Ezra chapter four introduces the fact of opposition upon Israel’s return from captivity, as the construction in Israel will cease for 14 years due to adversaries to the remnant who want to worship God at the very foundation of their lives.
Friend, do you have adversaries that seek to delay your worship? Well, praise the Lord as it means that you have returned from captivity. Notice how they conducted their opposition in chapter 4 as we are told:
•Compromise: In verse 2 that they first came to Zerubbabel saying, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” The opposition to complete surrender will always start with compromise; “Oh sure go ahead and worship, let us help you we’ve been doing it a long time”. You don’t need to die or sacrifice anything to worship the Lord just keep doing what you’ve been doing!
•Discouragement: Then in verse 4 we read when that didn’t work the opposition “tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building”. They even went so far we are told in verse 5 as to hire professional counselors. Oh, have you never noticed that the enemy has a professional he employs to keep us from worshiping at God’s altar?
There are professional worriers, doubters, and time consumers. They all have the same purpose to keep us from growing in His grace.
Dear ones we will never be restored in our worship of God until we put away the things of this world that we have become entangled with and the offspring produced by this union. Far too many have chosen the “Goods of this world, at the expense of the goodness of God”.