11/2/2021
What Stands Against Us
Recognizing The Opposing Forces Working Against Rebuilding GCCC
From Pastor Johnny
Recognizing The Opposing Forces Working Against Rebuilding GCCC
From Pastor Johnny
It has been very inspiring for me to be preaching through the Book of Ezra for the English Ministry. It is
my first time to translate the Hebrew and Aramaic of the book for a systematic preaching program and it
wasn’t until I started the series that it registered to me that this book was what our church needs as we
try to regroup and rebuild from our scattered fellowship within the pandemic. I was particularly
impressed with what Chapter 4 showed about the many ways Satan’s minions try to block or delay
God’s work. Sadly, they were able to work a major stall against the rebuilding of the temple. Let’s pray
that Satan’s wiles and use of “minions” doesn’t work at GCCC today.
[Note: All of the verses from Ezra in this message are Pastor Johnny’s translations from the Hebrew of
Ezra 4:1-6 and the Aramaic of verses 11-16.] The situation at the beginning of Ezra 4 may seem familiar
to some of you: 1) But the opponents [root idea of “constraining,” “besieging,” “restricting”] of the
children of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the Exile were building a temple belonging
to Yahweh, the God of Israel, 2) so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the ancestral
households, and they said to them, “Let us build with you BECAUSE like you, we sincerely seek your
God [not “Yahweh” specifically] and we have not [possibly, “and oh, we have”] been offering sacrifices
[improperly?] since the days of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, the one causing us to come up here.” [PJT]
#1: Our Enemy Wants to Infiltrate and Contaminate
So, let’s consider the way the devil worked against the rebuilding of Jerusalem and God’s temple as the
holy place God intended. Ezra 4:1 tells us that as soon as the opponents of God’s plan heard what was
happening, they tried to infiltrate. The word that used here for opponents can mean: to “constrain,”
that’s tying up; to “restrict,” that’s limiting, and to “besiege,” that’s surrounding and confronting
directly. It’s an interesting word because our enemies may not always storm the gate and try to take us
down directly. Sometimes, they may just want to put up enough obstructions to limit our options, but
sometimes, they may want to tie us up to hold us back, keep us from being effective as a delaying tactic.
Outside the church, I’ve seen the city of Arlington Heights change the rules for a Japanese mission that
was trying to build a church building time and time over again for more than three years until the pastor
gave up and went back to Japan. Churches should defer to the government over obvious safety issues,
but the devil sometimes uses government bureaucracy to keep churches tied up on use permits and the
like rather than being able to move forward.
Inside the church, I’ve seen leaders who were full of themselves absolutely destroy momentum in a
ministry or outreach by insisting that there had to be a full mission statement, budget, and constitution
before anything could be done. Volunteers had already started, but the congregational bureaucrats
pulled it back. This most often happens, by the way, with youth programs and social ministries. I saw this
happen in an Asian church over a potential tutoring program in a neighborhood that needed it and in a
congregation where their youth could have been a blessing. So, it isn’t all direct confrontation as in the
battering ram we often associate with a siege.
In fact, here in Ezra, that’s the first tactic the enemy used, an attempt to infiltrate. We discover that
these opponents are the ones sent by King Esarhaddon of Assyria to repopulate the defeated, destroyed
Kingdom of Israel—the northern kingdom in the Old Testament. But see what that means! “The king of
Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and
Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel.” (2 Kings 17:24
NASB] Now, listen to what 2 Kings 17:34 says about those folks: “To this day they do according to the
earlier customs: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the
law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel.”
[NASB]
People from Babylon MIGHT have been Israelite captives, but not likely. As you can see on the map
below, Cuthah is about 18 miles north of Babylon and was known as a cult-center for the god, Nergal,
the Ancient Near Eastern god of destruction. Avva is likely the Syrian town on the Orontes River just
north of Hamath, Hamath was a major population center in Syria north of Damascus, and Sibraim
[Sepharvaim] was apparently a town located between Hamath and Damascus. So, when they come to
Israel’s leaders in verse 2 and say, “We’re just like you. We all worship the same God, “ 2 Kings 17 would
suggest they were lying. When they suggest that they either, as the standard Hebrew text reads in verse
2, have NOT offered the wrong kinds of sacrifices to the wrong gods OR, as some read it by changing a
vowel, they have ALREADY been worshipping the right God, either way we know it’s not true. Even if you
take the reading that they have been offering sacrifices, let me ask you why the temple altar had to be
restored earlier in Ezra. Why would it be necessary if they had been worshipping properly?
my first time to translate the Hebrew and Aramaic of the book for a systematic preaching program and it
wasn’t until I started the series that it registered to me that this book was what our church needs as we
try to regroup and rebuild from our scattered fellowship within the pandemic. I was particularly
impressed with what Chapter 4 showed about the many ways Satan’s minions try to block or delay
God’s work. Sadly, they were able to work a major stall against the rebuilding of the temple. Let’s pray
that Satan’s wiles and use of “minions” doesn’t work at GCCC today.
