Ezra 4:1-5 – Are All Welcome?

 

We have this group of people who come and ask if they can help build the temple of God.

 

Ezra, as he wrote this book, describes these people as Israel’s enemies.  Whether Israel knew that at the time, I don’t know, but they at the very least knew who they were, and where they came from. These are Samaritans – a mingled people group of those left behind after the first deportation, descendants of the Northern Ten Tribes, intermixed with immigrants from Assyria and Persia.  After the Assyrian captivity (which you recall, took place about 115-130 years before the Babylonian captivity) the King of Assyria brought people back from different places and settled them together. So, you have a mix of people, culture and religions. 

 

“Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”

 

In the book of 1 Kings we get a little insight into these people – and what exactly they mean when they say, they have been “seeking God.”

 

In Chapter 17:24-29

 

“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. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.

 

At the beginning of their living there, they did not fear the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them which killed some of them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.”

 

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Take there one of the priests whom you carried away into exile and let him go and live there; and let him teach them the custom of the god of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.”

 

Skipping down to verse 41 –

 

“So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.”

 

God to them, was just another deity in their repertoire, one of many.

 

They feared God alongside their other gods, which is to say they didn’t fear Him at all. 

 

They didn’t really know or understand who He was.  They just wanted all of their bases covered. 

 

So, they come here and ask to work alongside the Israelites. 

 

But the Israelites responded –

 

“You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”

 

Were the Israelites right to turn them away?  To deny their help?

 

Or were the difficulties they faced later a result of a wrong choice? Consequences for their actions?

 

Surely a few extra hands would have been helpful.  

 

I think it’s safe to assume that the Samaritans did not truly wish to “help”. The fact that they are described as enemies indicates that their motives were nefarious in nature.

 

Even though they offer what seems to be a hand of friendship, it would appear that this was just a façade. Part of a scheme to either overthrow or frustrate their plans by infiltration, maybe in the hopes of discouraging them and ultimately driving them off.  

 

This becomes clearer later when this plan falls through and they seek to discourage them by other means. 

 

But assuming for a moment that Israel didn’t know their plans, that they had no idea of the sinister motivation behind the proffered hand of help – Where they right to refuse it?

 

Put aside the Samaritans real motivation, and say it was genuine – they really did want to help.  

 

Was Israel’s decision still the right one?

 

Again, keeping in mind the Samaritan’s lifestyle and how they viewed God. 

 

My purpose in addressing this question is because, the day and age which we live there is not a lot anymore in the church, that we say no to – that we do not welcome. That’s even become the slogan on so many church signs today – this concept that “All are welcome”.

 

Are they?

 

Discernment and the protection of the flock has been replaced with acceptance and this idea that we could have a good impact or maybe our perspective could stand some improvement when it comes to tolerating different things – hey at least they’re here, right?  

 

What about the principle that “bad company corrupts good morals.”  What about the strong tendency of man’s nature to be so easily corrupted.  But, aside from their influence – and more importantly is the issue of how we treat God.

 

Israel is not just building a house – what they are doing is an act of worship.  We mentioned this before. This is not an issue of working with someone who is worldly and corrupt – it’s an issue of worshipping with that someone. 

 

There’s a difference.  We are not to completely cut ourselves off from the world – we are to be salt and light – but when it comes to this issue of worship, who we stand side by side with as we come before God – we better be careful.  

 

The Samaritans had no place there.  

 

Would you ask someone who is apart from the LORD to take part in serving Him? 

 

Could God accept anything from that person as worship?  

 

Think of the position you are putting them in.

 

God takes worship very seriously.  God has struck down people who have not treated Him as holy.  

 

For the Israelites to bring in such corruption would be nothing less than to despise the holiness of God.  To show disrespect and disregard for the purity of God’s righteous character.  

 

This is a big deal.

 

I am not saying that we shouldn’t invite unbelievers to church, but that we think carefully what we ask them to participate in.  

 

Are we jealous for the holiness of God?

 

Maclaren bring up another interesting point.  

 

“Now, it is easy to represent this as a piece of impolitic narrowness, and to say that its surly bigotry (that is, Israel’s denial) was rightly punished by the evils that it brought down on the returning exiles. The temper of much flaccid Christianity at present delights to expand in a lazy and foolish ‘liberality,’ which will welcome anybody to come and take a hand at the building, and accepts any profession of unity in worship. But there is no surer way of taking the earnestness out of Christian work and workers than drafting into it a mass of non-Christians, whatever their motives may be. Cold water poured into a boiling pot will soon stop its bubbling, and bring down its temperature. The churches are clogged and impeded, and their whole tone lowered and chilled, by a mass of worldly men and women. Nothing is gained, and much is in danger of being lost, by obliterating the lines between the church and the world. The Jew who thought little of the difference between the Samaritan worship with its polytheism, and his own monotheism, was in peril of dropping to the Samaritan level. The Samaritan who was accepted as a true worshipper of Jehovah, though he had a bevy of other gods in addition, would have been confirmed in his belief that the differences were unimportant.So both would have been harmed by what called itself ‘liberality,’ and was in reality indifference.” --Maclaren

 

Regardless of the harm it can do to us as believers, and the disregard for God’s holiness, there is also the travesty in allowing someone to think they are in the right by accepting them “as they are” into the church.  Again, that is a phrase that we hear often.  God will accept you as you are! Is that statement true?  Does God accept us exactly as we are? We don’t need to take the time to go through verse after verse that describes what we are. Man is sinful, rebellious and full of pride.  What is it exactly we are conveying when we say this?  There’s no need for change…there’s no need for humility or repentance? For a mourning over my own sin?

