We alone will build

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, “You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, - Ezra 4.1-4

Like any work for God the building of the Temple was bound to bring opposition. But is it interesting to see how this situation played out.

The first thing that happened when the building started was that the local came and offered to help. ‘Let us build with you’ they said, ‘we seek your God just like you do.’

It seems kind of strange that the response to their offer was ‘You will have nothing to do with our work. We alone will build the house of God.’

Then of course the people of the land hassled and harassed the people of Judah as they did the work.

Let's go back. Why would the Jews refuse the help of the locals? Why didn’t they let them help? They would have had a easier time building and it might have brought some kind of peace among them.

They principle is that if they had allowed the local people to help them it would not have been their own. The local people would always have laid claim that the temple was as much theirs as it was the Jews’. These people had already opposed the work so it was clear that the motivation was not right. God’s people needed to depend on God, not on their opponents.

I think there is a picture here of something that has happened in a lot of places. In many countries Christians have enjoyed having governments and societies on their side for a long time. Pro-Christian laws and tax benefits and such have been great, but they have brought a problem. We have learned to be dependent on their help and support.

Things are changing now and we don’t like it. It has been nice having the world help us do God’s work. Now that laws are changing some folks go so far as to call it persecution because we don’t have things as easy as we once did. We've been spoiled.

We need to remember these Jews. The refused the help. They had great opposition. But when they got the work done they knew it was they had done it with God’s help and God’s help alone.