Tuesday: Work Stoppage
What did the “enemies” do in Ezra 4:6-24 in order to stop the work in Jerusalem?
The “people of the land” wrote letters of accusation against the Jews and their work first to Darius (Ezra chapters 5 and 6), then to King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) as well as Artaxerxes. They were doing everything in their power to stop the work in Jerusalem.
Work Stoppage
The people of the surrounding nations claimed that if the city were rebuilt, the king would lose his power over it because Jerusalem had always been a place of rebellion and trouble in the past. Unfortunately, King Artaxerxes was swayed into believing that the Jews were building only because they wanted to gain their independence and therefore incite confrontation. He ordered the work to cease, and the people sent an army to prevent further building of the city. This forceful approach brought the work for God to a halt.
Read Ezra 4:23-24. Why did the Jews stop building? Didn’t they know that God wanted them to rebuild the city? What got in the way?
It is apparent that the Jews realized that God had called them to rebuild the city and the temple, but because of the strong opposition, they were afraid. Perhaps they came up with excuses such as “Now must not be the right time”, or “If this were truly what God wanted us to do, He would have provided a way”, or “Maybe we weren’t supposed to come back here at all”. When opposition gets in the way of doing what we believe God calls us to do, we have the tendency to question and doubt God’s guidance. We can easily convince ourselves that we made a mistake. Fear can paralyze our minds, and our thoughts turn to despair and helplessness instead of being focused on the power of God.
| Have you experienced something similar, being convinced that God had called you to do something and, then, harboring doubts when things got hard? (Think, for instance, about John the Baptist). What have you learned from that experience? |
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When the Azaria Chamberlain/Dingo case hit the headlines in Australia in the 1980s, it essentially hit the pause button on Adventist evangelism in Australia. And it was a headline that just would not go away. The media of the day latched on to the peculiarities of Adventism and stretched them beyond recognition with sarcasm and journalese. In terms of financial gain, the press had a field day.
The South Pacific Division Public Relations and Religious Liberty leader at the time made the comment that the case had set Adventism back 15 years. It illustrates the fact that the church’s work can be stopped easily through no fault of its own, or indeed that of its members. It was simply a situation of the Church being thrust into the limelight for all the wrong reasons. I wish I could say that the Seventh-day Adventist Church membership all behaved impeccably, but of course that is not the case. Splinter groups claimed that the church was being punished for apostacy (you can imagine how that went down with the media). Others thought they could take on the press and play them at their own game. That was not really a good idea – the press always has the last word! Many evangelism projects at the time simply withered. One consequence was that many Australian evangelists at the time suddenly felt the urge to evangelize communist countries in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Australian Adventist outreach has recovered somewhat, but other factors have significantly reduced our public effort somewhat. Perhaps we need Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai to encourage us once again.
We just had a federal election in Canada and I was stunned by the amount hate spewing from people on the Internet. I was especially dismayed by the outright lies of one political leader and his personal attacks on the man he viewed as an obstacle to his path to power. And stunned even more by the approbation of his behaviour by his loyal followers, some saying he was not going far enough.
God help the body of Christ when Devil has it in the crosshairs of this kind of hate. What happened in Australia with the Chamberlains was just a practice round.
Immediately they went - Once they got the legal right to stop the work of the Israelites, they went to enforce it immediately.
Compelled them by force - They forced the Israelites to give up on the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem.
The Israelites, once they stopped rebuilding the temple, they went on working on their own personnel comforts.
June 17, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court removed government-endorsed prayer from public schools, ruling the practice unconstitutional.
Altered the way classrooms approached faith and religion.
“They say that prayer in schools is constitutionally prohibited. I say it’s constitutionally protected. The freedom of speech protects our right to speak freely.”
- Michael Brown, “Prayer Never Fails”
In 1995, then-President Bill Clinton issued a memo titled “Religious Expression in Public Schools,” that said in part:
It appears that some school officials, teachers and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either inappropriate, or forbidden altogether, in public schools.
As our courts have reaffirmed, however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones, or requires all religious expression to be left behind at the schoolhouse door. While the government may not use schools to coerce the consciences of our students, or to convey official endorsement of religion, the government’s schools also may not discriminate against private religious expression during the school day.
We assume when there is opposition, we have to stop praying and we stop.
IS IT LEGAL FOR STUDENTS TO PRAY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
Yes. Contrary to popular myth, the Supreme Court has never outlawed “prayer in schools.” Students are free to pray alone or in groups, as long as such prayers are not disruptive and do not infringe upon the rights of others. But this right “to engage in voluntary prayer does not include the right to have a captive audience listen or to compel other students to participate.”
Matthew 21: 14-16
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’[g]?”
There will be opposition.
May the work of God be finished with the praise of the children.
