteen years! Moreover, the rest of the chapter recounts later hostilities when the exiles attempted to rebuild the Jerusalem wall (Ezra 4:6-7, 12). The point of inserting a future incident here is to stress how the restoration was riddled with obstacles throughout.

Enemy tactics

What tactics did the enemies employ? They frightened the people (probably with threats if they continued building) and ‘hired (lit. bribed) counsellors’, that is, paid Persian officials to frustrate the Jewish plans (Ezra 4:4-5). In the incident that follows, the letter sent to the Persian king insinuates a possible Jewish rebellion and the refusal of paying taxes (Ezra 4:12-13), two major concerns for any monarch. It is true that Judah rebelled against the Babylonians before the exile (2 Kings 24:1, 20) and the Persians who conquered Babylon had the historic records to prove it (Ezra 4:19). Yet, in reality, the Jews consistently co-operated with Persian authorities throughout the restoration, so the accusation was no longer true. The result of all this was that the local population discouraged the exiles from building (lit. ‘weakened their hands’ – Ezra 4:4). The hand is a symbol of action in the OT, so this is a visual way of describing the effects of discouragement: it weakens one’s resolve to act.

God’s purposes through our difficulties

The point is that such opposition should not surprise us (1 Pet 4:12), especially when doing God’s work like the exiles were. Scripture is clear that Satan tries to frustrate God’s purposes. Yet, as Peter explains, such ordeals are for our testing (in the sense of metal being tested or purified by fire). In other words, God allows them to transform us by challenging us to exercise faith and trust in Him.

The tactics against the exiles find an echo in our experience. Satan intimidates us through others or through whispering doubts in our hearts. Our efforts or abilities may be belittled, our fears raised of the consequences if we act in accordance with God’s will, our way blocked through circumstances, or through the slander of others. Like the Jews, our past record may come back to haunt us or we ourselves may remember the kind of people we were or can be without God, so that our hands are weakened and our resolve to do God’s work falters.

Although there are good external reasons why the temple building stopped, it is noteworthy how our entire reading is lacking in any mention of God, as if the exiles have lost sight of the Lord, who was on their side. Whereas, after they respond to the prophets and re-start the work, there is a new confidence and God is suddenly in the picture again (Ezra 5:1-2, 5). Our reading teaches us that difficulties may overtake us and halt our progress, but these are opportunities to cling to God and trust that He will make a way for us in the end.

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