ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Ezra 5:1-5 (KJV)
Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.
Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.
At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall?
Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?
But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter.
When the word got back, in chapter 4, from Artaxerxes, that the Jews should cease building the city until further word came from the throne, the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin pounced.
The Bible says, Ezra 4:21-24 (KJV)
Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me.
Take heed now that ye fail not to do this: why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?
Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power.
Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
But in chapter 5, before any such further orders were given, the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah[1] began to preach to Judah and stirred them to once again begin the building of the Temple.
The adversaries attempted to stop them.
Ezra 5:3 (KJV)
At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall?
This time the Jews refused to quit and wrote their own letter to the king.
They chose not to discontinue the work, but to keep on working, despite the opposition, until they heard back.
This looks a lot like civil disobedience, doesn’t it?
The testimony of the Word of God is that God was on their side in their “disobedience.”
Ezra 5:5 (KJV)
But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter.
I want to point out to you that, as children of God, we are citizens of two countries:
· Our earthly one and
· Our heavenly one
And because the earthly country is not in submission to God, there will be some times when obedience to the Lord looks a lot like civil disobedience.
God has made it pretty clear that, when it is at all possible, He wants us to obey the authorities of our earthly country.[2]
But the very nature of this fallen world demands that there will be times when obedience to the Lord we disobey the edicts of governors.
There are some interesting “twists” in this passage that makes it appear more disobedient that it genuinely is.[3]
Notice carefully
I. THE LETTER OF THE KING
Ezra 4:17-22 (KJV)
Then sent the king an answer unto Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river, Peace, and at such a time.
The letter which ye sent unto us hath been plainly read before me.
And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein.
There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom, was paid unto them.
Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me.
Take heed now that ye fail not to do this: why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?
He commanded that they stop building the city.[4]
As I understand it the process of rebuilding the city and the walls took between 100-150 years.
In that period of time the king of the empire changed many many times.
We have in this passage:
· Cyrus
· Ahasuerus
· Artaxerxes and
· Darius (possibly two of them)
The prophets Haggai and Zechariah led the way, under Zerubbabel, in building the Temple.
Nehemiah headed up the work of the walls of the city.
Cyrus had given the people permission to return to Jerusalem. He specifically said that the Lord had stirred his spirit to send the Jews back to build God’s house.
It was specifically the building of the temple that the adversaries had sought:
· First to join in
· Then to stop through trouble
But when they wrote to Artaxerxes hoping to stop the Jews progress, the king told them to stop the building of the city, not the Temple.
May I just say that one, doesn’t mean the other?
I wonder how often we hear the word “No” and we take it to mean more than it ought.
Somebody posted a picture of this six-foot-tall, two inch in diameter tree, that was bent over about one foot into a roadway.
Attached was a message to the pastor: “Tree blocking road, can’t make it to church today.”
· Some people see everything as a potential way out of going to church.
· Some people see nearly everything an excuse not to serve the Lord in other ways.
God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt.
Moses countered with four reasons he could not do God’s will.
· I can’t speak well
· They won’t believe me
· Who should I say sent me?
· Pharaoh won’t listen to me
Did you ever hear the song “Excuses?”[5]
Excuses, excuses, you'll hear them every day.
And the Devil he'll supply them, if the church you stay away.
When people come to know the Lord, the Devil always loses
So to keep them folks away from church, he offers them excuses.
In the summer it's too hot. And, in the winter, it's too cold.
In the spring time when the weather's right, you find someplace else to go.
It's up to the mountains or down to the beach or to visit some old friend.
Or, to just stay home to relax and hope that some of the kinfolks drop in.
The church benches are too hard. And, that choir sings way too loud.
You know how nervous you get when you're sitting in a great big crowd.
The doctor told you, "Better watch them crowds. They'll set you back."
But, you go to that old ball game because you say "it helps you to relax."
It’s a headache Sunday morning and a backache Sunday night.
But by worktime Monday morning, you're feeling quite alright.
One of the children has a cold, "Pneumonia, do you suppose?"
Why the whole family had to stay home, just to blow that poor kid's nose.
Well, the preacher he's too young. Or, maybe he's too old.
The sermons they're not hard enough. And, maybe they're too bold.
His voice is much too quiet-like. Sometimes he gets too loud.
He needs to have more dignity. Or, else he's way too proud.
The sermons they're too long. And, maybe they're too short.
He ought to preach the word with dignity instead of "stomp and snort."
That preacher we've got must be "the world's most stuck up man."
One of the lady's told me once, "He didn't even shake her hand."
The letter of the king did stop the building of the city, but that is all.
Notice Secondly
II. THE RIDER THE ENEMIES ATTACHED
Ezra 4:23-24 (KJV)
Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power.
Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
It seems to me that one of the most deceptive things politicians do, is to attach riders to important pieces of legislation.
Someone will propose that some very good, wise and helpful law be enacted.
· It’s popular
· Everyone is onboard
· The whole country encourages the Capitol to enact it
· Christians pray that the President will sign it into law
And then some wiseacre will get an idea.
