Opposition

 

    When you are trying to do good with your life or a situation it is amazing how there is always someone to oppose you.  There will always be those people that have to whisper the negative into your sub-conscience, stand in your way, or flat out fight against you.  It doesn't matter how small the improvement may be.  The bigger the project the more frustrating it may become.

    The project of rebuilding God's house was a big project.  My perspective is why not let them do it.  It keeps people busy, so they are less likely to go out and look for trouble.  It provides economy, so people can survive.  It gives people hope and that is leaving out faith out of it.  However, not everyone has that perspective.  Some people see it as dangerous or are just flat out vindictive.  Like they are allowing the people to get power back.  

    When it comes to serving God, the world sees is as a bad thing.  It did not help that the Levite leaders refused to let pagans help them rebuild.  They wanted to keep the project Holy and pure.  It was their right, but they makes outsiders feel like they are being insulted or worked against (racist).  

    The builders had to deal with people constantly discouraging them to the point they were afraid to work.  People actively worked against the project by bribing the Persian officials.  It got so really bad when they began to write King Cyrus of Persia.  He considered them under his protection and he was hearing that they were working against him by people he trusted.  

    The opposition that went to Xerxes stated that the Jews had raised a tax for themselves to work against him.  In reality it was people's tithe and it was to rebuild God's house.  The king did not know that, so obviously he was angry because the officials also stated that they refused to pay his tax.  He was hearing of revolts and rebellious actions.  The Jews had no one to tell the King the truth.

    His response was to declare that they had to cease all work on God's temple.  There was no hesitation.  There was no time for the Jews to prepare a rebuttal to defend themselves.  They were completely shut down by the opposition.

Ezra 4