A handful of Jews (relatively speaking) were trying to rebuild the Jewish Temple, after seventy years of grueling captivity. Living in a “strange land” (Babylon), certainly not the Holy Land!

But opposition had risen!

From the mixed-up (ethnically and religiously and morally) people who lived in and around Jerusalem. Non-worshippers of Almighty God!

Ezra calls them “the people of the land,” as opposed to “the people of God.”

“Then the people of the land WEAKENED THE HANDS of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.” Ezra 4:4-5

And this “weakening” business is still a tactic of Satan, folks!

Now, let’s look at our Verses a little more closely …

Our Text’s parallel verb (to “weakened”) is “troubled,” in Hebrew simply spelled “bahal,” meaning “to affright,” to make afraid. Literally here then are some “terrorists” at work! (I guess the Jews have faced them far longer than I ever knew!)

Then the verb “frustrate” is “parar,” meaning “to defeat,” or “to dissolve” the work teams who were building so fervently! “To break” their will to work!

In today’s language they hired (wicked) lawyers (advisers, consultants) to “sue” the builders, trying to get a “stay of construction!”

They did this for years, “all the days of Cyrus.”

Now … back to the verb “weakened.” It is “raphah” and means “to make idle.” Also “to make feeble.” Twice in the King James Version, “to faint!”

In a word, “to discourage” the working Jews … to the point of stopping the project!

The Devil hates God’s House!

Period.

Wow, what a thought this morning!

Every Christian you know is either a strengthener or a weakener of his or her brethren.

And we all know God’s Will in this area.

“Wherefore LIFT UP the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:12-13

Wow!

Jesus to Peter. “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, STRENGTHEN thy brethren.” Luke 22:32

In fact, Jesus’ favorite Name for the Holy Spirit is “COMFORTER!” In English (from the Latin) it means “one who imparts strength, fortitude, bravery!”

Dear readers,  in your Church or family or job environments … do not be a hinderer, rather, be a helper!

Do not pull down … lift up!

Back when Jesus was on earth, His Father woke Him and taught Him “every morning” … to encourage the “weary.” Here’s Isaiah 50: 4 telling us, via Bible prophecy … “The Lord GOD hath given me (Jesus) the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a WORD IN SEASON to him that is WEARY: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned.”

Wow!

Jesus, not a “troubler” of His own followers!

But a Helper!

Go to Church Sunday and try to uplift, encourage, strengthen 2 or 3 of fellow Believers!

I close with Hebrews 3:13. Paul there succinctly says (commands really) … “But exhort one another daily.” And here “exhort” (in Greek “parakaleo”) means “to comfort, to strengthen,” definitions clearly opposite to “weakening!”

May the good Holy Spirit remind us all today (several times optimally) about these truths from Ezra 4 … about being a “helper” in the work of God.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, Daniel 7:25 gives us (in slightly different words) this tactic of the Devil, of the anti-Christ. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and SHALL WEAR OUT the saints of the most High.”

That about says it all!

 

Oh, how shrewd the Devil is!

How “wily,” meaning “skilled at gaining an advantage, especially deceitfully.” A word that reached its peak use about a hundred years ago, and now must be defined.

And today’s Text, Ezra 4:1-3, illustrates what I mean. How the devil himself is “transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:14.

Here’s our Lesson today …

“Now when the adversaries (enemies, trouble makers) of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.” Ezra 4:1-3

Ever heard this maxim? “If you can’t ‘lick’ them … ‘join’ them!”

That’s precisely what these enemies (“adversaries”) did in regard to the Jews who were building the Temple!

Now go back and read the Text carefully. Get the gist of the story.

These people literally “hated” the Jews … yet now they are offering to become “confederate” with them in their construction project! “Can we help you?” But they were lying in their hearts!

Listen: “Let us build with you.”

Then they prevaricate even more, say untrue things. ““For we seek your God, as ye do.” Not so. They had worshipped heathen gods for many years. (Or at least worshipped heathen gods along with Jehovah God. “Syncretism” it’s called.)

But Zerubbabel and his “cabinet” refused this (false) offer!

Wisely so!

Listen again: “They said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God.” The House of OUR God, see it?

Today the spirit of ecumenicity would have overruled this big NO!

“Lets lay aside our differences,” we’re being now told! Let’s not emphasize our “distinctives!” Let’s “cut corners” on any doctrine that might be offensive!

These bold men of old would have said, “NOTHING DOING!”

“NAY!”

Why?

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14

And Proverbs 22:25 tells us one of the main reasons to avoid the wicked … “Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Wow!

Do not let the devil attack you “from within!”

Here (today’s Lesson) is an Old Testament principle that still is critically important today.