Right from the beginning our downfall has been making a decision to add our opinion to what the LORD has told us. Eve saw the tree of good and evil was like the other trees - looked good and was good for food Gen 2:9, 3:8 then she added "and would make her wise" - where did she get that? The serpent only said she would know "good and evil like God" which was actually true, what he didn't explain was that would not make them happy or wise!!
The LORD had said they would die,the serpent said they would not die.
We need to trust the LORD and watch out for others and our own twists on His Word.
Adam and Eve were given a perfect world but they chose to include evil so we have to experience both good and evil in the physical world and endure by clinging to the LORD's perfect love and guidance.
God has a plan for all of us. Regardless of the type of disorder we might think we are into. He can bring us blessings although we may feel hopeless! God is the god of chance. He can love us more than we can do it ourselves.
God does speak through the General Conference (GC); but is this the only way that He speaks? Does God also speak through the Bible and Ellen White? Does God also speak through members, churches, conferences, unions, and divisions? How are we to relate the different ways that God speaks?
Ellen White highlighted the authority of the GC as the voice of God when she was encouraging the church to move away from regarding a few men as the only voice of God. "Let us give to the highest organized authority in the church that which we are prone to give to one man or to a small group of men." (Testimonies, 9:261).
At the same time, it is important to recognize that what is voted at the GC session must be adapted to the needs of the local field of ministry--where God also speaks. When the church becomes larger and more complex, Ellen White writes: "It has been some years since I have considered the General Conference as the voice of God." (Manuscript Releases, 17:216). (1898).
"But this is not saying that the decisions of a General Conference composed of an assembly of duly appointed, representative men from all parts of the field should not be respected. God has ordained that the representatives of His church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General Conference, shall have authority." (Testimonies, 9:260).
Nevertheless, there are limits to the voice of God through the GC based on the voice of God outside of the GC. In 1877, the General Conference in session voted that: “the highest authority under God among Seventh-day Adventists is found in the will of the body of that people, as expressed in the decisions of the General Conference when acting within its proper jurisdiction; and that such decisions should be submitted to by all without exception, unless they can be shown to conflict with the word of God and the rights of individual conscience.” (Minutes, 16th General Conference Session, 1877, p. 115, GCS 63-88).
Ellen White: "The doctrine that God has committed to the church the right to CONTROL the conscience, and to define and punish heresy, is one of the most deeply rooted of papal errors. While the Reformers rejected the creed of Rome, they were not entirely free from her spirit of intolerance" Ellen G. White (The Great Controversy, p. 293).
I have always believed that if God calls me to do something, I will see nothing but green lights before me. I have never stopped to think of trials on the way as being signs that God was telling me that I was wrong about what I thought that He wanted me to do. I saw them as coming about because I lost my connection with Him from time to time and therefore, whatever hurdles I encountered were allowed for me to get back on track. Today's lesson has brought a different perspective to me.
As I prepare to facilitate this weeks lesson for my local SDA Sabbath School class, I am aware that many believers are not aware of how the scriptures in the books of Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Esther and Malachi all fit into a small time period of less than 150 years of Biblical History. During this period when the exiled people of Judah were returned to Jerusalem and their homeland, the Lord raised up these 7 extraordinary leaders to not only rebuild the Temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar but also lead God's people back to the time-honored worship of the God of the Universe.
Don, thanks for this reminder. The building of Zerubbabel's temple was an actual OT experience which pointed to Christ's incarnation and ministry for the benefit of all humanity (Hag 2:4-7). Christ is "the Desire of All Nations" (Hag 2:7 NKJV). He is the Earth's "glory" and it's "place" of "peace" (Hag 2:9; Isaiah 9:6-7).
Jesus, understanding His role, would refer to Himself as the "temple" (Jn 2:19-21), which drew the opposition of some "work stoppers". Jesus--this "temple" whom angels placed in an exalted place (Lk 2:10-14)--didn't just arise out of nowhere. The "Child" of Isaiah 9:6, is the same "Child" of Rev 12:4-5. The "woman" depicted as being pregnant and giving birth to "the Child" wasn't Mary. The "woman" of Revelation 12 is a representation of many individuals with Mary-like character (Lk 1:38). These "Zerubbabels" (Zech 4:6) were individuals like Mary herself, who would submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in her life (Lk 1:35), even if that submission created inconvenience (Mt 1:18-19). These "Zerubbabels" were also like Simeon, raised up by the Holy Spirit (Lk 2:25-35) and sent just like Haggai (Hag 2:4-5) and Zechariah (Zech 1:16,21; Ezr 6:14) to encourage a bewildered young "woman" (Lk 2:19) who must go on to give birth to the "Child's" siblings (Rev 12:13,17).
As sure as Zerubbabel's temple was built, prophecy is sure (Dan 2:44-45)! Christ's Temple has been built and will ever continue to perform His work in the Earth of bringing the Peace of God (Eph 2:19-22; 2 Cor 6:16; Gal 4:26).