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Context No. 1674 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 4:17-24: in context

17Then the king sent an answer to Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions who live in Samaria, and in the rest of the country beyond the River: Peace. 18The letter which you sent to us has been plainly read before me. 19I decreed, and search has been made, and it was found that this city has made insurrection against kings in the past, and that rebellion and revolts have been made in it. 20There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem who have ruled over all the country beyond the River; and tribute, custom, and toll was paid to them. 21Make a decree now to cause these men to cease, and that this city not be built until a decree is made by me. 22Be careful that you not be slack doing so. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? 23Then when the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them to cease by force of arms. 24Then work stopped on God’s house which is at Jerusalem. It stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

The enemies of the returned exiles have written to the Persian king, accusing Jerusalem of being a rebellious city. Now the king's reply comes back: search has been made, the city has a history of insurrection, therefore the men are to be made to stop, and the city is not to be rebuilt until the king decrees otherwise. Armed with this, the opponents go to Jerusalem and force the Jews to cease by force of arms. And so, the text says, work on the house of God stopped, and it remained stopped until the second year of Darius.

This is a discouraging moment. The people had returned from exile to rebuild the house of God, and now, through the scheming of their enemies and the decree of a distant king, the work is halted, stopped by force, and it stays stopped for years. All the hope and labor run into a wall; the good work God's people had set their hands to is brought to a standstill by opposition. Anyone who has tried to do something good for God, and seen it blocked, delayed, or shut down by opposition or circumstance, knows how heavy such a moment feels, as though the work, and perhaps God's purpose in it, had been defeated. But notice the small phrase that hangs at the end: it stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius. The halt was real, but it was not final. What looked like the end was a pause; in time, under a later king, the work would resume and the house would be finished. The opposition succeeded in delaying God's work, but it could not finally stop it. There is a needed perspective here for our own discouragements. When the good we are trying to do for God is blocked or halted, the setback is real, and we should not pretend otherwise; but a setback is not the same as a defeat. God's purposes can be delayed by opposition, sometimes for years, without being canceled. The work stopped until Darius, and then it went on. What is halted in God's good time is not necessarily ended; the pause may be long, but his purpose outlasts the opposition.

When the good I am trying to do for God is blocked or halted by opposition, do I take the setback as a final defeat, or can I hold the perspective this passage gives, that the work stopped only until Darius, that God's purposes may be delayed but not canceled, and that a pause, even a long one, is not the end?

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