[Note: All of the verses from Ezra in this message are Pastor Johnny’s translations from the Hebrew of
Ezra 4:1-6 and the Aramaic of verses 11-16.] The situation at the beginning of Ezra 4 may seem familiar
to some of you: 1) But the opponents [root idea of “constraining,” “besieging,” “restricting”] of the
children of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the Exile were building a temple belonging
to Yahweh, the God of Israel, 2) so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the ancestral
households, and they said to them, “Let us build with you BECAUSE like you, we sincerely seek your
God [not “Yahweh” specifically] and we have not [possibly, “and oh, we have”] been offering sacrifices
[improperly?] since the days of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, the one causing us to come up here.” [PJT]
#1: Our Enemy Wants to Infiltrate and Contaminate
So, let’s consider the way the devil worked against the rebuilding of Jerusalem and God’s temple as the
holy place God intended. Ezra 4:1 tells us that as soon as the opponents of God’s plan heard what was
happening, they tried to infiltrate. The word that used here for opponents can mean: to “constrain,”
that’s tying up; to “restrict,” that’s limiting, and to “besiege,” that’s surrounding and confronting
directly. It’s an interesting word because our enemies may not always storm the gate and try to take us
down directly. Sometimes, they may just want to put up enough obstructions to limit our options, but
sometimes, they may want to tie us up to hold us back, keep us from being effective as a delaying tactic.
Outside the church, I’ve seen the city of Arlington Heights change the rules for a Japanese mission that
was trying to build a church building time and time over again for more than three years until the pastor
gave up and went back to Japan. Churches should defer to the government over obvious safety issues,
but the devil sometimes uses government bureaucracy to keep churches tied up on use permits and the
like rather than being able to move forward.
Inside the church, I’ve seen leaders who were full of themselves absolutely destroy momentum in a
ministry or outreach by insisting that there had to be a full mission statement, budget, and constitution
before anything could be done. Volunteers had already started, but the congregational bureaucrats
pulled it back. This most often happens, by the way, with youth programs and social ministries. I saw this
happen in an Asian church over a potential tutoring program in a neighborhood that needed it and in a
congregation where their youth could have been a blessing. So, it isn’t all direct confrontation as in the
battering ram we often associate with a siege.
In fact, here in Ezra, that’s the first tactic the enemy used, an attempt to infiltrate. We discover that
these opponents are the ones sent by King Esarhaddon of Assyria to repopulate the defeated, destroyed
Kingdom of Israel—the northern kingdom in the Old Testament. But see what that means! “The king of
Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and
Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel.” (2 Kings 17:24
NASB] Now, listen to what 2 Kings 17:34 says about those folks: “To this day they do according to the
earlier customs: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the
law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel.”
[NASB]
People from Babylon MIGHT have been Israelite captives, but not likely. As you can see on the map
below, Cuthah is about 18 miles north of Babylon and was known as a cult-center for the god, Nergal,
the Ancient Near Eastern god of destruction. Avva is likely the Syrian town on the Orontes River just
north of Hamath, Hamath was a major population center in Syria north of Damascus, and Sibraim
[Sepharvaim] was apparently a town located between Hamath and Damascus. So, when they come to
Israel’s leaders in verse 2 and say, “We’re just like you. We all worship the same God, “ 2 Kings 17 would
suggest they were lying. When they suggest that they either, as the standard Hebrew text reads in verse
2, have NOT offered the wrong kinds of sacrifices to the wrong gods OR, as some read it by changing a
vowel, they have ALREADY been worshipping the right God, either way we know it’s not true. Even if you
take the reading that they have been offering sacrifices, let me ask you why the temple altar had to be
restored earlier in Ezra. Why would it be necessary if they had been worshipping properly?
Further, as you could see in my translation, Zerubbabel’s reference is to the House of Yahweh, God Who is personal, while their claim is to worship “YOUR God.” There are just too many holes in their story.
So, one type of opposition to watch out for is the kind that says, “We’re just like you. We all worship the God of love. We all respect Jesus. We’re all living like God wants. We just don’t think church attendance is important. We don’t think you should pay any attention to the Old Testament with its “mean God.” We just think marital faithfulness is optional. We just think being gay is a real option. We don’t think you can really trust the Bible.” The temptation to compromise is always there. We have to be careful that we don’t become them, either. If you don’t understand that Jesus is the only approach to salvation that we can be sure of, you’re not like us. If you don’t think Jesus is coming again, you’re not like us.
