Ezra 4-6: Wait....You Thought This Would Be Easy?!

Last Sunday we started looking at Ezra chapters 4-6, which is page 485 in the Pew Bibles. Go ahead and turn there now. Truthfully, we didn’t make it far, really just 2 verses. We won’t make a habit of 2 verses a week, but it was pretty key to lay some groundwork for these 3 important chapters.

One of the keys things we looked at last week was the fact that “Our enemy, the devil, knows our every weakness and that is where he attacks first and most frequently.” In fact I gave you room in the sermon notes to list some of the weaknesses you have that the enemy is most apt to use in his attacks. Chances are that if you have thought through those weaknesses this past week, you have been able to pinpoint some of the enemies attacks. My prayer is that you will use that realization, that knowledge, to prepare for those attacks, to recognize them when they come so you can seek the Lords victory over the attacks of the enemy.

We talked about how frequently the enemies uses: Next Slide

Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing

We saw this in Ezra 4:1&2 “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, 2 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.”

We also talked about: Next Slide

The Dangers of the Enemies Subtle Attacks .

I gave an example from my own life when the enemy brought a guy by the name of Steve into my life, Steve knew all the right Christian lingo, was faithful in his church attendance and everything, but he continually pushed me to do thing that I knew were not pleasing to God. I knew that if I continued in this path I would compromise in my walk with Christ, and that was not something I was willing to do.

In many ways that was the story for the Nation of Judah. Look at Ezra 4:3 Next Slide

Ezra 4:3

Ezra 4:3 ESV

3 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.”

You gotta tip your hat to Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the leaders of Judah, they were not about to compromise in their work on the Temple by allowing pagan idol worshippers to come alongside them in it’s rebuilding.

This is where we see the reality of who these people were, it brought out their adversaries true colors in verses 4 & 5 where we read: Next Slide

Ezra 4:4-5

Ezra 4:4–5 ESV

4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5 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.

Had they been true worshippers of God, they may not have been pleased to not be invited to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple, but they wouldn’t have worked against the returning exiles.

The theme of verses 4 & 5 is: Next Slides

If You Can’t Join them , Beat Them.

Since Zerubbabel and Jeshua refused to let them join in the rebuilding of the Temple, they decided to go on the attack. We see them begin to do everything they could to discourage them from rebuilding the Temple, including bribing government officials to “frustrate their purpose”.

By the way, I want to ask you a question right here. In looking at these first 5 verses, do we see any outright physical attacks taking place?

No

Is there any indication that the God that moved King Cyrus to send them back for the express purpose of rebuilding the Temple had changed His mind?

No

Keep those thoughts in mind as we move on.

Now just a quick note, what we read in verses 6 through verse 23 does not take place historically right at that time of the rebuilding of the Temple. One of the Kings mentioned was the King that Esther married, we will learn more about him when we look at the Book of Esther. Another King ruled over seventy years later when Nehemiah and Ezra returned to the land.

I believe the purpose God had Ezra add these other Kings, is to let us know that when we’re are doing the work of the Lord, the opposition never ends, we can always expect the enemy to attack.

But I believe there is another reason God had Ezra add these verses, and that is to let us know that often times the enemy intensifies his attacks on us.

In verse 1 & 2 we see the enemies subtle attack.

In verse 4 we see the attack intensifies to the point of verbal discouragement and the bribing of government officials.

But in verse 23, which probably takes place 60-70 years in the future, right before Nehemiah returns to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, we see the attacks of the enemy now include the use of force:

Next Slide

Ezra 4:23 ESV

23 Then, when the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease.

Ezra 4:23

So, I believe God’s purpose here is to help us prepare in advance for the continued and often times intensifying attacks of the enemy.

As we move into this new phase of ministry at Liberty Chapel, we need to keep these things in mind.

Now let’s move to Ezra 4:24, which takes us back to the time they had laid the foundation stones for the temple of God we read: Next Slide

Ezra 4:24 ESV

24 Then 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.

Ezra 4:24

So, what we see here is the enemies If you Cant Join Them Beat Them plan worked! Because:

Next Slides

Work on Building the Temple Stopped for 15 years .

Keep in mind what we discussed a moment ago, the fact that there is no indication that the God that moved King Cyrus to send them back for the express purpose of rebuilding the Temple had changed His mind?

While God hadn’t changed His mind, they let their fear, remember the fear that Ezra had already identified as their weakness, they let that fear of verbal threats stop them for 15 years!

They decided they would live inconspicuous lives, unnoticed by the people of the land.

That brings us to an important lesson: Next Slides

God has not called us to be inconspicuous, we are to be like a City on A Hill.

