Ezra 4:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Ezra 4:2

Comments

We see immediately what is the first tactic that is employed. These are the adversaries of God’s people speaking and their first tactic is to feign friendship and common cause with the people of God. ‘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.’ That wasn't true. They could only say that if they were speaking in the vaguest and most general terms. Yes, they had included the God of Israel among their objects of worship – ‘and we do sacrifice unto him’ – but they shouldn't have done so, if they did. They were not authorised to sacrifice. Even that would be an act of disobedience. God had made clear that sacrifices were only to be offered in the temple, now in Jerusalem. The first commandment forbids the worship of any other gods; the Lord demands exclusive worship. Then they claim to have done it for many years. Of course behind them is Satan who puts the idea into their minds. In this case it was Satan who stirred up the opposition of the Samaritans and convinced them that the returnees to Jerusalem were going to dispossess them and rule over them. Satan acts and moves very quickly. He seems to have been caught out at first, because the people return and with only a short delay their leaders rouse them to action, and they lay the foundation without any opposition. But only the foundation, and then the opposition begins. But the difficulties may start in a surprising way, and here is their first difficulty. ‘Let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do.’ It seems friendly, conciliatory, constructive. They are no doubt very charming, very persuasive. What they want is for the leaders of the returnees, the Jews, to think, ‘These people aren't too bad. This is a good generation. They are very open. We can teach them. Let them work with us; we will influence them; we’ll help them. This is all to the good.’ But then you read that the leaders took a very different view of it.

Application

This is a pattern of what happens to Christian people today and to the church. No sooner have you laid a foundation of something for Christ, than the opposition begins; the enemies of the faith become active. You begin a work of witness, wherever God has set you, in some new place, some new employment, new college. Wonderful! Your first act of witness, second act of witness – plain sailing! Everything is going well. Even the people who are not convinced by you, but are aware of what you are doing, seem to be very cordial towards you. Satan is sometimes caught out at first. But you have no sooner laid the foundation and then the opposition comes and the trouble, and somebody is raised up to make difficulties for you. The same happens with the church. You begin the work; everything goes well, and then the troubles start.

The Samaritans initially offer to rebuild alongside the Jews. Surely an extra hand will be welcome. Like the Judaising brethren in New Testament times, they want to insinuate themselves into the work, but really their approach is deceitful. Every infiltrator hides his true motive at first. It is the first approach because it is easier to infiltrate than to fight openly. It is easier to bring about change by subtlety than by outright confrontation. Nevertheless the goal is the same in both cases: to stop the work of the true church and to substitute something corrupt in its place. The liberal wants to bring about a counterfeit version of the gospel. So he tries to lure the church into cooperative evangelism. But the church must keep itself pure. Only the true gospel can advance the cause of Christ. As soon as we mix error with it, it becomes powerless. Always there are those who advocate mixed denominations, and often there are those who fall for this and are ‘in it to win it’. We fall for it again and again. Alliances, cooperation with those who don’t share the same love for Scripture, separation from the world, reverence for God.

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Ezra 4:2 Commentary and Bible Study