Tactics of Our Enemy

SCRIPTURE: Ezra 4:1-4; 8, 11-16
¹ When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, ² 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.”

³ 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.”

⁴ Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.^{[a] 5} 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.

⁸ Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows:

11 To King Artaxerxes,

From your servants, the men of Trans-Euphrates:

¹² The king should know that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations.

¹³ Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and the royal revenues will suffer. ¹⁴ Now since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king, ¹⁵ so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors. In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place of rebellion from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed. ¹⁶ We inform the king that if this city is built and its walls are restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans-Euphrates.

OBSERVATION: This book is full of tactics that Satan uses against us to make us ineffective in the kingdom. In vss. 1-4, the people living in the land pretended to want to help the Jews rebuild the temple. But the leaders recognized the duplicity of those coming and would not let them participate in the work. When that tactic didn't work, they wrote a letter to the king accusing the Jews of being seditious and rebellious to the king. They told the truth about the past of the people but included an erroneous interpretation of the facts.

APPLICATION: One of the most successful strategies of Satan to defeat the work of God is to destroy the Church from within by getting its members to grumble, complain and sow discord among each other. The devil has been quite successful at joining the church! I must guard my heart and my mouth by NOT gossiping, complaining, grumbling or causing factions in any way. And I must resist the other very effective weapon used by Satan. It is his oldest recorded weapon; taking truth and giving it just enough of a twist that it is believable but will lead to deception. The Word of God and prayer are my most effective tools to give me protection against this ploy of the enemy. Keeping in mind the redemptive work of Jesus will guard my mind against the accusations of the "accuser of the brethren". The Spirit will reveal deception if I ask for His wisdom and discernment.

PRAYER: Father, I pray for the Church. Keep us all from listening to the voice of our foe and from letting our flesh triumph over our spirit. Give us the discernment to realize when we are being served a cocktail of truth that has been spiked with a twist of deception. May we gain the victory that you have already purchased for us by your blood. In Jesus' Name, Amen