Obstacles on the Journey

Re-calibrate

I like Using GPS on my phone even if I think I know where I am going.

But sometimes the GPS wants me to go a way I really don’t want to go and when I go the way I want it starts saying, quite calmly, “Re-Calibrating” and then it will give me directions to get back on the path it wants me to go.

The way it is taking me, I know, is riddled with traffic or is just not as direct as if I go the way I know.

Often I will just turn off the sound and keep heading my own way.

The more I hear the urges, the more I question what I know to be true.

The gentle nudges of my GPS wouldn’t send me barreling into destruction, but it is a nudge in the wrong direction.

On a much larger and more critical scale, we face the challenge daily to calibrate our lives on the right path with the Lord.

Last week looked at Ezra 3, how God’s people began rebuilding their lives in Jerusalem by placing God at the center, by making worship the focus of their rebuilding.

In Ezra 4 the people now face a large and dangerous obstacle in their rebuilding efforts.

And though it comes from outside of them, the true battle is in their own hearts.

Structure of Ezra 4

There is a unique structure to this chapter that is important to recognize.

vv. 1-5 fall into chronological order with the chapter 3.

They build the alter and then begin to work on the Temple.

By verse 5 they are encountering opposition from the people that were already in the land.

vv. 6-23 is an aside from Ezra where he talks about the different opposition the people of God have faced throughout the 100 years they have been rebuilding the city.

He has a purpose in doing this which we will get to, but understand that this section is not chronological.

Ezra is likely writing this account during the time of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the city.

So the account of verse 1-5 is 70-80 years ago and the content of 6-23 are recent or present events.

This is important to understand why Ezra is including these accounts next to the account of the rebuilding of the Temple.

vs. 24 then goes back to the chronological account and fast-forwards the story by about 16 years to around 520 BC.

The Temple was completed in 516 BC

The Challenge of Faithfully Following

Ezra 4:1–5 ESV

1 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.” 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.” 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.

The people of God have began to rebuild the Temple and are approached by “adversaries from Judah and Benjamin” or the people of the land who were already living in Jerusalem.

We had been introduced to them in chapter 3 (God’s people feared them and so they built the alter).

The adversaries offer to help rebuild the Temple, which would have been an attractive offer in a lot of ways.

More labors, more resources, faster completion...

But Zerubbabel and the others turn down their offer. Pay close attention to his words:

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.”

They may sound harsh, but there is clarity in them.

The people had claimed that they worship God the same way God’s people do, which is a false statement.

They point back to when they came into the land, which is found in 2 Kings 17.

Some 200 years before, the Assyrians had conquered the Northern Kingdom in Samaria and the King scattered the Israelites and brought others into the land who were from other nations.

They had been taught how to worship and sacrifice to the Lord, but we find our in 2 Kings 17:33 how they actually worshipped God for the past 200 years.

2 Kings 17:33 ESV

33 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.

They were pluralists or syncretists, meaning that they worshipped the God of the bible as one of the many gods in their buffet of worship.

So as they came to Zerubbabel offering to help, it was clear to him that they were not true believers and that he must refuse in order to remain faithful to God.

Here we find our first principle for staying faithful to God in the journey of life:

1) Recognize the danger of SUBTLE COMPROMISE.

The issue at hand was syncretism.

The people of the land had brought together gods and worldviews from their home lands and merged them (synced them) with the faith of God’s people.

They were seeking the benefits from all the gods rather than focusing their worship and devotion to the one true God.

This syncretism is the very reason God has brought His people out of Jerusalem in the first place.

God is a jealous God, not because He is evil, but because He is worthy of all praise and glory, we as humans we made to bring Him praise and glory. So for Him to be forced to share that glory and praise with any other god is ridiculous, especially knowing that there is only 1 God.

The temptation to compromise here is subtle:

God’s temple would be built and it would be built faster and maybe better if they just let them help.

Plus, maybe it is an opportunity to lead some of these guys to the Lord. Teach them who God is and how He is the only one to worship.

Not to mention it wouldn’t rock the boat. They were already scared of the people in the land, why would you want to poke the beast anymore.

The temptation to compromise really is an issue of idolatry as we are choosing to worship something other than God or something in addition to God (which is basically the same thing.

Jesus says we do this with money in Matthew 6:24 when we

The real motivation behind syncretism is to diversify our investments in hopes we can get as much each and every god we serve.

I don’t anyone in here has a collection of Buddha statues, or a Hindu shrine, or a Muslim prayer carpet in your home.

We likely don’t worship at the alters of other gods like the people in Ezra 4, but the gods we set beside the one True God are the gods of success, the gods of safety and security, the gods of family, the gods of comfort, and so many others that don’t seem like they are that opposed to the God of the Bible.

Heres the truth, the people in Ezra 4 didn’t think their gods were all that opposed to God either. “For we worship as you do”.

It isn’t about self denial or denying things of the world.

It is about what is at the center, what we are pursuing, and what we are finding our security and satisfaction in.

It is so easy to compartmentalize God, relegating him to “Christian activities” around church and our spiritual disciplines without thinking of him in the way we navigate our marriages, discipline our children, spend our money, enjoy our recreation, or even study for exams. According to Gallup polls and sociologists, one of the greatest scandals of our day is that “evangelical Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered and sexually immoral as the world in general.”³ "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" by Peter Scazzero.

The People of God understood that whatever they gave themselves over to is what they would become a slave to.

Romans 6:16–19 CSB

16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

Don’t become a slave to compromise.

But know the road of righteousness is riddled with obstacles.

2) Recognize the consequence of SPIRITUAL FIDELITY.

The decision to stay faithful to God and not compromise was a costly and difficult decision for God’s people.

Ezra 4:4–5 CSB

4 Then the people who were already in the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build. 5 They also bribed officials to act against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.

It would have been easier to give in, to let them play a part in the building, to not rock the boat.

Fidelity means loyalty and faithfulness, and is most often used in talking about marriage.

It is about staying faithful to the vows you have made and the truth that is binding.

But fidelity is not easy, especially in regards to staying faithful to God in a world that is opposed to Him.

It is often easier in our lives to choose the way of least resistance, the way the crowd is going, the way that is acceptable.

Luke 9:23–26 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

The people of God choosing to say no, choosing to flee from compromise, choosing God’s way over man’s way did not chart and easy path for them.

Choosing to remain faithful to God means we act, speak, and live differently.

It means that we are going against the flow of culture like trying to weave through traffic after a ballgame or go against the current in a body of water.

But that is the point of verse 5, God is always by our side and He is always there to meet us at the end.

Matthew 28:20 ESV

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

He will be with us till the end.

3) Recognize the security of GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY.

Ezra points to the opposition the people of God faced over the long journey of rebuilding.

In the midst of opposition as he is writing, Ezra pens vs 24

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.

He writes these words knowing that the people of God could look to the hill and see the Temple that the people of God had finished some 60 or 70 years before.

There is a song by Lauren Daigle called “Trust In You” that speaks so pointedly to this very truth:

Starting in the 2nd verse:

Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings There's not a day ahead You have not seen So let all things be my life and breath I want what You want Lord and nothing less

Chorus

When You don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move When You don't part the waters I wish I could walk through When You don't give the answers As I cry out to You I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You I will trust in You

Bridge

You are my strength and comfort You are my steady hand You are my firm foundation The rock on which I stand Your ways are always higher Your plans are always good There's not a place where I'll go You've not already stood

And she finishes the song with what really is a prayer we all need to pray throughout our days:

As I cry out to you I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You I will trust in You I will trust in You I will trust in You