He won’t let it pass unless they attach some obscure, unwise and very bad pieces of legislation to it.
What seems like something we really need can only be passed into law, if something a lot of us think is really bad gets passed into law too.
That seems to me to be exactly what happened in this passage.
The king told them to stop them from building the city.
But they stopped them from building the house of God which was in the city.
Very few people like to hear conspiracy theories.
· I think they can sometimes be far-fetched
· I think sometimes they are presented in ways that seem too fantastic
But I don’t think you can get around the Bible fact that there is a master conspirator at work.
Satan, without any question, wants to take this world away from Jesus.
I watched a documentary this week called “After Trump.”
There were some things about it I didn’t care for too much.
· I didn’t care for the prevalence of Paula White in the program
· I didn’t care for a lot for the segment that looked like a Trump advertisement.
As I watched it, I thought about how many people I know who would discount the documentary as sensationalism.
But the key points of the documentary are the very things all of my preachers were preaching when I first became a Christian.
It’s just become unpopular to preach them in the last two decades:
· One world government
· Abortion
· Alternative lifestyles (LGBTQ)
· The secular agenda of the public school system
· Pro-Israelism
These were subjects that
· Jerry Falwell built his church upon
· Hal Lindsey, Francis Schafer, Tim LaHaye and I don’t know how many others wrote books about
The last book I reads on these subjects was just a couple of years ago called Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It's Too Late, by James Robison.
Honestly, it used to be the standard fair of Christian reading and a lot of fundamental preaching.
Now it would be considered sensationalism, wacko, and not smart preaching if you want to keep a church together.
People want to hear:
· “Happy thoughts” sermons or else
· Self-help lessons now
Even in our kind of churches I am afraid it’s mostly what they get.
Notice finally
III. IT WAS THE PREACHERS WHO DISCERNED WHAT WAS WRONG
And urged the people to get to work on the Temple.
Ezra 5:1-2 (KJV)
Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.
Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.
I am going to resist the huge temptation to take you to the book of Haggai right now.
I would simply like to point out,
A. Your personal feelings won’t help you discern what’s wrong
That’s a major point of the book of Haggai.
Having been forced to stop the work of the city and the Temple, they went home and went to work on their houses.
Has it not been your own experience that you can get so focused on the home fires, that it’s hard to set spiritual priorities in your life?
It seems only right, only natural, even moral, to put the care of your family needs at the top of the list, especially in an environment that is hostile to spiritual life.
Consider this, we can’t trust our feelings of self and family preservation to see where we may have gotten off spiritually.
B. Government leaders won’t help you discern what’s wrong
It’s not the work of the government to see where people get off spiritually.
We don’t even WANT a government that insists of people worshiping God because that will too easily morph into them insisting we worship a certain way.
What we want is a government that keeps its hands off of the issue of worship.
I do see in this passage that, when the error was pointed out, Zerubbabel, the civil leader of the Jews, got behind the building of the Temple again.
There is nothing wrong with, and everything right with having governmental leaders who are godly.
There just always needs to be a separation between church and state.
C. The adversaries of Christ won’t help you discern what’s wrong
They are just going to try to make things more wrong.
Once they get an inch, they will want a mile.
Once they have a mile, they will want ten.
Once they have abortion in extreme cases, they will want abortion in cases of preference
Once they have abortion in cases of preference, they will want abortion up to moment of birth
Once they have abortion at moment of birth, they will want to terminate the baby if the baby is going to be a burden
Once they have no fault divorce, they will want common law marriage
Once they have common law marriage, they will want acceptance of homosexual marriage
Once they have homosexual marriage, they will want acceptance of LGBTQ
Once they have acceptance of LGBTQ, they will want cross dressing
· Then transgenderism
· Then gender identity
· Then bestiality
· Then pedophilia
I know I am droning on and on, but I do it to make a point.
It’s not unreasonable to be salt and light.
It’s not unreasonable to try to stop wickedness.
Because if we have witnessed anything in the last decade or so it is that wickedness has no stopping place.
I just want to tell you,
D. It will take a man of God to help you discern what’s wrong
I didn’t say a man of the cloth or even just any old minister.
There were plenty of prophets of the Old Testament era who were false prophets.
The Bible warns us that there will be false prophets and false teachers in our day and 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (KJV)
… the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
What you need today is a preacher who will 2 Timothy 4:2 (KJV)
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
You need to hear him, heed him, pray for him.
You need to encourage him
You need to support him
You need to be here when he preaches
Because it will be him, and those like him, who catch the error and set you back on a right direction in the house of God.
[1] The details of their prophecies are given to us in their own books of the Bible. The continuity of the Word of God is astounding and gives evidence of its veracity and its supernatural character.
[2] Titus 3:1 (KJV)
Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
1 Peter 2:13-15 (KJV)
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
[3] But that is another subject. Those who disagree with the Christian position are generally more than willing to twist things so the Christian appears to be the one in the wrong.
[4] Presumably the walls.
[5] The Kingsmen Quartet