In Matthew 5:14 we read: Next Slide

Matthew 5:14 ESV

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:14

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end with the 15 years the work on the Temple stopped, because after 15 years of ignoring the directives of God, we read in Ezra 5:1-2:

Next Slides

Ezra 5:1–2 ESV

1 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

Ezra 5:1-2

So what changed their mind, what woke them up from their spiritual complacency?

God sent the 2 prophets we looked at last week to give the people a wakeup call.

In Haggai 1 we read:

“1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth 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 Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest... 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes...

8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little...the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain..

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God…And the people feared the Lord 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God..”

The wakeup call from the prophets worked and the people once again began work on the Temple.

By the way, I want to make sure we don’t miss something very key here. When we read that the Lord said “I am with you”, we need to understand that this had been the case every moment since they had returned. God did not abandon them when the attacks started. Had they continued to rebuild the Temple, as God had commanded them, He would have continued to give them victory. They quit without giving God a chance to prove Himself.

Now here they are, starting anew the rebuilding of the Temple, then we read in chapter 5 of a second attempt to stop them in their tracks. Next Slides

Ezra 5:3–5 ESV

3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?” 4 They also asked them this: “What are the names of the men who are building this building?” 5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.

Ezra 5:3-5

Now this attack is slightly different, probably meant more to discourage them than anything else, in fact in many ways this was more of a test than an attack. but we see in verse 5 that they didn’t give in this time, they had learned their lesson.

To give you an idea why I don’t believe this was an attack, we have to look into history for a bit. After King Cyrus dies, His son Cambyses. Now Cambyses was nothing like his father and he never fully had the support of the people, and more importantly never had the support of the military. Finally after 8 years of constant conflict, Cambyses committed suicide. The military appointed the next king, who was a strong leader and a distant cousin to Cambyses. His name was Darius. Now Darius immediately appointed many area governors and given them strict instructions to alert him of any potential conflicts. And here we are in the 2nd year of his reign and one of his governors, Tattenai is alerted to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Tattenai isn’t about to take any chances. That is what we read in verses 3-5.

What took place next was that a letter was sent to the current King, King Darius. Asking him to have someone look into the archives of King Cyrus, to see if he had issued a decree that the people should return to the land of Judah and rebuild the temple. We won’t read the entire letter they sent to him, but I do want to look at one very important part of the letter. You see it in chapter 5 verse 12 we read:

Next Slide

Ezra 5:12 ESV

12 But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia.

Did you notice what the Nation of Judah didn’t do? They blamed no one but themselves. They didn’t blame that nasty Nebuchadnezzar for their captivity. They took full responsibility. This is a very important lesson for us to learn. Our tendency is to look for someone else to blame when things don’t go our way. Our upbringing, our family, our spouse, our family heritage, our friends....we even say things like “The devil made me do it.” To push the blame on anyone else but ourselves. The lesson we need to take from Ezra 5:12 is this; Next Slides

When we sin, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

The sooner we learn that lesson, the sooner we will start to see great victories in our battle against sin.

As we continue on in Ezra, and moving now to chapter 6, we see that Darius had the archives searched, and low and behold he found the decree by King Cyrus.

By the way, Persian law dictated that once a King made a decree, it was permanent, even after that King died, all following Kings had to obey the decree also. That is why Darius made a search of the archives.

I love what he does next. He tells Tattenai to leave the people alone, and that he is to see that the cost of the rebuilding of the Temple be paid for from the taxes he collected in that region! That’s what I call a move of God! And just in case anyone tries to cause any problems, Darius adds one more decree. We see it in verse 11 of chapter 6;

Next Slide

Ezra 6:11 ESV

11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.

Ezra 6:11

Next Slide

So, what we see here is that God gave the returning exiles a very important job to do, but as He always does, He made sure they had everything they needed to get the job done.

When God Calls Us to Do Something, He Always Give Us Everything We Need to Accomplish the Task.

He does the same with us today.

So, what are the keys for us today?

First, we need to understand that the devil knows all of our weaknesses, and that is the first place he will attack.

Second, much of the time he uses wolves in sheep’s clothing for his attack. These people give you the impression they are on your side, but if you look closer, you will see they are not godly at all, oh they may wear a spiritual mask from time to time, but the life they live is no different than the rest of the world.

Third, God has not called us to live inconspicuous lives. We are to be like that city on the hill we read about in Matthew 5:14.

Fourth, we need to stop playing the blame game when it comes to sin in our life. When we sin, there is no one else to blame but ourselves!

and last:

When God calls us to do something, He supplies Everything we need to accomplish the task.