The Slanderer's Veto: Rebuilding in a Hostile World Text: Ezra 4:7-16
Introduction: The Inescapable Conflict
Whenever God’s people set their hands to the task of rebuilding, they must understand that they have entered a war zone. The work of God is never done in a neutral environment. There is no demilitarized zone in the spiritual world. The moment the first stone is laid upon another for the glory of God, the enemies of God begin to sharpen their knives and dip their pens in poison. This is not a possibility; it is a certainty. To expect otherwise is to be naive, and naivete in spiritual warfare is not a virtue; it is a liability.
In the book of Ezra, the people of God have returned from exile. They have a royal decree from Cyrus to rebuild the temple. They have the authority, they have the resources, and they have the will. But they also have neighbors. And these neighbors are not content to live and let live. They represent the perennial opposition to the City of God. First, they tried infiltration, offering to "help" build the temple, a syncretistic offer that was rightly refused. When that failed, they moved to their second tactic: intimidation and frustration. And when that proved insufficient, they escalated to the third and perhaps most effective tactic of all: political slander. They appealed to a higher authority, not with swords and spears, but with parchment and ink.
This passage is a master class in the devil's tactics. It shows us how the enemies of God operate. They use the levers of power, the bureaucracy of the state, and the language of civic concern to halt the work of God. They wrap their malice in the flag of loyalty to the king. They couch their slander in the language of fiscal responsibility. They are not honest rebels; they are whispering sycophants. And we must pay close attention, because these same tactics are used against the church in every generation. The names change, the empires rise and fall, but the strategy of the serpent remains remarkably consistent.
The issue here is not merely about bricks and mortar. It is about two cities, two loyalties, and two futures for the world. The men of Samaria see the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a threat to their own standing and a threat to the king's revenue. And in a sense, they are right. The establishment of God's kingdom is always a threat to the kingdoms of men. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is a threat to every autonomous ruler. The slanderers in this text understood the antithesis better than many Christians do today. They knew that a rebuilt Jerusalem, a city centered on the worship of the one true God, would necessarily mean a loss of authority and revenue for the pagan world order. They were right about the consequences, but they were liars about the motive. And that is the essence of slander.
The Text
And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated from Aramaic. Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows, then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their colleagues, the judges and the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites, and the rest of the nations, which the great and honorable Osnappar took away into exile and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region beyond the River. And now, this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him: “To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and now, let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are completing the walls and repairing the foundations. Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are completed, they will not give tribute, custom, or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings. Now because we are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore we have sent and made known to the king, that a search be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will find in the record books and come to know that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days; therefore that city was laid waste. We make known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls completed, as a result you will have no portion in the province beyond the River.”
(Ezra 4:7-16 LSB)
The Bureaucracy of Opposition (vv. 7-11)
We begin with the cast of characters and the official nature of their complaint.
"And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia... Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes..." (Ezra 4:7-8)
Notice the official titles. We have a commander (Rehum) and a scribe (Shimshai). This is not some grassroots mob; this is the established local government. The opposition to God's work is often institutionalized. It comes with official letterhead and proper bureaucratic channels. Rehum is the man of action, the governor, and Shimshai is the man of words, the secretary. Together, they represent the fusion of political power and intellectual cunning. This is a formidable combination. The enemies of the church are not always wild-eyed fanatics; more often, they are calm, calculating bureaucrats who know how to work the system.
The letter is written in Aramaic, the international language of diplomacy for the Persian Empire. This tells us they are skilled political operators. They know the language of the court. They are not writing a frantic, emotional plea; they are filing a formal, legal complaint. This is a crucial lesson. Spiritual opposition will often take on a secular, political, or legal form. The devil is a master of disguise, and one of his favorite costumes is a three-piece suit holding a briefcase full of legal injunctions.
The list of co-signers in verses 9 and 10 is also significant. It's a motley crew of transplanted peoples: Babylonians, Elamites, and others whom the Assyrians had forcibly relocated to Samaria. These are people with no deep roots in the land, a people defined by their displacement. Their identity is tied to the pagan empire that put them there. Their opposition to Jerusalem is, in part, an opposition to a people with a true, God-given identity and a God-given homeland. They are the multicultural enforcers of the imperial status quo, and they see the restoration of a covenant people in their covenant land as an intolerable threat.
The Slanderer's Craft (vv. 12-13)
Now we come to the substance of the letter, a masterpiece of malicious misrepresentation.
"let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are completing the walls and repairing the foundations." (Ezra 4:12)
The slander begins with a kernel of truth wrapped in a lie. Are the Jews rebuilding? Yes. Is Jerusalem a "rebellious and evil city"? This is the lie. They are defining the city by its past sins, which God has judged and forgiven, in order to deny it a future. This is how slander works. It takes a fact (rebuilding) and re-frames it with a malicious adjective ("rebellious and evil"). They are not just building a city; they are building a "rebellious and evil" city. This is poisoning the well.
