Ezra 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study

The response of the leaders of Israel is united. They were not always united, but they are here. They understand the issues very clearly. This charming approach is superficial and not to be trusted. But shouldn’t God’s people give the benefit of the doubt? Doesn’t love believe all things? There was no obvious cause for Zerubbabel and those with him to be suspicious. Trust and naivety are two different things. They said unto them, ‘Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.’ It sounds very blunt; it is very blunt. It is very straight, but that's their reply. The bluntness of it indicates that they immediately realise how phoney this is, how dishonest it is. ‘What these people really want is to absorb us, and sabotage us, to make a deal with us, to get in among us. They want to be friendly at first, but then’ – and this is certainly the devil's way – ‘to absorb us into their culture and their religion. They want to disarm us and break down our resolve to worship God in purity.’ Zerubbabel has read their character and character matters. People act in character, and do not suddenly change their character. This is the teaching of Christ. Speaking of the righteous he says, ‘There is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me’ (Mark 9:39), and of the wicked he says, ‘O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?’ (Matthew 12:34). To judge a person by their known character based on their past fruit is not prejudice, but is to deal with human being based on a knowledge of how God has made them. We allow for change in people’s lives, but there are markers that we are taught to recognise that indicate such great change.