Enemies of the Faithful

 

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 Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ 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 Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ 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.” 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 purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:1–5 ESV).

 

In his book Answering God, Eugene Peterson remarks, “Enemies, especially for those who live by faith, are a fact of life. If we don’t know we have them or who they are, we live in a dangerous naivete.”

 

God’s people had enemies who opposed their becoming a holy people. They were rebuilding the temple when what seemed like a friendly offer to help turned out to be a subversive attempt to stop God’s work. The motives of this offer were quickly discerned. So, the enemies tried a different tactic. “The peoples around them set out to discourage the people … and make them afraid to go on building. They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans.”

 

This pressure discouraged the people for a while, and the rebuilding of the temple came to a standstill. However, this did not God stop working. Our enemies may try to delay God’s work, but they can’t stop it. God eventually sent prophets to inspire and motivate the people to begin rebuilding his temple again (cf. Haggai 1; Zechariah 1; Ezra 5:1-2).

 

The Apostle Paul faced significant opposition in his mission to the Gentile world. The reaction from both inside the Christian community, who were predominantly Jews, and the Roman authorities were significant. He had an answer to that, which he writes to the Philippians: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 ). There will always be enemies who try to stop God’s work, but God is in control. He will complete his good work in all of us. Know your enemies and trust God in your work!