They also exaggerate the extent of the work. They claim the Jews are "completing the walls." At this stage, they were primarily focused on the temple foundation. The walls would not be rebuilt until Nehemiah's time. This is another key tactic of the accuser: hyperbole. Make the threat seem more immediate and more advanced than it actually is to provoke a swift and panicked reaction from the authorities.
Then comes the appeal to the king's self-interest.
"Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are completed, they will not give tribute, custom, or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings." (Ezra 4:13)
This is a brilliant move. They shift the argument from theology to economics. They know the king in Susa doesn't care about the religious squabbles of a backwater province. But he does care about his tax revenue. This is the argument that always gets a hearing in the halls of power: the argument from the pocketbook. "This will hurt you financially." The accusation is, of course, entirely baseless. The Jews had been authorized by the empire to return and had shown no signs of fiscal rebellion. But the charge is made, and it forces the king to investigate. Slander doesn't have to be true to be effective; it just has to be plausible enough to muddy the waters and cause delay.
The Cloak of Loyalty (vv. 14-16)
Having made their accusation, the authors now clothe themselves in the garments of faithful service.
"Now because we are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore we have sent and made known to the king..." (Ezra 4:14)
The phrase "we are in the service of the palace" literally means "we have eaten the salt of the palace." This is a common ancient idiom for loyalty. They are saying, "We are your men. Our only concern is for your honor and your interests." It is the classic maneuver of the court sycophant. They present their personal vendetta as a matter of public service. They are not motivated by envy or hatred of the Jews, oh no. They are motivated by a deep and abiding concern for the stability of the Persian throne. It is a lie, but it is a politically effective lie.
Next, they appeal to the historical record, confident that it will support their slander.
"that a search be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will find... that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces... therefore that city was laid waste." (Ezra 4:15)
This is another cunning, half-truth. Had Jerusalem rebelled against foreign kings in the past? Yes, against the Babylonians. That's why they were sent into exile. The city was indeed laid waste as a result of that rebellion. They are using God's past judgment against Israel as a political weapon to prevent God's present restoration of Israel. They are saying, "Look at their record. They are incorrigible rebels. A leopard cannot change its spots, and Jerusalem cannot change its character." They are denying the possibility of repentance and restoration. They are locking the Jews into their past failures.
Finally, they deliver their closing argument, the bottom line.
"We make known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls completed, as a result you will have no portion in the province beyond the River." (Ezra 4:16)
This is the ultimate threat. They are telling Artaxerxes that he will lose the entire western half of his empire. It is a wild exaggeration, but it is designed to create maximum alarm. The message is clear: "This is not a small problem; this is an existential threat to your kingdom. You must act, and you must act now." And as we see in the following verses, this strategy of slander, wrapped in loyalty and seasoned with fear-mongering, works. The king issues a decree, and the work is stopped by force.
Conclusion: Slander, Sovereignty, and Steadfastness
So what do we learn from this sordid affair? First, we learn that the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. The enemies of God use slander, political maneuvering, and appeals to power and greed. We are forbidden from using these tools. Our weapons are truth, prayer, and faithful, patient work. We do not fight lies with lies; we fight lies with truth.
Second, we learn that opposition is not a sign of God's displeasure, but rather a confirmation that we are engaged in His work. The devil doesn't waste his ammunition on forts that have already been abandoned. If you are facing slander and opposition because you are building for Christ, whether it is a family, a church, a school, or a business, take heart. You have attracted the enemy's attention. You are a threat. The dogs only bark when the caravan is moving.
Third, we must recognize that setbacks are not defeats. The work on the temple was halted for a time. From a human perspective, the slanderer's veto was successful. Rehum and Shimshai won that battle. But they did not win the war. God is sovereign over the decrees of kings. The same God who allowed Artaxerxes to halt the work would later raise up Darius to command its completion (Ezra 6). God's timetable is not our timetable. Our job is not to guarantee immediate success, but to maintain long-term faithfulness. When the government shuts us down, we do not despair. We pray, we wait, and we trust the King of Heaven, who uses even the wrath of pagan kings to praise Him.
This is the essence of a robust, postmillennial optimism. It is not a naive belief that we will face no opposition. It is the rugged, battle-hardened conviction that our God is sovereign over all opposition. The slanders of Rehum and Shimshai are now nothing more than a footnote in God's great story of redemption. Their letter is preserved in Holy Scripture as an eternal monument to their failed attempt to thwart the purposes of God. But the temple was rebuilt. And more than that, the true Temple, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to that city. He faced the ultimate slander, the ultimate political conspiracy, and the ultimate decree of a pagan ruler. They put Him on a cross. And on the third day, God overturned their veto with the glorious power of the resurrection.
Therefore, we do not lose heart. When the Rehums and Shimshais of our day write their letters, when the media slanders, and when the government issues its decrees, we remember that our King sits in the heavens and laughs. He has them in derision. The work of building His kingdom will not be stopped. Let us then be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain.