Ezra 4:5

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.