Facing Obstacles

KEY VERSE: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up.” —Ezra 5:11

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Ezra 5:1-11

WE READ: “WHEN the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity budded 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.” (Ezra 4:1,2) Zerubbabel recognized this as a ruse to provide an opportunity to sabotage the work. Together with other leaders of the people, he said to them, “Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God.”—vs. 3

Their hypocritical offer of help rejected, “the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building.” They hired lawyers to seek legal means of interfering with the work. After the death of Cyrus, they sent a message to King Ahasuerus accusing the Israelites of wrongdoing in building the Temple. Still later, a letter was sent to King Artaxerxes, explaining that the Jews were rebuilding the “rebellious and the bad city,” and demanding that a search be made “in the book of the records of thy fathers” for the purpose of proving that Jerusalem had been a rebellious city.—Ezra 4:6-16

Actually, the Israelites had not at this time started to build the walls of the city. It was the Temple that was being rebuilt. But these shrewd enemies of God’s people led the king to believe that it was the city and its walls that were being built. Naturally the ‘records’ of the ‘fathers’ would prove that the Israelites had never been too cooperative with their heathen neighbors, so the reply came back from the king that the work of building was to cease. And it was stopped.—vss. 17-24

Years passed with no further work being done to rebuild the Temple. Then the Lord raised up two prophets—Haggai and Zechariah—and through them “stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.”—Haggai 1:14

Just as before, however, the enemies of Israel endeavored to hinder the work. Now, however, Zerubbabel and the people were more determined than in the beginning. Their zeal for the Lord and their courage to do his bidding strengthened them to defy their enemies. Asked by whose authority they were resuming the building of the Temple, they replied that it was by the authority of their God. Added to this was the information that years before, a decree had been issued by King Cyrus that the Temple should be built.—Ezra 5:3-16

Again a letter was sent to the king of Persia, the overlord of Israel, explaining the situation, and asking that a search be made to discover whether or not such a decree had been issued by Cyrus. The search of the records was made and Cyrus’ decree was found. Thereafter the king was governed by it, and sent back word, “Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place.”—Ezra 6:7

The decrees and laws of the Medes and the Persians could not be changed. The elders of Judah were free to resume their Temple reconstruction work. Thus does the Lord work in mysterious ways his wonders to perform!

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