The Building Ceases | Ezra 4 (Mark Evans)

In the book of Ezra, God's people face opposition when they start building the temple. Adversaries offer to help but are refused. They then discourage the people and bribe counselors against them. They write an accusation against the people of Judah. The opposition uses tactics of discouragement and accusation. This shows that God's people will face opposition and must learn to endure it. They must also be aware of attempts to co-opt the church and be vigilant in protecting against ungodly intrusion. The church needs to be skilled in the art of encouragement and be aware of the power of bribery. The enemy often claims to speak for the public good but has ulterior motives. Opposition often uses hyperbole and exaggerated claims. Satan is the accuser and uses accusations to attack God's people. If you have your Bible, you can make your way to the book of Ezra as we continue our sermon series. As we come now to chapter 4, and to get us going, I'll read the first six verses of Ezra chapter 4, Ezra chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. And these are the words of the true and the living God. 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 the rubbable and the heads of the 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 him ever since the days of Ezra Haddon, the king of Assyria, who brought us here. But the rubbable, Jeshua, 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. And 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 purposes all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. And the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Holy Father, God of all strength, who is able to do abundantly more than all that we ask or think, and so we do pray that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us ears to hear, that you would give us a heart that is holy towards you, a heart that knows what it is to trust Christ all of our days, to truly say to live is Christ, to die is gain. In his name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well, it's now common wisdom of warfare that you are to know thy enemy, know thy enemy. And one of the great fictional, yet in many ways factual, accounts of our enemy's tactics comes from C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Now, I know that book depicts the advice of this senior demon, his name is Screwtape, and he's mentoring this apprentice demon named Wormwood, he's advising him, here are some tactics on ways you can trip up the Christian. At the very start, he counsels Wormwood, in particular to, quote, work hard on disappointment. Have you ever been disappointed? To ask such a question is, of course, to nearly answer the question. And Screwtape gives some very practical examples. It says you can disappoint the newly married couple after their honeymoon. Now they have to get on the hard labor of learning to live together. We could add to that, of course, the disappointments that come with raising children, of a career going south, of a friendship dissolving, of a goal striven for but not obtained. How about of your good name being slandered, maybe even accused, and on and on it goes. So Screwtape tells the young demon, quote, in every department of life, disappointment marks the transition from a dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. Such disappointment is exactly where we find ourselves in Ezra 4, as we see for the first time in the book, God's people transition from this dream, this aspiration of building the temple to a head-on collision with an opponent. This chapter reminds me that man is born under trouble as sparks fly upward. And so we must learn, you and I must learn the art of being comfortable in the uncomfortable. You and I must acquire a kind of godly fortitude that knows how to persevere through the opposition and through accusations. Now that said, before we dive into Ezra 4, let's just survey for a moment where are we. Let's zoom out and appreciate, once again, the grand narrative of the Old Testament, that our God covenanted with Israel to be His special people. He promises them land, offspring, and blessing. And Israel did experience those blessings for a time, for a season, until Israel went after, lusted after false gods and idols. And so God brought down upon Israel the covenant curse of exile. So Israel goes into captivity by the hands of her enemies. And remember, that's exactly where the book of Ezra picks up. And so chapter 1 began with the good news, the gospel of Ezra, you could say. And that God was restoring His wayward people back to Himself. We've witnessed God's unbelievable kindness and grace that in exile, God said, you can come home. Against all human odds, He said, come back to the promised land and build Me a house. Not because God needs a home, but because we need our God. And so through the temple, God was going to dwell once again with His people. Unbelievable blessing. And we could say, so far, so good. Up to now, God's people have listened. They have responded. They have obeyed. They have rolled up their sleeves and they have gotten to work. They've even laid the foundation, overcoming some fears and praising God all along the way. And maybe you think, that's all well and good, but such smooth sailing does not characterize my Christian