The Discouragement Industry: Text: Ezra 4:1-5
Introduction: The Inevitability of Opposition
Whenever the people of God set their hand to the plow, whenever they determine to build something for the glory of God, they must understand one thing with absolute clarity: opposition is not a possibility, it is a certainty. It is not a matter of if, but of when and how. The story of the church is the story of a city under construction in the midst of a war zone. To expect to build the temple of the Lord in peace and quiet, with the world cheering from the sidelines, is a profound and dangerous naivete.
In the previous chapter, we saw a glorious high point. The exiles had returned, the altar was rebuilt, sacrifices were offered, and the foundation of the Temple was laid with shouts of praise and tears of joy. This was a genuine work of God, a revival in the truest sense. But the sound of joyful praise to God is, in the ears of the enemy, a declaration of war. And so, as the sun rises on chapter four, the adversaries appear. And we must pay close attention to their strategy, for it has not changed in the slightest over the millennia.
The first tactic of the enemy is not the frontal assault. It is not the battering ram at the gates. It is the friendly offer of help. It is the outstretched hand of ecumenical compromise. The serpent does not come with fangs bared, but with a reasonable question: "Did God really say?" The first attack on the rebuilding project is an attempt to corrupt it from within, to pollute the work by mixing the holy with the profane. When this subtle tactic is rebuffed, as it must be, then and only then does the enemy show his true colors. The friendly mask comes off, and the campaign of intimidation, discouragement, and political maneuvering begins. This is the unchanging one-two punch of the adversary: first corruption, then persecution. We must be wise to both.
The Text
Then the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel,
so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”
But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”
So the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and dismayed them from building,
and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
(Ezra 4:1-5 LSB)
The Serpent's Offer (v. 1-2)
The trouble begins when the work of God becomes visible.
"Then the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel, so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households and said to them, 'Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.'" (Ezra 4:1-2)
First, who are these "adversaries"? They are the "people of the land," the Samaritans. They were the result of the Assyrian imperial policy of scrambling populations. When Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, they deported the Israelites and imported pagans from various other conquered lands. These pagans brought their idols with them, but they were also plagued by lions, which they took as a sign that the local deity was angry. So, they requested an Israelite priest to teach them how to appease "the god of the land." The result, as 2 Kings 17 tells us, was a toxic religious stew. They "feared Yahweh," but they also served their own carved images. This is syncretism. It is the worship of Yahweh plus.
Now, notice their approach. It is an offer of partnership. "Let us build with you." It sounds so reasonable, so inclusive. And they provide their religious resume: "for we, like you, seek your God." This is the language of modern religious pluralism. "We're all climbing the same mountain, just taking different paths." They even claim a long history of worship: "we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon." This is a half-truth, which is the most dangerous kind of lie. Yes, they had been sacrificing, but their sacrifice was an abomination. It was polluted worship, offered without covenant, without repentance, and mixed with rank idolatry. It was worship on their terms, not God's. This is the essence of all false religion. It wants to use God's name without submitting to God's Word.
The Godly Refusal (v. 3)
The response of the Jewish leaders is a model of doctrinal integrity and holy separation.
"But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, 'You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.'" (Ezra 4:3)
To our modern, effeminate sensibilities, this sounds terribly rude. It sounds exclusive, intolerant, and bigoted. The Diversity and Inclusion committee would have a fit. But this was not rudeness; it was faithfulness. Zerubbabel and Jeshua understood a fundamental principle: you cannot build a holy temple with unholy hands. You cannot serve God in partnership with idols. The apostle Paul would later articulate this same principle: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14).
Their refusal was not based on personal animosity or ethnic prejudice. It was based on two things: covenant identity and divine command. They say, "You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God." The key words are "to our God." This is a covenantal work, for the covenant people, to the covenant God. The Samaritans stood outside that covenant. They had no share in the project. Second, they were acting under authority: "as King Cyrus... has commanded us." They had a specific mandate from the king, who was acting as God's instrument, to do a specific work. They were not free to renegotiate the terms of their commission to accommodate pagan sensibilities.
This is a crucial lesson. Christian faithfulness requires the courage to say "no." We must say no to doctrinal compromise, no to worldly alliances, and no to any partnership that would pollute the worship of the one true God. This kind of separation is not hatred; it is the necessary prerequisite for true love, because it preserves the truth that alone can save.
The Unveiling of True Intentions (v. 4-5)
When the offer of compromise is rejected, the enemy's mask falls off, and the true war begins.
"So the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and dismayed them from building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia." (Ezra 4:4-5)
The shift is immediate. The friendly neighbors who wanted to "help" now become active saboteurs. Their goal is explicit: to discourage, dismay, and frustrate. This is psychological warfare. They spread rumors. They issue threats. They mock the builders. They do everything they can to sap the morale of the people of God, to make the work seem impossible, to make them question their calling.
And when psychological warfare is not enough, they turn to political and legal warfare. They "hired counselors against them." They hired lobbyists, lawyers, and political operatives to work against the Jews in the Persian court. They used the bureaucracy and the legal system as a weapon to "frustrate their counsel," to tie them up in red tape, to revoke their permits, to cut off their funding. And we must see that they were successful. This campaign of opposition was persistent and effective, lasting for years and successfully halting the work of God. The enemy is patient, and he is willing to invest heavily in the discouragement industry.
Conclusion: Building in a Time of War
This short passage is a microcosm of the entire Christian life. We are called to be builders, constructing a holy temple for the Lord, which is the Church. And from the moment we lay the foundation, the adversaries will hear of it. They will come to us, first with offers of compromise. They will tell us to soften our doctrine, to make peace with the world's idols, to join them in a generic, syncretistic project of "making the world a better place." They will tell us that our exclusive claims about Christ are unloving.
When, by God's grace, we refuse this offer, as Zerubbabel did, their tactics will shift. They will seek to discourage us. They will mock our efforts. They will call us names. They will use the media, the courts, and the political process to frustrate our work. And for a time, they may even appear to succeed. The work may stall. The builders may lose heart. This is precisely what happened here in Ezra's day. The work stopped for about sixteen years.
But that is not the end of the story. The work stopped until God sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to preach to the people, to rebuke their fear, to call them to repentance, and to remind them of God's sovereign promises. And at the preaching of God's Word, the people took up their tools again and finished the job.
Our hope is not in the absence of opposition, but in the presence of our God. We have a greater Zerubbabel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is building His church. He faced the ultimate campaign of discouragement and frustration at the cross. But He was victorious, and He has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His building project. Therefore, when the adversaries come, when the discouragement sets in, we must not look at the size of our enemies. We must listen to the Word of our God, pick up our trowels, and get back to work. For the God who commanded the work will surely see it to completion.