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In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”
Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.
And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.
Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows:
Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary, together with the rest of their associates—the judges, officials and administrators over the people from Persia, Uruk and Babylon, the Elamites of Susa, and the other people whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates.
(This is a copy of the letter they sent him.)
To King Artaxerxes,
From your servants in Trans-Euphrates:
The king should know that the people who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations.
Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and eventually the royal revenues will suffer. Now since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king, so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors.
In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place with a long history of sedition. That is why this city was destroyed. We inform the king that if this city is built and its walls are restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans-Euphrates.
The king sent this reply:
To Rehum the commanding officer, Shimshai the secretary and the rest of their associates living in Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates:
Greetings.
The letter you sent us has been read and translated in my presence. I issued an order and a search was made, and it was found that this city has a long history of revolt against kings and has been a place of rebellion and sedition. Jerusalem has had powerful kings ruling over the whole of Trans-Euphrates, and taxes, tribute and duty were paid to them. Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. Be careful not to neglect this matter. Why let this threat grow, to the detriment of the royal interests?
As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shimshai the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop.
Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ezra 4
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever experienced a time when you seemed to come under attack when you set out to do something in service to the Lord? I know I have and I have always used this as an indicator that I am on the right track in fulfilling God’s will. For as soon as we try and accomplish any good and perfect thing that the Lord ordains, you can bet that Satan will be right there trying to do his best to undo it.
For an example of how this has been happening since well before we were born into this world, we can look at Chapter 4 of Ezra.
As Chapter 4 begins, we find the delivered people of Israel at work rebuilding the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. They had already rebuilt the altar and recommitted their hearts to worshipping God with praise and thanksgiving. Now they needed to reconstruct their house of worship.
Things seemed to be going well until “the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel.” We read where they “came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families” asking if they could help build the temple, reinforcing their request by saying that they were seeking God and had been “sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” Part of the statement was right but the entire story was not being told. The enemies were worshipping God but they were also worshipping other gods as well. God was just another god to them and certainly not THE true God, the God who commanded that there would be no other gods before Him.
And so “Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel” denied the request saying that they alone would build the temple for “the Lord, the God of Israel”, doing it “as King Cyrus, the king of Persia” commanded. The Israelites remembered the errors of their ancestors who had allowed others who had different worship standards to assimilate into their community and soon found their community corrupted by the people they allowed in. This led to God punishing accordingly as his people chose to worship false gods in direct disrespect to Him. This new generation of Israelites was determined to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
But the enemy, Satan, doesn’t like rejection. He will not give up.
And so was the case as the Israelites attempted to rebuild the Lord’s holy home.
Scripture tells us that the rejected enemies who lived around Jerusalem “set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building”, bribing “officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.”
Indeed, the enemies were not giving up. They chose to go to the top, to the current king of Persia, King Artaxerxes. They “lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem” in the form of a “letter…written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.” The letter was penned by “Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary” on behalf of “the rest of their associates—the judges, officials and administrators over the people from Persia, Uruk and Babylon, the Elamites of Susa, and the other people whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates.” Note in the letter the clever way the enemy used slander to convince the king that the temple construction should stop. Specifics slights included:
1. Referring to Jerusalem as a “rebellious and wicked city”.
2. Suggesting that “no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid” if Jerusalem was rebuilt, hurting the “royal revenues.”
3. To slyly reinforce their slander, the enemies of Israel suggested that the king look back at the history of Israel where he would find that Jerusalem was indeed a “rebellious city” in the past with a “long history of sedition” which was “troublesome to kings and provinces.” In fact, they went onto suggest that this was why Jerusalem was “destroyed” in the first place.
4. Allowing Jerusalem to be rebuilt would leave the king with “nothing in Trans-Euphrates.”
Has this ever happened to you in life? Have you ever been under attack by someone who only tried to slander you, maybe using things in your past as a way to reinforce their accusations?
Maybe Jerusalem had been rebellious in the past. Does this mean they will be again?
Maybe we have made mistakes in our past? Does this mean we will repeat those mistakes?
Too often, people allow our past to cloud their present judgment of us. And this is exactly what happened to King Artaxerxes.
For we read in his reply that he followed the suggestions of the enemies of Israel and had a search made of documents that may have either reinforced or invalidated their accusations. The results of the search were not surprising for they found that Jerusalem had a “long history of revolt against kings” and was “a place of rebellion and sedition” with their own “powerful kings ruling over the whole of Trans-Euphrates” who collected the “taxes, tribute and duty” for themselves.
With this, King Artaxerxes ordered work on the temple to stop and the enemies of Israel wasted little time going to the “Jews in Jerusalem” and compelling them to stop by force. And so “the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill” but as we will see, the enemy might think it succeeded but God in the end will have the last say.
You see, we need to remember that we are victorious people. The enemy has already been defeated by Jesus and those in Christ Jesus gain the victory that He first won. Please keep that in mind the next time you come under attack. Through Jesus, you are ever victorious.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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