life, my Christian experience. Where's the conflict? Where are the battles? Where is the disappointment? This sounds more like a storybook fairytale than it does the Christian life. We'll enter chapter 4, because when the bell rings of chapter 4, God's enemies come out swinging. And so we'll walk through this text and look at it in three parts. We'll look at, firstly, the opposition, secondly, their accusation, and then thirdly, what's the answer? What's the outcome? Let's start with the main point, that God's people, you and I, will and must face opposition. You and I will and must learn how to endure opposition of the enemy. And on that cheery note, let's look, firstly, at the opposition in the first six verses. You see, these first two verses introduce our antagonist. But you see, they're cloaked in this very diplomatic, very polite posture. It reads, the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, they heard about the returned exiles building a temple. So, verse 2, they approach them and they say, let us build with you. We worship your God as you do. We've been sacrificing with them since the days of the king of Assyria. So, you see, these adversaries, they read the Twitter feed, they discover, oh, there's a temple being built, and they want to join in. And now, kids, notice their introduction is not, hi, we're your enemies, can we join you? No, of course not, right? Kids, remember, Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. And so, you see, their allure is, we worship your God just the same way that you do. We are with you. We're one of you. We are one of your brethren. So, let us build with you. Now, just for context, at this point, Israel certainly could use the manpower to help build. If you remember that long list of names from chapter 2 that we looked at two weeks ago, it listed the Levites, and there were 74 Levites employed to work on the temple. And just to give you a comparison, during Solomon's time when he was working on the temple, he had 24,000 Levites working on the temple. So, you can see how enticing this would be for the people of God, to have many hands make light work. But at what cost? At what price? Because this asks, who exactly are these people? Well, you see, their biography gives them away. They reveal, in verse 2, that they are from the Assyrian Empire. Now, just a quick history lesson there. Jesus' Babylon conquers Judah in the south, Assyria conquers the northern tribes of Israel. And more to the point, Assyria's culture was that of syncretism. That is, you can worship Yahweh, and you can worship our gods. You can worship Yahweh, and you can worship the Assyrian god of Marduk, for example. And so, these men are rank and file pluralists. They're not interested in loving the Lord God with all their heart and mind and soul and strength. And so, when they say, let us build with you, because we're one of you, now a very discerning decision, hard decision, has to be made. Remember what we saw last week. There was absolutely no problem with Israel cooperating with Sidon and Tyre. In fact, Israel is the one who approached Sidon and Tyre to get help to build the temple. This occasion is something very different. What is at stake here is the purity of the worship and devotion to God. Of course, if you think about it, what they were up against then, we are very much up against now in our time. I'm sure you can think about the many ways that the world intrudes into the church and says, let us build with you. Let us have our input. Let us have our voice in what you are doing. For instance, you can think of the modern state that comes to the church and comes to the family and says, let us build with you. Let us help you to raise up your children. Let us help you to build up the next generation. After all, we have the same goal. We all want happy and healthy children. You see it even more pronounced in the liberal wings of the church. They claim the same Christ and yet redefine morality and sin. There's this pressure of let us build with you, all while attempting to reclassify God's clear teaching on marriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, all manner of sexual idols that counter scripture's authority, all while holding out this claim. We worship the same God that you worship. And we can easily multiply examples, but the point is that the church must be aware that the world will attempt to co-opt the church, even claiming as these men do here, we're a great partner. Let us build with you. And so the church must be ever vigilant, hyper focused on her mission. And that is exactly what God's people do next. You see it in this response in verse 3, Zerubbabel, Joshua, the heads of the fathers' houses say this, you have nothing to do with us. And we learn three great things from this answer. Firstly, you see so clearly that it starts with leadership, followed by the heads of the houses. Don't skip over. You see there, King Zerubbabel, priest Joshua. They take the lead in this resistance. Don't skip over that phrase, the heads of the houses. Once again, it's this very plain, evident call for men to act like men, particularly for the head of the house to take on the responsibility, the initiative, the leadership when it comes to a hard decision such as this in terms of guarding and protecting against an ungodly intrusion. Secondly, we're reminded this is man's great failure, that we can rewind. We can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden and see this is exactly what Adam failed to do, that Satan comes to Eve, posturing himself as a friend of Eve to entice her. And Adam right there should have stepped in and said exactly what Zerubbabel said, Satan, you have nothing to do with us. Be gone. And he failed. And so thirdly, while it is Adam's great failure, this is the second Adam's great victory, that Satan comes to Jesus Christ. And how does he tempt him? Jesus, there's no need for you to even build. You don't even have to build. You can have all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and all you have to do is worship Me. All you have to do is bow down and serve Me. And in him, we find the greatest resistance of all in our last Adam who spoke the final word to Satan, you have nothing to do with Me or with My people. And so for now, Israel does likewise and they say in verse 3, you see that response, we alone will build to the Lord as King Cyrus, king of Persia, has commanded us. And so at this point, in some ways it seems like they hold up this piece of paper and they say, look, here's our Persian permit to build. Remember chapter 1, Cyrus is the one who gave that decree. You can come home and you can build. So maybe this part of the reply seems like a little bit of a cop-out, like the exiles are hiding behind the king and hiding behind the king's legislation. Don't fall with us. We're just obeying the king's orders. But remember, it was God who spoke through the king. Isaiah even mentions Cyrus by name and calls Cyrus the Lord's anointed. It's actually this very shrewd answer by Israel. Most Christians say, you know, we shouldn't be putting our hopes in legislation. And that's certainly true in a limited sense, but that's far different than putting your hopes in God who so often works in and through legislation and political powers to advance His kingdom. And we see that here through Cyrus. Well, hell hath no fury like a person scorned. And so these adversaries realize their advancements are ineffective. So now they are done playing nice. And so they aggressively pivot. Kids, it's important to remember, Satan is nothing if not persistent. Right? Satan attacks Jesus first, and when that fails, he moves on to the church and on to Christians. And you have that very same progression here. The enemy now brings forth what are the two most common tactics of our adversary, discouragement and secondly, accusation. And you see the discouragement right there in verse four. It reads, then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah. And you have the immediate effect. It made them afraid to build. That Hebrew word there for discouragement is sometimes translated to sink or to drop. Isn't that the perfect word picture for discouragement? That our heart sinks, our strength drops when we are discouraged. You remember Moses who could only hold his hands up for so long before they start drooping and dropping. And our chronology tells us this is not just some passing moment. This discouragement went on for some 20 years. The church just reminds us just how much you and I need encouragement. The leaders, the men, they took their stand. They fought the good fight. They did the right thing. And yet here they are discouraged and they are growing weary. It reminds us we must be a people skilled in the art of encouragement, to give words seasoned with salt and with grace. As Proverbs says, in the tongue, in your tongue is the power of life and the power of death. So it begs of you the question, what gear is your tongue in? Is it in the gear of neutral? Perhaps even worse, is it in the gear of discouragement, of death? Or instead, we could use our tongue to build up our brothers and sisters, to edify one another, to stir one another up to a life of good works, particularly in a season of discouragement. Because you see, such edification is going to be needed because the hits just keep on coming. As you see next, our enemy wages this war of discouragement with now even dirtier tactics. They bring in the lawyers, as we all sigh, these counselors in verse 5. And you see there, this tool of opposition in particular is one of bribery. Verse 5 says, they bribed these counselors against Israel to frustrate their purposes. Not for a season, but for all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia. And so as the saying goes, just follow the money. The Bible has much to say about bribery. There is so much teaching in Scripture on bribery, and at a minimum, we need to be reminded, even just wake up to the realization, how real, how frequent, how potent is bribery when the enemy uses it against God's people. After all, our Lord Jesus was delivered over via bribery. And as Proverbs says, a bribe is like a magic stone. In our vernacular, we would say a bribe is like a genie in a bottle. You can get all your wishes to come true through bribery. And bribery certainly can be monetary, but it need not be. The great G.K. Jefferson once said that free love is the most obvious bribe that you can offer a slave. And so we see today, this bribe of free love has created a generation of obedient slaves. Bribery is so powerful. And yet we need to equally be reminded that bribery ultimately never prospers. As Proverbs says, he who hates a bribe will live. However, it is very effective in the short term. And you see that in verse 6. These counselors are paid off to draft up this accusation against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And so now we have our second weapon. Alongside discouragement, now comes that of accusation. And so let's look at the nature of this accusation. And you see it comes in the form of a letter in verse 7. It's written to the king. And so these accusers think, let's go right to the top of the food chain. Forget the state senators. Forget the congressmen. We're going straight to the White House with our accusation. And they employ a well-proven tactic that we see in our day all the time. And that is they lead off with this claim that we are promoting the public good. This is for the benefit of all mankind. You see it in verse 9. This letter supposedly carries the interest of... And just hear the rap sheet here. I am the commander. Shimshai the scribe. The rest are their associates. The judges. The governors. The officials. The Persians. The men of Erica. The Babylonians. The men of Susa. The Elamites. And then just for good measure, the rest of the nations. This is for the good of all people. Just to put that in perspective, that list I just read would be claiming to speak for modern-day Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Turkey. So just ask yourself a question. How likely is it that little Raham and his buddy Shimshai are authorized to speak for what is much of the known world in this letter? But that is the way opposition works. It claims to speak for God's territory. That is all mankind. I'm reminded of the very last line of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto where Marx wrote, and I quote, "...working men of all countries unite." Once again, that's all countries. It's this grandiose claim that communism is for a better world, for all people, for all countries. Any time the claim is made of the world's interest for all mankind, our alarm bells should immediately start to go off. And so that is their opening claim. And you can get the essence of the accusation in verse 12. It goes like this, "...be it known to the king that these Jews are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city." They're finishing the walls. They're repairing the foundations. So we have God's city, Jerusalem, being slandered as this wicked and rebellious city. And how often, if you just think about it, do you see this throughout all of church history? There's this great letter, and it's written second century, circa second century, by this Christian Octavius. And Octavius is having to defend himself against accusations of Christianity made by the Roman population. And he's defending accusations like these, and this is...these are serious accusations. The Christians eat and consume their infants. The Christians engage in incestual orgies. The Christians...this one's the kicker here...worship the head of a donkey. These are serious legitimate accusations that Octavius is having to defend himself against from Rome. And to top it all off, Christians don't pay taxes to Caesar. And that is precisely where these accusers move next. You see the appeal to the king's financial interest in verse 13. And they say, be it known to the king, if this city is rebuilt, if you let this happen, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and your royal revenue will be impaired. So they very shrewdly plant this nefarious idea in the king's mind. If he does not interfere with this building project, it's going to turn the tax faucet off, even these three Persian terms for tax. In our day, it would be like saying you're going to lose out on income tax, corporate tax, and property tax. And so you've got a lot to lose if you do not act right now and stop the building. And so you can see the enemy's tactics of hyperbole, these very exaggerated claims, these acute accusations. And let's just ask, why is it so? Why is this this way? Well, Scripture tells us so clearly, Satan accuses the brethren day and night. Satan's craft, his trade, is that of accusation. And sometimes, of course, those accusations are legitimate, that he comes and he says, do you see yourself in light of your sin? And indeed, how true, on our own, we are guilty, we are blameful, we are stained and spotted, and so what do we do? We must look to Jesus Christ and see that those legitimate accusations have no legitimacy in light of the perfect work of Jesus Christ. But other times, Satan accuses the church with outright false accusations that are totally unrooted from reality, perversions, distortions of the truth, and you find it here in Ezra 4. And what are we to do then? The very same thing, look to Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus Christ who is our advocate, who is our defender, who is our acquitter. And so the letter closes. And just to reassure the king that they really do have his best interests in mind and not their own, they schmooze it on quite thick in verse 14. You see there they say, because we eat of the salt of your palace, it's not fitting for us to witness the king's dishonor. This is all for your honor, not our honor. And then in verse 15 they say, all