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6 again, but verse 17 this time.

I think enough has been said.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Nearly anytime God’s people inch forward, make progress … there will be opposition!

And the Book of Ezra has carefully recorded for us how a handful of Jews, returning from Babylon, built an altar to Almighty God. And how they immediately thereafter started to (re)build the Temple (so far just the foundation, but still advancing toward the goal). Progress indeed!

THEN … came the trouble!

“Now when the ADVERSARIES of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel ….” Ezra 4:1

The noun used here for “adversary” is “tzsar” in Hebrew. It is also translated “enemy” 37 different times in the King James Version of Scripture, to give you a synonym.

The root of “tzsar” is a verb meaning “to tighten one’s grip” on a person. “To bind, to make narrow,” thus “to cause pain!” In other words, “to besiege.” Maybe even including the idea of “applying pressure!”

So clearly the devil has begun to0 fight the work!

Yes, because of evil … good will be opposed.

Listen to Jesus on this subject.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18

Let me stop right here this morning and try to encourage some saint who is facing such difficulty (or difficulties)!

If the devil is fighting … that might be a sign the work you are doing is significant!

Such manifold trials might mean that you have “hurt” him and his nefarious cause … in your recent advances for the Lord!

Jesus again in John 16:33 … “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation (pressure): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Wow!

I either read or heard a Preacher say this once:

“You can often tell a man’s character not only by the friends he keeps, but by the enemies who fight him!”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

The Jews’ Temple (the one history now calls “Zerubbabel’s Temple”) is not yet complete. Not by a long shot, as we will see in a few lessons.

BUT … the foundation has been laid! At least it had by the time Ezra 3:11-13 pronounces this new development: “And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, BECAUSE THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD WAS LAID. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, WEPT WITH A LOUD VOICE; and many SHOUTED ALOUD FOR JOY. So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.”

Wow!

Once that foundation was complete … different reactions were recorded!

The old men loudly wept!

The other people rejoiced and shouted!

This is interesting.

I can see both points of view, I think.

This new temple would be so much less grand than the older one Nebuchadnezzar had virtually destroyed. And the “ancient” men, the elderly Jews, would have personally seen all that glory, majesty!

But the younger men would not have had that perspective, having been born in Babylon. They were just thankful for a place (on Jewish soil, in the Holy Land) where they could finally worship. They no longer had to hang their harps upon foreign willow trees! See Psalm 137:2.

Yet, I must add …

Such crying (so loudly, and almost as if this attitude prevailed: “We’ve seen greater things that you’ve ever seen!”) could have been detrimental to the general congregation!

Maybe crying in private would have been better, at least acceptable!

But not such crying that so bemoaned bygone days! Not in public!

“Things aren’t what they used to be” … that syndrome!

Why not thank God for what He is currently doing … present tense?

Instead of grieving over what (now missing) greater things He had done in the past?

Yes indeed … tell me about God’s great works of history! Think about them too. “Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done.” Psalm 40:5a, likely they very words of Jesus, prophesied a thousand years in advance!

But do not use them to discourage those (in the present, right now) who are rejoicing over a victory (even if small) in their lives, a God-sent victory!

If you Church has a Revival and 1 soul is saved!

Don’t stand up in the testimony meeting and tell about the “old days” when 75 souls got saved!

Rejoice in God’s Goodness today!

I’ll close today with these verses from Lamentations. “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are NEW EVERY MORNING: great is thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

Did you see it?

God’s MERCIES are NEW EVERY MORNING!

Not just new LAST YEAR!

Amen.

“GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS, O LORD!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

A phrase in Ezra 3:8 has caught my attention … “ALL they that were come out of the captivity.”

Here are those words again, in their context, in their proper verse setting. “Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and ALL THAT WERE COME OUT OF THE CAPTIVITY unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, TO SET FORWARD THE WORK OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD.” Look at the cooperation here!

“All,” in Hebrew “kol,” meaning “the whole” of a group, no exceptions!

This scenario reminds me of a situation in the Book of Nehemiah (chapter 3) … when 42 different work groups labored so harmoniously to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Just a few years later than our Text today, in fact.

“All that were come out of the captivity … set forward the work of the House of the Lord!”

Wow!

Wouldn’t it be great if our local Church families worked that well (in unity) next year, this fresh year I mean. (I am writing this particular lesson Monday morning, January 1st, 2018.)

And our families lived in such peace the next year as well?

That we would all (who believe in Jesus our Lord and Saviour) would seek to serve His Cause, without “murmurings and disputings?”

That the GOAL would be (in our hearts) GREATER than our lesser personal differences!!!

The Goal of magnifying Christ!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell