And the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building;
The returned exiles had just begun rebuilding the temple when they refused an offer of help from the surrounding peoples. That refusal turned neighbours into open enemies, and it raises the question this chapter answers: what really stopped the work of God — the enemy outside, or something inside the builders?
The friendly offer earlier in the chapter and the hostility here are two stages of one campaign. Dennett sees the attack as proof of what the offer really was:
They had failed to corrupt the work the returned exiles were doing. So now they throw off the mask of friendship and try to hinder it by open hostility. This is Satan's method in every age. He and his servants will often transform themselves into angels of light and ministers of righteousness. They do this because it is easier to deceive the saints than to scare them off. But the moment someone detects and exposes his presence and activity, his rage knows no bounds.
Rossier names the two forms the enemy takes, and what the builders forgot:
The people had stood firm and resisted the tricks and cunning that belong to the ancient serpent. But they become frightened when the adversary appears as a roaring lion. They forget that their enemy is a defeated enemy, and that he would have fled from anyone who stood up to him.
Where the ESV says the people of the land "discouraged" Judah, older translations read that they "weakened the hands" of Judah — the wording these writers use. The opponents were not idol-worshippers from a foreign religion. Kelly notes how respectable they looked, and why that made no difference:
Then the people of the land weakened their hands. Now they showed what they really were — not friends, but adversaries. And notice: they were adversaries even though they worshipped the Lord God of Israel. They were adversaries even though they were not idolaters, as far as we know at this time. The text does not accuse them of that, but they were not Israel. That was enough.
Hardt draws the same line for the work of God today:
To this day, the work of God must be done by the people of God. If the world offers to co-operate, we have to refuse. If we do, those who made the offer will soon show their true colours. But if we don't, we will soon spoil the work. We end up being governed by the world's principles in the work we wanted to do for God.
A royal ban did come, but only much later and under a different king. Darby shows that the ban was not what stopped the work:
There were adversaries in the land who made them afraid, and so prevented their building. It seems the Jews did not dare to continue... But the first thing was that the adversaries weakened the hands of the people. The ban only came two reigns later, but the Jews had already stopped building through fear of their adversaries... God was no more to be feared under Darius than under Cyrus or Artaxerxes. Their weakness came from having forgotten God.
Kelly presses the point into a rule about God's people in any age:
God does not attribute the stopping of the work to the command of the king, although the king did give in at last... It was lack of faith, and not the king's authority, that stopped the work; and, dear friends, as a rule, is it not always so? When blessing stops among God's people, it is really never the work of the enemy outside. It is lack of faith, and therefore of faithfulness, within.
Dennett traces the slide from fear to self-interest:
Fear of their adversaries was stronger than their faith in God. So they lost heart, thought only of themselves and their own selfish interests, and began to build their own houses and to say, "The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD."
Patterson shows what restarted the work: two prophets, and one fear replacing another:
Fear of man stopped the work of the Lord. The energy and beauty of their first efforts of faith were gone. God sends the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to stir up the people to the work of the Lord... Once stirred up, we find that they obeyed the voice of the Lord and did the work of the Lord. The fear of man gave place to the fear of the Lord; and God was there to accept and bless the renewed efforts of faith.
- Mask — the offer of help and the attack came from the same source. Refusal only exposed what was already there.
- Measure — these opponents worshipped the God of Israel and were still adversaries. The test was not their religion but whether they belonged to God's people.
- Method — cunning first, then open terror. The builders resisted the trick and gave way to the threat.
- Motive — the enemy weakened their hands before any law forbade the work; fear, not force, was the true hindrance.
- Mercy — God did not leave them there: two prophets replaced the fear of man with the fear of the Lord, and the work went on.
and they hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ezra 4:5 shows how long the trouble lasted. Judah refused the neighbours' offer of help, so they hired officials to block the work — but why did the king's decree not protect it?
Watch what happens the moment that offer is refused.
The effect of the refusal shows the true nature of the offer these adversaries of Judah and Benjamin had made... They had failed to corrupt the work that the people back from captivity were doing. So they now throw off the mask of friendship and try to hinder them by open hostility. Such is Satan's method in every age. He and his servants will often transform themselves into angels of light and ministers of righteousness. It is easier to deceive the saints than to frighten them off. But the moment someone detects and exposes his presence and activity, his rage knows no limits.
These hired counsellors were not local troublemakers. They worked inside the Persian court itself.
Adversaries in the land made them afraid, and so kept them from building. It appears that the Jews did not dare continue. Their adversaries hired counsellors in the Persian court to frustrate the purpose of the Jews. But the first thing was that the adversaries weakened the hands of the people. They did not get the official ban until two reigns later.
The verse spans reigns, not months.
The opposition was very persistent, for verses 5-7 name no fewer than four kings. It began at once in the days of Cyrus and continued until the time of Darius, as verse 5 states. Secular history knows this Darius as the one surnamed Hystaspes. In between these kings came Ahasuerus, not the one mentioned in the book of Esther, but the one known as Cambyses.
Verse 5 is not one step in a sequence. It is a summary, and the chapter picks up its thread again at the end.
These two verses (4 and 5) sum up what the enemies of Israel did during the reigns of Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes. Verse 24 therefore connects back to verse 5. The passage in between is a parenthesis, giving an account of how the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin succeeded in their plans.
The ban came later. The people had already quit.
Mark this — it is a very important thing. God does not blame the stopping of the work on the king's command. The king did give in at last, and he did yield to their persistent begging to stop the Israelites. But the Israelites began to stop before the king's order came. It was want of faith, and not the king's authority, that stopped the work. And, dear friends, as a rule, is it not always so? The stopping of blessing among God's people is really never the work of the enemy outside. It is want of faith, and so of faithfulness, within.
The enemy had changed tactics, and the people lost their nerve.
The people had been firm and had resisted the tricks and cunning that mark the ancient serpent. But they become frightened when the adversary appears as a roaring lion. They forget that their enemy is a defeated enemy, and that he would have left anyone who stood up to him.
The verse ends in deadlock, but the book does not.
But God is faithful, even when His people so often are not; and He works in His people to recover them by His word. Their circumstances depressed them and their adversaries discouraged them. They slackened the work before their enemies even got a decree to stop them. But God in the resources of His grace raised up servants of His even at that time of weakness to recall them to His will. And hearts were not lacking among the chiefs to respond.
- Refusal. Judah turned down the offer of partnership, and the hidden hostility came into the open. The friendly approach had been a disguise.
- Reprisal. They paid for counsellors inside the Persian court, so the pressure kept up from Cyrus to Darius.
- Retreat. The building stopped before any royal ban arrived. The people gave in to fear of an enemy already defeated.
- Reason. The blame lies inside, not outside. Loss of blessing comes from want of faith among God's people, not from the power of their enemies.
- Recovery. Verse 5 is a summary, and its thread resumes at verse 24. The deadlock breaks when God's word stirs His people back to the work.