In short, these opponents are those people who, by Jesus’ time, were known as the Samaritans and the land outside of Judah and Benjamin where they ended up (as shown by the oval on the map) was still known as Samaria in Jesus’ time. When I preach on John 4, I use a tie illustration where the knot is the Sea of Galilee and the wide part is the Dead Sea. I show how the shortest distance between two points, Jerusalem and Galilee would be a straight line up one side of the tie but how GOOD Jews would cross over the Jordan then up and back over to get to Galilee rather than crossing through Samaria.
So, let’s read on. 3) So, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the ancestral households said to them, “It doesn’t belong to you and us to build the House of Our God together, we build for Yahweh, God of Israel, just as the king, Cyrus, King of Persia, commanded us.” [PJT]
When I was younger, I would read this text and misunderstand. I would ask why these snobbish Jews returning from Exile would turn down the help of their neighbors. Well, as we see here, they weren’t EXACTLY Jews and, in another sense, we have to be careful when folks say that they’re here to help us. How many senior citizens have been scammed by the old roofing scam? The guy says he’s working in the neighborhood and is going to have materials left over so he can do their roof or their driveway for a price too good to be true. The homeowner pays him, thinking they are getting a great deal and the guy never finishes the job. Former President Reagan was famous for saying, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
I don’t think that’s always true. There is a place for the government, but you need to know that government help comes with strings attached. Get a grant? You may have to make a diversity hire that doesn’t fit your needs—just to justify the grant. Get a loan? You may have to jump through certain hoops and expend more effort to get that loan just to comply with their regulations. The same kinds of strings can come from accepting certain designated offerings or by partnering with other organizations. You may find that you have lost control of your own activity as time goes by.
Zerubbabel and company felt that these people were compromised, that they were tainted. They didn’t want to risk contaminating the building project that God had commissioned. They didn’t want to take the risk of the wrong kind of help.
#2: Our Enemy Wants Us Either Complacent or Discouraged
4) So, the people of the land became the ones causing the hands of the people of Judah to droop [lit. to relax, to drop, to weaken] and terrified them from building, 5) and hired against them [people of Judah] lawyers [lit. “counselors” or “advisers”] to frustrate [lit. “shatter”] them all the days of Cyrus, King of Persia, until the reign of Darius, King of Persia. [PJT]
If you can’t join them, DISCOURAGE them. Unlike most English translations, I translated this as making the hands droop. It’s hard to hold the hands up when you’re tired. If I just barely move my hands to the side, it looks like my gesture is saying, “I don’t know!”; “What’s the use?”; or “I give up.” It doesn’t look like I’m energized and ready to go.
Maybe it’s because I’ve personally had problems with depression, but I know that when you’re discouraged or depressed, your energy level goes down and you don’t accomplish as much. So, God’s enemies, these people of the land who were treating the returned exiles like some people treat immigrants—as folks trying to replace them—decided to discourage the folks who were all motivated to build God’s temple. “Does it really matter? Look how crummy the foundation looks compared to what they say the old temple was like?” “Do you really think Zerubbabel, born to privilege, and Jeshua, that priest who knows nothing of physical labor, are doing their fair share?” “Do you really think you’re the people to be able to build the new temple? Who do you think you are?”
I don’t know if you ever watch any of those Asian dramas, but it seems like there is always at least one episode that is built around a deliberate misunderstanding perpetrated by a villain. In one that I recently watched, the young protagonist is a cheery, good-natured young man who would do anything for anybody—a truly compassionate good guy. The villain undermines the young man by telling him a half-truth. He says that the people he trusts the most, a couple who have made his life significantly better, are using him for their own benefit. They are, but they are also concerned about and working toward his well-being. He misunderstands the situation and, what happens? He gets depressed and can’t concentrate on his work, doesn’t want to help people, drinks too much in one of those drunken montages, and has a “What’s the use?” attitude.
One of the ways God’s enemies try to keep us from accomplishing God’s plan is to discourage us and weaken us—to cause our arms to droop, if you will. “You’re not good enough.” “You don’t have enough people to be a real church.” “You aren’t really accomplishing anything.” “You’re not making any progress.”
But you might have noticed in my translation that the root has another meaning, too. To RELAX their arms! Sometimes, the enemies tell us, “Oh, you’re so dedicated. You should take a break!” “Oh, you’ve done so much already. Back off a little and take some ME time.” “You’ve worked so hard. Let someone else have a chance to serve.” Unfortunately, we hear that in the church even when no one has been trained to serve and no succession plan is in place.
