A Not So Little White Lie

“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you, for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esar-hadden king of Assur, which brought us up hither.”  Ezra 4:1-2

Zerubbabel and those who accompanied him to Jerusalem had begun to build the temple, the reason for which they made the long journey from Babylon.  After the initial worship and sacrifices made to God upon entering Jerusalem, the people set to work to prepare the ground and lay the foundation.  That took roughly six months.  All able-bodied men joined in the work.  When the foundation was laid, a celebration was made.  There was much rejoicing being vocalized, but some of the older Jews remembered the original temple built by Solomon and were somewhat sad because they knew that the temple would never be as glorious as the original.  This caused them to weep while others shouted for joy.

As often happens when everything is seemingly going good and progress is being made, there will be some opposition from either an unexpected direction or from a direction that one could expect trouble, but just hoped that trouble would not manifest.  We’ve all heard the saying to “beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing”.  Jesus was the One who first came up with that saying in Matthew 7:15.   There is always someone who is influenced by Satan who attempts to disrupt the work of God.  This has been true since the dawn of time beginning in the garden of Eden right down to the present day when so many folks, particularly college-age men and women, are believing lies about Israel.  I recently read an article that succinctly answered the question why so many people are antisemitic and against Israel:  they hate God.  Satan will not stop his cruel deception until Christ stops him permanently (Revelation 20:10).

These adversaries of the people of Judah and Benjamin heard about the efforts to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.  They were the inhabitants of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, which included the ten tribes who had been captured by Assyria about B.C. 721, approximately 185 years before God’s people returned to Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity.  At the time of Assyrian’s invasion, the king of Assyria sent residents of Assyria to populate Samaria, and they married the Jews who were left in Samaria.  Their descendants became the Samaritans known in Jesus’ day.  These Assyrians were taught about God, but also maintained their worship of idols, thus making them opposed to the rebuilding of the temple.  They apparently knew enough about the God of Israel to know that if His people gathered together in worship of and service to Him, they would become a force with which to be reckoned.  They had to stop this building for their own safety.

Their deceptive plan was to pretend they wanted to help with the building.  “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”  They contacted Zerubbabel and the leaders overseeing the project and offered to help.  They even claimed to be worshipers of the LORD God and had been sacrificing to Him since the days when Esar-hadden, successor to Sennacherib, ruled Assyria.  There was some truth to what they claimed, but they also worshiped idols.  This is an old trick devised by Satan:  mix a little truth with a lie to make it sound convincing.  Would Zerubbabel fall for this pretense of help?

No, Zerubbabel was too smart to fall for a lie of an enemy.  God had apparently warned the Jews about these adversaries.  Matthew Henry wrote, “While we trust God with a pious confidence, we must trust men with a prudent jealousy and caution”.  In other words, don’t take what men say at face value unless you know them like the back of your hand.  And even then, be a little skeptical, especially if it sounds too good to be true.  Zerubbabel’s mistrust of these adversaries didn’t stop them from attempting to halt the work on the temple.  They began to mock and ridicule some of the workers who were not as dedicated to the work as others.  “You all are working too hard.  Slack off.  It won’t matter.  You should probably even quit” were perhaps some of the things they were saying to the exhausted men.  These adversaries even hired counsellors who were to lie before the Persian court in an effort to stop the support from King Cyrus.  How did that work out?

More next time.