Sunday 10th May
Read Ezra 4:17-24
“The king sent this reply:
To Rehum the commanding officer, Shimshai the secretary and the rest of their associates living in Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates:
Greetings.
18 The letter you sent us has been read and translated in my presence. 19 I issued an order and a search was made, and it was found that this city has a long history of revolt against kings and has been a place of rebellion and sedition. 20 Jerusalem has had powerful kings ruling over the whole of Trans-Euphrates, and taxes, tribute and duty were paid to them. 21 Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. 22 Be careful not to neglect this matter. Why let this threat grow, to the detriment of the royal interests?
23 As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shimshai the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop.
24 Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” (NIVUK)
The magnitude of the opposition to God’s people is exemplified in the lengths they go to secure their will. They appeal to the king, who does a rudimentary search and discovers Jerusalem’s history, and commands a halt to the work on rebuilding the city.
There are clues to God’s gracious working scattered even through this letter. The king commands the work stop, not that it be undone, or undone with force – a mistake the enemies of God will come to regret (cf Nehemiah 1). The edict does not have the error made with Haman as recorded in Esther – it is an open-ended edict. The work is to stop ‘…until I so order’ (v21). The king will not be tied up with the unbreachable power of his own words!
The ‘brackets’ close with reference to the violence used to end work on rebuilding Jerusalem, and the narrative, paused at verse 5, resumes from verse 24 (with the earlier king and the temple rebuilding). Why the break? It is likely done to emphasise that the challenges faced by God’s people in securing rest and peace in worship of Yahweh were significant, ongoing and real. The excursus serves to highlight just how remarkable the rest of Ezra truly is!
When faced with the conflicting reality of promises of rest and peace and the prolonged suffering that God’s people routinely experience the reminder that God sees and knows and rules regardless is a source of hope.
