👉🏼 (Reading: Ezra 4:1-7)
📜 "… Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia"
Ezra 4:4-5 (ESV).
📋 When the people of Judah wanted to rebuild the temple in
Jerusalem, their adversaries came in a subtle manner like
how Satan approached Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan has a history of tempting humans to make them violate God's law. It is the same Satan who inspires evil people to frustrate God's work in us. In our text, evil people were bribed to act as counsellors to divert the people from what God had asked
them to do. We must examine the motives of those who draw close to us with ideas that may sound good but are meant to bring us down or divert us from God's way. Think about this in verse 2: "They approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said 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 Esarhaddon king of Assyria who
brought us here." When you receive an assignment from God, do not let others tell you how to do it. Follow God's plan.
🔑 Key Lesson:There are people with evil motives who give us unsolicited counsel.
🛐 Meditation and Prayer:Lord, help me to focus on your
work so I do not get diverted by evil people who give wrong counsel.
📚 Further Reading:Proverbs 26:23-26.
◼️ The Bible in One Year:Deuteronomy 20-22.