Scripture Daily

Context No. 3878 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 4:12-16: in context

12Be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us to Jerusalem. They are building the rebellious and bad city, and have finished the walls and repaired the foundations. 13Be it known now to the king that if this city is built and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and in the end it will be hurtful to the kings. 14Now because we eat the salt of the palace and it is not appropriate for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore we have sent and informed the king, 15that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. You will see in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to kings and provinces, and that they have started rebellions within it in the past. That is why this city was destroyed. 16We inform the king that if this city is built and the walls finished, then you will have no possession beyond the River.

Those opposed to the rebuilding of Jerusalem take up a weapon more subtle than force: accusation. They write to the king, painting the returned exiles as rebels building a rebellious and wicked city, warning that if the walls are finished the king will lose his revenues and his control. Their letter is a mixture of half-truths and alarm designed to get the work stopped, and for a time it succeeds.

There is a recognizable pattern here in how God's work is often opposed. The opposition frequently comes not through open attack but through accusation and misrepresentation, casting the faithful in a false and threatening light, stirring up the fears of those in power, twisting good work into something dangerous. It is a tactic as old as this letter and as current as today. When we find ourselves or God's work opposed by misrepresentation and false accusation, we are in familiar company; the rebuilders of Jerusalem faced exactly this. The comfort is that the work of God, though delayed by such opposition, was not finally stopped; God's purposes outlast the accusations of his opponents.

When I or God's work face opposition through accusation and misrepresentation, do I take heart that this is an old tactic against the faithful, and that God's purposes finally outlast the accusations of his opponents?

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