#3: Our Enemy Also Uses Consultants, Spin Doctors, and Legal Advisors
Look at verse 5 again. Just in case their plans didn’t work, they also hired advisers or counselors to shatter them. I know most translators just make this “frustrate them,” but the literal verb is to shatter. They would do anything to demoralize God’s people. In one sense, it seems like they hired “spin doctors” to feed them misinformation. Maybe they “terrified” them by emphasizing the sacred responsibility and all the things that could go wrong! Maybe the spin was to warn them of how many enemies they would make and how society in general would disapprove of them for creating their narrow, specialized place of worship.
In another sense, it seems like they hired “consultants” to confuse the efforts with outside considerations. Have you ever been in a church or denomination that was being reorganized based on corporate principles? I saw a program for orphans destroyed by an efficiency expert. I’ve seen social ministry efforts torpedoed by leaders who forgot they weren’t supposed to make a profit. How easily church preschools can become business ventures instead of ministries! In fact, Wailam and I were members of a church in California where decisions were made on the basis of government assistance they had accepted and ability to subsidize the church rather than for ministry. So, the paid opposition as in verse 5 is out there!
You see, sometimes the outside advice isn’t helpful. Most churches are not megachurches and are not intended to become so. Yet, where does all the church leadership and educational program material come from? In most cases, from the megachurches. [Note: Before the denomination changed so radically, Southern Baptists made a sincere effort to use curriculum writers from churches of all sizes and not just large churches. After the radical takeover, that didn’t seem to be as true.]
#4: Our Enemy Is Prone to Use the Government and Law Courts Against Us
6) Now, in the reign of Ahasuerus [Xerxes], at the start of his reign, they wrote an accusation concerning the citizens [“dwellers”] of Judah and Jerusalem. … [Now, I’m skipping to the Aramaic portion of the text which is supposed to quote the original complaint from the opposition.]
11) This is a copy of the missive which they sent to him, To Artaxerxes, O King, your servants, men [beyond] the river [Jordan] and now, 12) let it be known to the king that the Jews which have come up from your midst have come to us in Jerusalem, they are building a rebellious and evil city and are repairing the wall and rebuilding, O King, [or “digging out for rebuilding”] the foundations.
13) Now, let it be known to the king that if this city is built and its walls repaired, they will not give the apportioned tribute, individual tax, or customs tax and will damage the king’s treasury. 14) Now, because we have all been preserved with the salt of the palace [“experienced trickle-down theory”] and it is not proper for us to be enemies of the king [“to bite the hand that feeds us”], accordingly we have sent and made this known to the king
15) so let it be investigated [lit. “searched out”] in the royal archives of your father and let you audit the royal archives and, as a result, know that this city is a rebellious city and injurious to kings and provinces, and those who have incited revolution in past days, accordingly, that city was razed. 16) We have caused the king to know this that if this city is rebuilt, along with its wall repaired, there will be no portion for you to receive in the province across the Jordan. [PJT]
When that didn’t work, the opposition became overt. They accused them directly in a missive to Ahasuerus – sound familiar fans of Esther? Yep! Same Persian king! And, while I’m not going to go point-by-point and verse-by-verse through that letter, I just gave you my translation from the Aramaic.
The letter reads almost like U.S. politics today. Everyone on the other side is painted with the same brush. The Jews are evil and rebellious; they’re going to do just like their ancestors did. Sound familiar? Today we hear that every Democrat is a socialist and every Republican is a fascist? Sound familiar? Every immigrant wants to take our place and every white person is a racist? Sound familiar? Every evangelical is a homophobic and every gay person is a sexual predator? Every preacher is a crook and every offering is a scam? It’s easy to do, but it isn’t right.
But God’s enemies will accuse the church of hypocrisy, of a lack of compassion, of wasting resources on the institutional church, of being a tax dodge, of corrupting our children, and more!
