Undercurrents

Ezra 4:1-5

Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of families and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of King Esar-haddon of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, “You shall have no part with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us.”

Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build, and they bribed officials to frustrate their plan throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.

In every task

there will always be discouragers

Those who feel left out

Those who resent others

getting on with the work in hand - 

especially when they're making a good job of it.

Not everything can be wholly embracing,

not when the outcome will be compromised

Discernment and instinct

should not be overruled

by the desire to be inclusive.

Even when we know

there will be a price to pay.

Prayer

Lord, in our desire to embrace, help us not to sell out. 

In our desire to compromise, help us not to let what is important slide into oblivion.

Give us wisdom to discern when it is appropriate to simply say no - and then to live with the consequence.