you have to do is glance at the history books and you'll see this is a rebellious, wicked city. It's hurtful to kings. And was stirred up from it of old. Now if the king really did search the records, what would he find? What could he find? Well, he could find, for instance, Daniel and the way Daniel was loyal to the king. He could find Esther and the way that Esther was loyal to the king. He could even find Mordecai and the way that Mordecai delivered the king, his king, from an assassination attempt. But that's not what he does. And so are the nature of accusations brought against the church. Just think of the accusations levied against the disciples in the book of Acts when they are building the new temple, the new building project of the new covenant. What is brought against the disciples? Well, Stephen, the first martyr, is charged with blasphemy. Paul is charged with being a disturber of the peace and for being a troublemaker, even desecrating the temple. Esther and John are arrested simply for preaching the resurrection of the dead. And we should say, of course they were. They were simply following the footsteps of their master. Just think of all the accusations that are brought against our Lord Jesus. He's a drunkard, he's a glutton, he's a friend of sinners. And those are the light accusations. It gets even more serious. He dishonors the Sabbath, he's a blasphemer, he's misleading our nation, he doesn't pay tribute to Caesar. And perhaps the grandest of all, when they're seeking to put him to death, that he said, quote, I will destroy this temple. And all of it postured as an attack on the public good. You see, it's the very same playbook as Ezra. They bring it before Rome and say, this man is not in Rome's best interest. If you want Pax Romana, if you want Roman peace, then dispose of this man. And so, church, as disciples of Jesus Christ, building a kingdom, you must be thoroughly prepared for such opposition and such accusation. Do not wait until you are accused. It is far too late at that point. As Jesus told his disciples, as they have hated me, they will hate you. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And we are to know exactly what we read from 1 Peter, that if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. The spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. And so this is where God's people find themselves in Ezra 4. Their adversaries have sought to win over the king with bribery, with accusation. They frame it as the most expedient thing for king and country, and now all that's left is to see, will the king take the bait? Will the king believe it? And so let us now look at the outcome, because humanly speaking, it seems as if the entire fate of Israel, the entire fate of the temple is bound up in this king's reply. And so in verse 17, and following, the king responds and he says, yeah, got your letter? I've read your letter. I have consulted the history books. I have looked at the records, and sure enough, you're correct. This city is a seedbed of rebellion. It's a factory of sedition. And you can pick it up in verse 21 and see there the king writes, therefore, make a decree that these men be made to cease and that this city not be rebuilt. So you can see the king has taken the bait of self-interest, and he signs off the letter saying, why should damage grow to the hurt of the king? And so by the king's edict, the one, the only goal of Israel comes to a screeching halt. And so just imagine how discouraging this would be. Just remember, where are we in the story? God, despite all human expectation, has delivered His people from exile, said they could come home. They could build the temple and just think you make the nearly 1,000-mile journey. You leave the known for the unknown. You leave your home. You come back to Jerusalem. You start to build the altar. You lay the foundation. Praise God. He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And now all that momentum, all that encouragement, all that hope, all of it comes to a screeching stop. And why? The stroke of a political pen and the false accusations of an enemy. And so is the Christian life. So is the life of the church. It is by many afflictions that we enter into the kingdom of God. How many times has the church made great gains in growth, in godliness, in evangelism, in prosperity, in God's word going forth? And then it comes to a screeching halt. How easy it is today to look at our world and wonder, what is there to be encouraged about? It seems like the building project of the new temple, of the church, has all but stopped. And perhaps your own Christian walk feels this way. How many times have you made great strives in godliness? Repent. Believe. And there is the enemy waiting for you to see to it that your building project stops. Such is the Christian life with the growing pains as we grow into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And so you see at the end of verse 23, here comes the final death blow, the nail in the coffin, that by force and by power made them to stop. In these words, then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stops. How tempting to say, this is not fair. This is not just. Where is God's steadfast love? Has he brought us back here only for our demise? Or how tempting to have that moment of