In the Days of Ezra

After seventy years of captivity, the Jews were allowed to return to Judah by a decree from King Cyrus of Persia. Cyrus wrote the proclamation to allow some of them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the house of the “LORD God of Israel.” The King also sent thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, and twenty knives to help finance the trip and the building of a new temple. Nine hundred miles later, Ezra and the returning Jews found the temple was little more than piles of rubble. The daunting task of clearing the Temple mound was a hard sight for them to accept, but they began their labor with zeal.

Jews who had been left behind when Nebuchadnezzar razed the city and Temple had done nothing to clean away the debris or to begin rebuilding the house of the LORD. When Ezra and the returning Jews arrived and began to remove the piles of rubble and set the foundation of the Temple, adversaries volunteered to help. Ezra refused. It is much like the infusion of ecumenism today and the one church ideology. So often, the weakening of the Gospel is compared to the leavening of bread.

When Ezra refused their help, they hired counselors and scribes to frustrate the workers’ purpose of clearing the site and attempting to delay the building of the walls. They tried every means at their disposal to weaken the hands of the builders, causing as much trouble as possible for the laborers as they rebuilt the Temple.

Can we see the same tactics of adversaries trying to trouble those who try to retain, restore, and reclaim the rights and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States? Can we see the same attempts at an end run for Americans who wish to build a wall for the safety of its people?

When all that failed, the adversaries appealed to Cyrus the King by sending a letter filled with lies about the workers saying, “When the walls are set up again, then they will not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so shall endamage the revenue of the kings.” By then, Cyrus was dead and the new king, Artaxerxes was reigning and ordered a stop to the temple’s construction.

Does this also sound familiar? It is almost as if history repeating itself in America today. Ezra followed the King’s decree for fifteen years until he decided that following God’s will was more important than manmade laws and began in civil disobedience to rebuild the Temple.