In Ezra 4 the people are rebuilding the “Temple of God in Jerusalem”. They are hard at work and their enemies come in to try and put a halt to it. They use a number of different tactics:
- Volunteer to help
- Try to “beat down the morale”
- “Harass them as they built”
- “Hired propagandists”
“They kept this up for 15 years” in an effort to derail the rebuilding. Wow this sounds a lot like the enemies of Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. The enemy does try and put a halt to things we are doing for God. He wants to discourage us and get us to just give up. But the people did not so the enemies took the next step – they wrote a letter to the king full of lies and “accusations” and sent it to him. Of course, he fell for the thing hook, line and sinker and says that “rebellion is an old story there”. So he “orders them to stop” and the work is halted. The enemies “put a stop to the work” immediately and I am sure were smiling from ear to ear. They had used every trick in the book to convince the king that this project was bad for the kingdom. Our enemy will use every trick in the book to derail us as well. We need to be prepared for the discouragement and roadblocks that will come as we work to serve God. He is the king of kings and can help us overcome, but we need to be ready for the things the enemy will throw our way and not be overwhelmed or give up. God is our source of strength. He can conquer it all!
Posted by asorensen 