second guessing. To say, ah, maybe we should have let those guys from Assyria build with us. Maybe we shouldn't have said, you have nothing to do with us. Maybe we shouldn't have taken such a hard turn, a firm decision. Isn't this worse that now we can't even build at all. We shouldn't have been so inflexible. Friends, how important it is to do the right calculus. To not mistake opposition for failure. I trust you see, I hope you see that they are opposed because they obeyed God. They are opposed because of their obedience to God and walking faithfully. We ought never to tell ourselves the lie, I am being opposed because I did something wrong. That certainly can be the case. But you see here so clearly, they are opposed because of their obedience to Jesus Christ. So as we close, let's lay up in our hearts three uses of this great section of Ezra 4. Firstly, a reason to pray for all current and future leaders. A reason to pray. Remember, the first line of attack was to go at the leaders, Zerubbabel and Joshua. And so you can always be praying for our men, for all current, future, elders, deacons and so forth. That they would be men that resolute to protect the purity of the church. To say at the right time and the right place, you have nothing to do with us. As you pray for them, I trust it would only lead you to pray that much more for yourself. You saw that attack reverberated off of them and onto God's people. All of God's people must be ready to stand firm against such accusation and opposition. Secondly, look past all accusations. Look past all opposition and see Jesus Christ who is the answer, God's answer to all accusation. Firstly, through Christ, God has dealt with all accusations and the accuser himself, that is Satan. The accusations that have reality in our sin, in our shame. That our Lord Jesus did not just die a death, He died a shameful death. That He could deal not only with your sin and carrying your sin but carrying the shame, the guilt, the feeling of shame that comes with sin. The Lord Jesus carried that with Him on the cross to deal with such accusations. Secondly, that through Him He deals with all false accusations that might come your way. No one, think of this, no one will ever be more falsely accused than the Lord Jesus Christ. No one spotless, perfect, above reproach like Him and yet no one more falsely accused than the Lord Jesus. And so through Him and with Him the Christian stands firm and can endure such opposition. Lastly and finally, do not grow weary in doing good. Do not grow weary in light of opposition. I confess when I was younger I used to think of that verse as a nice motivational verse. You know, isn't that sweet? Don't grow weary in doing good. I'm not saying that's not motivational, it certainly is. But the more I've meditated upon it, the more I come to receive it as a weighty command. That we are commanded, do not grow weary. Do not grow weary. Do not be easily discouraged. Do not let your heart sink. And how easy in an instance like this. You get a sense, God's people did nothing wrong. They're on the business end of a bribe and there is nothing that they can do about it. For all we know, they don't even know this scheme is going on in the background. And so let's not be naive. In this case, in this particular battle, the opposition won. And the building stopped. And so how then are they not to grow weary? How then are you not to grow weary? Well let us not forget for a single moment that God is superintending all of this. That just as much as God said through Cyrus, come home and build. Just as much was God superintending this command, this letter that said, stop building. And so we are to know that our great God has predestined, has planned all things to take place. And that is why we cannot grow weary. To like the apostles in Acts who said those very words. We know that our God has predestined all of this. Not only did they not grow weary, they grew stronger and stronger. And they grew bolder and bolder. Because they knew their God who has makes known the end from the beginning was with them. And He would never leave them and never forsake them. And so too is the promise for you. Now let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father. Indeed, how true it is that you are always with us. That you will never leave us or forsake us. I pray that we would see that as you have joined us to Jesus Christ. You have joined us to a suffering servant. You have joined us to the one who is full of love for you. And love for man. And yet the world did not receive him. But as our Lord Jesus said, as they have hated me, they will hate you. That the servant is not greater than his master. And so we do pray for us, Father, that we are so often easily discouraged. That we would not be weary in doing good. That we would know what it is to be strengthened by the grace that is in Jesus Christ. That we would know what it is to encourage one another. That we would know what it is to stir one another up to love and to good works. And above all, we would have an unwavering trust that you are the God who makes known the end from the beginning. And that if a battle is lost, we do know indeed that the war has been won by the Lord Jesus Christ who is exalted on high and risen above. And so it is in his name that we pray. Amen.