And, of course, if you really want to get someone’s attention, hit ‘em with the money issue. Let ‘em know it’s going to cost them. The returned exiles hadn’t had any opportunity to avoid paying tribute yet, but look at what their enemies wrote: 13) Now, let it be known to the king that if this city is built and its walls repaired, they will not give the apportioned tribute, individual tax, or customs tax and will damage the king’s treasury. [PJT]
And then, they lather it on in verse 14 about how good they’ve had it under the current king’s administration, enjoying the same luxurious and vital salt as served in the king’s palace and how they have benefited from the king’s “trickle-down” economics. They protest that they would never ever bite the hand that feeds them. And with all of that sickening, saccharine court-speak, they get to the heart of the matter in verse 16: “16) We have caused the king to know this that if this city is rebuilt, along with its wall repaired, there will be no portion for you to receive in the province across the Jordan.” [PJT]
Of course, if you really want to get a leader’s attention, tell her or him that their budget is going to be cut. In fact, since egotism is so dominant in leaders, just tell him or her that their influence is going to be diminished, that their power base is going to shrink. They won’t like that at all. And watch what’s happening in our country as more and more political activists begin to realize what they could do if all church property and all church operations were taxed. Watch what happens, as has already happened to some degree, when the politicians come after the charitable giving deduction.
And what was accomplished? The work on the temple was delayed and doesn’t seem to pick back up again until the reign of Darius. And what’s that mean for us? We need to beware—our enemy doesn’t have to defeat us, just delay us enough to make us ineffective.
Why Is This in the Bible?
Why on earth would we, or even more poignantly, would the Bible deal so much with enemies? Can’t we all just get along? Didn’t Jesus tell us to love our enemies and heap coals of fire on their heads? Yes, He did. But He didn’t tell us not to be aware of them; He didn’t tell us to ignore them. You can’t PRAY for them if you don’t know who they are; you can’t do anything about them—much less protect yourself if you don’t know who they are.
In the political world, and even in the business world, there is a thing called “oppo” research. You know that the opposition considers someone to be a viable candidate when they start collecting “oppo” research, trying to find their weaknesses so that they can attack them should they gain an actual nomination. In terms of marketing, knowing your competitors’ weaknesses allows you to point out your distinctive strengths.
The church must learn to recognize the opposition because our opposition is the devil and James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:9 tell us to resist the devil. Let me read those to you from the Cotton Patch Translation that we have used in much of the service today. “Put up a fight against the devil, and he will run from you.” (James 4:7 CPT) “Put steel in your faith and stand up to him, realizing that the brotherhood in other parts of the world is enduring the same kind of persecution. But after you have taken it for a while, the God of all kindness, who through Christ invited you into his marvelous era, will personally make you as good as new. He will make you secure and give you vigor and will undergird you.” (1 Peter 5:9-10 CPT) But to resist the devil we must recognize his minions and his tactics. So, what have we learned about them from this text?
We’ve seen a lot of tactics that these enemies used for which we need to be on the look-out. Let’s review them quickly.
1)“Help” that waters down
2)Discouragement from innuendo and flattery
3)Too many plans from outsiders
4)Propaganda with general not specific accusations
5)Bureaucratic obstruction
6)Delays
And how to we avoid these when we spot them?
“May those that love us, love us;
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we’ll know them by their limping.”
To both counter and nullify the work of our enemies, we must recognize them. Even to obey Jesus’ admonitions concerning our enemies, we have to recognize them—even if it’s by their limping.
So, one type of opposition to watch out for is the kind that says, “We’re just like you. We all worship the God of love. We all respect Jesus. We’re all living like God wants. We just don’t think church attendance is important. We don’t think you should pay any attention to the Old Testament with its “mean God.” We just think marital faithfulness is optional. We just think being gay is a real option. We don’t think you can really trust the Bible.” The temptation to compromise is always there. We have to be careful that we don’t become them, either. If you don’t understand that Jesus is the only approach to salvation that we can be sure of, you’re not like us. If you don’t think Jesus is coming again, you’re not like us.
In short, these opponents are those people who, by Jesus’ time, were known as the Samaritans and the land outside of Judah and Benjamin where they ended up (as shown by the oval on the map) was still known as Samaria in Jesus’ time. When I preach on John 4, I use a tie illustration where the knot is the Sea of Galilee and the wide part is the Dead Sea. I show how the shortest distance between two points, Jerusalem and Galilee would be a straight line up one side of the tie but how GOOD Jews would cross over the Jordan then up and back over to get to Galilee rather than crossing through Samaria.
So, let’s read on. 3) So, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the ancestral households said to them, “It doesn’t belong to you and us to build the House of Our God together, we build for Yahweh, God of Israel, just as the king, Cyrus, King of Persia, commanded us.” [PJT]
When I was younger, I would read this text and misunderstand. I would ask why these snobbish Jews returning from Exile would turn down the help of their neighbors. Well, as we see here, they weren’t EXACTLY Jews and, in another sense, we have to be careful when folks say that they’re here to help us. How many senior citizens have been scammed by the old roofing scam? The guy says he’s working in the neighborhood and is going to have materials left over so he can do their roof or their driveway for a price too good to be true. The homeowner pays him, thinking they are getting a great deal and the guy never finishes the job. Former President Reagan was famous for saying, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
I don’t think that’s always true. There is a place for the government, but you need to know that government help comes with strings attached. Get a grant? You may have to make a diversity hire that doesn’t fit your needs—just to justify the grant. Get a loan? You may have to jump through certain hoops and expend more effort to get that loan just to comply with their regulations. The same kinds of strings can come from accepting certain designated offerings or by partnering with other organizations. You may find that you have lost control of your own activity as time goes by.
