Ezra 4:1-5 - When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here."
But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, "You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us."
Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
I can understand why the others wanted to help build the temple, but I wonder why they then did a 180 and did all they could to hinder the construction after they were told to stay away. What purpose would it serve them if no temple were built? They had to go out of their way to cause trouble for Zerubbabel and his crews. They could have just stayed home and done business as usual. I wonder if some just had too much time on their hands. Or were they not truly followers of the true God as they insinuated at the beginning?
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