 

When things like this are said to people, they are confirmed in the belief that they can have their cake and eat it too – that is that they can seek God and still act like a heathen. 

 

You are doing them no favor.  In fact, you are pushing them further down the path of self-delusion.  Feeding their desire for acceptance – no matter what.

 

How dare we.  

 

These kinds of acceptances are a perversion of the love of God and a misrepresentation of what it means to be a follower of Christ.  To follow Christ is to deny self, to be set-apart from sin and the things of this world.  It’s to pursue holiness and Christ-likeness.  

 

You don’t come to God to stay the same, you come to God to be changed, because you recognize that apart from Him you have no hope or power over sin and its consequences.  You come to God to be saved, not because you are fine the way you are. 

 

Israel took a stand.  They refused to allow their worship to be sullied in any way.   

 

Was it worth it?

 

V. 4 – “Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.”

 

Faithfulness and righteous living have a cost.

 

Anyone who knows the LORD and has walked with Him for any amount of time knows this.  

 

There is a cost because when we stand up for truth we stand against the world and the god of this world. 

 

Satan hates truth.  He is the father of lies – the very antithesis of truth.  

 

He has done and will continue to do everything in his power to thwart God’s people. And this is especially true in the case of Israel.  

 

The Samaritans throw everything at Israel.  It says they discouraged them.  Or weakened them, it means to cause them to literally “sink down” to be disheartened.  They hire counselors or maybe we could use the word ‘strategists’ to frustrate them, so all their plans cracked and fell apart.

 

They came at them from all sides.  Imagine the discouragement, the emotional and physical exhaustion this would have placed on them.  Building the temple? It was all they could do to keep their head above water. 

 

I found myself asking why?  God called them to rebuild His temple.  A call that they answer faithfully.  They build the altar, offer sacrifices and praise for God’s lovingkindness to them, lay the foundation and then, even after standing firm though I’m sure very tempted, they’re hit with incredible opposition.  

 

Our natural tendency as humans is to ask, why? 

 

Why did God allow this?

 

Right off the bat the big problem with that is assuming to understand the workings of Almighty God.  His ways are not our ways.  But we do know from scripture that trials and struggles are something that God allows into our lives to accomplish His purpose.

 

There are many reasons God allows struggle into our lives.  

In our bible study at church this last Wednesday evening we talked about Psalm 34 and specifically verse 19 that says – “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers them out of them all.”

 

We listed off reasons and purposes that the LORD has in allowing afflictions into the lives of His children.

 

Some of which are –

 

For our growth, to build our faith and confidence, increase our endurance. To teach us to pray, to give us a greater appreciation for His word and His people.  To be able to empathize and minister to others…

 

The LORD can accomplish a whole lot through affliction.

 

Another reason, is to cultivate in us an eternal mindset and expectation. keep us looking and anticipating what is to come.  

 

The darkness of struggle has a way of accentuating the brightness of our hope. 

 

One of the things Israel’s neighbors did, in the latter part of chapter 4, was write a letter to the king that affectively stopped work on the temple.

 

They warned the king saying consider what this people has done in the past.  If they are allowed to continue they are going to revolt. So, the king shuts down the work. 

 

It’s in this time that the LORD raises up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them. 

 

In Zechariah, especially the first half of the book – there is a strong emphasis on the future kingdom. The Messianic Kingdom, when Christ will come to reign and dwell in His temple. It’s not talking about the completion of the current temple but the completion of something much greater.  The final fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel. 

 

Zechariah 2 

 

In building this temple, God was giving Israel a great privilege, a way in which to worship and honor Him during their time on earth, but this was not God’s ultimate plan for Israel.  And it was not His ultimate plan for His house. This was their hope. It should have been.  

 

It’s a hope that should have spurred them on in obedience to the LORD.  

 

But the Israelites succumbed to this affliction, and the building of the temple does not resume for 16 years. 

 

That’s the gap between chapters 4 and 5, and we will LORD willing pick it up there next time. 

 

I know we covered a lot in this chapter.  

 

We’ve seen Israel take a stand.  The jealousy the showed for the holiness of the LORD and maintaining the purity of worship.  As a result, they faced much opposition, and were discouraged from continuing on in their work.  But the LORD is so faithful and patient with His people and sends His messengers to encourage them, to keep them looking ahead. and we will, LORD willing take a look at that more next time.