Zerubbabel and company felt that these people were compromised, that they were tainted. They didn’t want to risk contaminating the building project that God had commissioned. They didn’t want to take the risk of the wrong kind of help.
#2: Our Enemy Wants Us Either Complacent or Discouraged
4) So, the people of the land became the ones causing the hands of the people of Judah to droop [lit. to relax, to drop, to weaken] and terrified them from building, 5) and hired against them [people of Judah] lawyers [lit. “counselors” or “advisers”] to frustrate [lit. “shatter”] them all the days of Cyrus, King of Persia, until the reign of Darius, King of Persia. [PJT]
If you can’t join them, DISCOURAGE them. Unlike most English translations, I translated this as making the hands droop. It’s hard to hold the hands up when you’re tired. If I just barely move my hands to the side, it looks like my gesture is saying, “I don’t know!”; “What’s the use?”; or “I give up.” It doesn’t look like I’m energized and ready to go.
Maybe it’s because I’ve personally had problems with depression, but I know that when you’re discouraged or depressed, your energy level goes down and you don’t accomplish as much. So, God’s enemies, these people of the land who were treating the returned exiles like some people treat immigrants—as folks trying to replace them—decided to discourage the folks who were all motivated to build God’s temple. “Does it really matter? Look how crummy the foundation looks compared to what they say the old temple was like?” “Do you really think Zerubbabel, born to privilege, and Jeshua, that priest who knows nothing of physical labor, are doing their fair share?” “Do you really think you’re the people to be able to build the new temple? Who do you think you are?”
I don’t know if you ever watch any of those Asian dramas, but it seems like there is always at least one episode that is built around a deliberate misunderstanding perpetrated by a villain. In one that I recently watched, the young protagonist is a cheery, good-natured young man who would do anything for anybody—a truly compassionate good guy. The villain undermines the young man by telling him a half-truth. He says that the people he trusts the most, a couple who have made his life significantly better, are using him for their own benefit. They are, but they are also concerned about and working toward his well-being. He misunderstands the situation and, what happens? He gets depressed and can’t concentrate on his work, doesn’t want to help people, drinks too much in one of those drunken montages, and has a “What’s the use?” attitude.
One of the ways God’s enemies try to keep us from accomplishing God’s plan is to discourage us and weaken us—to cause our arms to droop, if you will. “You’re not good enough.” “You don’t have enough people to be a real church.” “You aren’t really accomplishing anything.” “You’re not making any progress.”
But you might have noticed in my translation that the root has another meaning, too. To RELAX their arms! Sometimes, the enemies tell us, “Oh, you’re so dedicated. You should take a break!” “Oh, you’ve done so much already. Back off a little and take some ME time.” “You’ve worked so hard. Let someone else have a chance to serve.” Unfortunately, we hear that in the church even when no one has been trained to serve and no succession plan is in place.
#3: Our Enemy Also Uses Consultants, Spin Doctors, and Legal Advisors
Look at verse 5 again. Just in case their plans didn’t work, they also hired advisers or counselors to shatter them. I know most translators just make this “frustrate them,” but the literal verb is to shatter. They would do anything to demoralize God’s people. In one sense, it seems like they hired “spin doctors” to feed them misinformation. Maybe they “terrified” them by emphasizing the sacred responsibility and all the things that could go wrong! Maybe the spin was to warn them of how many enemies they would make and how society in general would disapprove of them for creating their narrow, specialized place of worship.
In another sense, it seems like they hired “consultants” to confuse the efforts with outside considerations. Have you ever been in a church or denomination that was being reorganized based on corporate principles? I saw a program for orphans destroyed by an efficiency expert. I’ve seen social ministry efforts torpedoed by leaders who forgot they weren’t supposed to make a profit. How easily church preschools can become business ventures instead of ministries! In fact, Wailam and I were members of a church in California where decisions were made on the basis of government assistance they had accepted and ability to subsidize the church rather than for ministry. So, the paid opposition as in verse 5 is out there!
