Ezra 4

Most of this section consists of two letters: one written to King Artaxerxes by the opponents of the Jews (verses 8–16); and the other, his reply to them (verses 1722). The letters were written in the Aramaic language (verse 7), which was the international diplomatic language of the Middle East during that period.¹⁷

8–16 The first letter was written by two officials who represented the non-Israelite settlers who had been forced to settle in Samaria and elsewhere in the Trans-Euphrates¹⁸ by Ashurbanipal, the last king of Assyria (verse 10). In the letter, they called the Jews rebellious and wicked, and they stated that if King Artaxerxes allowed them to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls, the Jews would no longer pay tribute to him and he would end up losing everything in Trans-Euphrates (verses 12–13). Although the people of Judah had had a long history of rebelling against the former empires of Assyria and Babylon, the letter was clearly overstated—all in the hope of spurring Artaxerxes to take action against the Jews.

17–23 The letter achieved the desired effect. Anxious not to lose the taxes, tribute and duty that Jerusalem had been paying to the powerful kings—Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes—who had ruled over Trans Euphrates before him (verse 20), Artaxerxes ordered that further work on rebuilding the city be stopped.

24 Here Ezra returns to the original op position to building the temple (verses 1–5), and continues from where verse 5 left off.

Modern readers might wonder what relevance these matters have to them and to the church of Christ. The relevance lies in this: whenever believers embark upon a work of God, Satan will raise up people to oppose it. We can even say that if our work does not provoke opposition from nonbelievers, we need to question whether we are truly engaged in a work of God. But we must be sure that our opponents are opposing God and not some sin or weakness in ourselves. Many Christians encounter opposition and believe they are being opposed for Christ’s sake; the truth is, however, it is they themselves who have provoked the opposition. When opposition comes, let us search our own hearts first to see if the cause might not be in us.