You see, sometimes the outside advice isn’t helpful. Most churches are not megachurches and are not intended to become so. Yet, where does all the church leadership and educational program material come from? In most cases, from the megachurches. [Note: Before the denomination changed so radically, Southern Baptists made a sincere effort to use curriculum writers from churches of all sizes and not just large churches. After the radical takeover, that didn’t seem to be as true.]
#4: Our Enemy Is Prone to Use the Government and Law Courts Against Us
6) Now, in the reign of Ahasuerus [Xerxes], at the start of his reign, they wrote an accusation concerning the citizens [“dwellers”] of Judah and Jerusalem. … [Now, I’m skipping to the Aramaic portion of the text which is supposed to quote the original complaint from the opposition.]
11) This is a copy of the missive which they sent to him, To Artaxerxes, O King, your servants, men [beyond] the river [Jordan] and now, 12) let it be known to the king that the Jews which have come up from your midst have come to us in Jerusalem, they are building a rebellious and evil city and are repairing the wall and rebuilding, O King, [or “digging out for rebuilding”] the foundations.
13) Now, let it be known to the king that if this city is built and its walls repaired, they will not give the apportioned tribute, individual tax, or customs tax and will damage the king’s treasury. 14) Now, because we have all been preserved with the salt of the palace [“experienced trickle-down theory”] and it is not proper for us to be enemies of the king [“to bite the hand that feeds us”], accordingly we have sent and made this known to the king
15) so let it be investigated [lit. “searched out”] in the royal archives of your father and let you audit the royal archives and, as a result, know that this city is a rebellious city and injurious to kings and provinces, and those who have incited revolution in past days, accordingly, that city was razed. 16) We have caused the king to know this that if this city is rebuilt, along with its wall repaired, there will be no portion for you to receive in the province across the Jordan. [PJT]
When that didn’t work, the opposition became overt. They accused them directly in a missive to Ahasuerus – sound familiar fans of Esther? Yep! Same Persian king! And, while I’m not going to go point-by-point and verse-by-verse through that letter, I just gave you my translation from the Aramaic.
The letter reads almost like U.S. politics today. Everyone on the other side is painted with the same brush. The Jews are evil and rebellious; they’re going to do just like their ancestors did. Sound familiar? Today we hear that every Democrat is a socialist and every Republican is a fascist? Sound familiar? Every immigrant wants to take our place and every white person is a racist? Sound familiar? Every evangelical is a homophobic and every gay person is a sexual predator? Every preacher is a crook and every offering is a scam? It’s easy to do, but it isn’t right.
But God’s enemies will accuse the church of hypocrisy, of a lack of compassion, of wasting resources on the institutional church, of being a tax dodge, of corrupting our children, and more!
And, of course, if you really want to get someone’s attention, hit ‘em with the money issue. Let ‘em know it’s going to cost them. The returned exiles hadn’t had any opportunity to avoid paying tribute yet, but look at what their enemies wrote: 13) Now, let it be known to the king that if this city is built and its walls repaired, they will not give the apportioned tribute, individual tax, or customs tax and will damage the king’s treasury. [PJT]
And then, they lather it on in verse 14 about how good they’ve had it under the current king’s administration, enjoying the same luxurious and vital salt as served in the king’s palace and how they have benefited from the king’s “trickle-down” economics. They protest that they would never ever bite the hand that feeds them. And with all of that sickening, saccharine court-speak, they get to the heart of the matter in verse 16: “16) We have caused the king to know this that if this city is rebuilt, along with its wall repaired, there will be no portion for you to receive in the province across the Jordan.” [PJT]
Of course, if you really want to get a leader’s attention, tell her or him that their budget is going to be cut. In fact, since egotism is so dominant in leaders, just tell him or her that their influence is going to be diminished, that their power base is going to shrink. They won’t like that at all. And watch what’s happening in our country as more and more political activists begin to realize what they could do if all church property and all church operations were taxed. Watch what happens, as has already happened to some degree, when the politicians come after the charitable giving deduction.
And what was accomplished? The work on the temple was delayed and doesn’t seem to pick back up again until the reign of Darius. And what’s that mean for us? We need to beware—our enemy doesn’t have to defeat us, just delay us enough to make us ineffective.
Why Is This in the Bible?
Why on earth would we, or even more poignantly, would the Bible deal so much with enemies? Can’t we all just get along? Didn’t Jesus tell us to love our enemies and heap coals of fire on their heads? Yes, He did. But He didn’t tell us not to be aware of them; He didn’t tell us to ignore them. You can’t PRAY for them if you don’t know who they are; you can’t do anything about them—much less protect yourself if you don’t know who they are.
In the political world, and even in the business world, there is a thing called “oppo” research. You know that the opposition considers someone to be a viable candidate when they start collecting “oppo” research, trying to find their weaknesses so that they can attack them should they gain an actual nomination. In terms of marketing, knowing your competitors’ weaknesses allows you to point out your distinctive strengths.
The church must learn to recognize the opposition because our opposition is the devil and James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:9 tell us to resist the devil. Let me read those to you from the Cotton Patch Translation that we have used in much of the service today. “Put up a fight against the devil, and he will run from you.” (James 4:7 CPT) “Put steel in your faith and stand up to him, realizing that the brotherhood in other parts of the world is enduring the same kind of persecution. But after you have taken it for a while, the God of all kindness, who through Christ invited you into his marvelous era, will personally make you as good as new. He will make you secure and give you vigor and will undergird you.” (1 Peter 5:9-10 CPT) But to resist the devil we must recognize his minions and his tactics. So, what have we learned about them from this text?
We’ve seen a lot of tactics that these enemies used for which we need to be on the look-out. Let’s review them quickly.
1)“Help” that waters down
2)Discouragement from innuendo and flattery
3)Too many plans from outsiders
4)Propaganda with general not specific accusations
5)Bureaucratic obstruction
6)Delays
And how to we avoid these when we spot them?
- Be sure that God is cleansing us of sin by confessing to Him regularly so that we aren’t tainted;
- Learning to praise God instead of listening to our own press—good or bad;
- Ensuring that our plans are consistent with the Bible and what God has taught us;
- Looking at specifics instead of becoming emotionally caught up in generalities;
- Learn what we can about the way government operates to ensure that we can navigate the bureaucracy when we need to do so; and
- Avoid unnecessary delays in the Lord’s work. If we can do those things, we will frustrate our Enemy and his minions.
“May those that love us, love us;
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts;
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we’ll know them by their limping.”
To both counter and nullify the work of our enemies, we must recognize them. Even to obey Jesus’ admonitions concerning our enemies, we have to recognize them—even if it’s by their limping.
11/5/2021
蒼靈
提 摩 太 前 書 6章
6 然 而 , 敬 虔 加 上 知 足 的 心 便 是 大 利 了 ;
7 因 為 我 們 沒 有 帶 甚 麼 到 世 上 來 , 也 不 能 帶 甚 麼 去 。
8 只 要 有 衣 有 食 , 就 當 知 足 。
人活到一把年紀,就會越來越不在乎很多事情。我很喜歡敬虔(對神),知足(對自己的生活)。好一句我們赤身來這世上,走的時候也带不了甚麽去。能知足是一個祝福!
我二十多歲時得奬,當時覺得好孤單啊!人若賺得全世界卻賠上了生命…… 感謝主讓我想到生命的問題,找到人生的方向和信了主。
四十多歲時被提名藝術獎,同行當時跟我説,下一年必定輪到我拿獎。然而神带了我們一家去上海宣教,為此感恩!感謝主我在上海一待便待了差不多四年之久。
昨天晚上我2016 年創辦的机構得奬,我沒有多大感覺。頒獎儀式完了以後我的董事會成員带我和老公出去慶祝,也是感恩。
我領悟到甚麽叫淡泊名利!我只喜歡創作, 透過創作能滿足我的藝術心靈。
主是我萬有,唯求奉上生命全歸主所有。
6 然 而 , 敬 虔 加 上 知 足 的 心 便 是 大 利 了 ;
7 因 為 我 們 沒 有 帶 甚 麼 到 世 上 來 , 也 不 能 帶 甚 麼 去 。
8 只 要 有 衣 有 食 , 就 當 知 足 。
人活到一把年紀,就會越來越不在乎很多事情。我很喜歡敬虔(對神),知足(對自己的生活)。好一句我們赤身來這世上,走的時候也带不了甚麽去。能知足是一個祝福!
我二十多歲時得奬,當時覺得好孤單啊!人若賺得全世界卻賠上了生命…… 感謝主讓我想到生命的問題,找到人生的方向和信了主。
四十多歲時被提名藝術獎,同行當時跟我説,下一年必定輪到我拿獎。然而神带了我們一家去上海宣教,為此感恩!感謝主我在上海一待便待了差不多四年之久。
昨天晚上我2016 年創辦的机構得奬,我沒有多大感覺。頒獎儀式完了以後我的董事會成員带我和老公出去慶祝,也是感恩。
我領悟到甚麽叫淡泊名利!我只喜歡創作, 透過創作能滿足我的藝術心靈。
主是我萬有,唯求奉上生命全歸主所有。