The rebuilding of the Temple began with great fanfare in Ezra 3, but it quickly ground to a halt. First, their enemies say they want to help:

Old enemies of Judah and Ben-jamin heard that the exiles were building The Temple of the GOD of Israel. They came to Zerubbabel and the family heads and said, “We’ll help you build. We worship your God the same as you. We’ve been offering sacrifices to him since Esar-haddon king of Assyria brought us here.”

Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the family heads of Israel said to them, “Nothing doing. Building The Temple of our God is not the same thing to you as to us. We alone will build for the GOD of Israel. We’re the ones King Cyrus of Persia commanded to do it.” (Ezra 4.1 – 3, MSG)

Why were they refused? After all, “We worship your God the same as you.” Not quite. Please review the blog “They Worshipped God BUT…”

They honored and worshiped GOD, but they also kept up their devotions to the old gods of the places they had come from. (2 Kings 29.33, MSG)

So…

…these people started beating down the morale of the people of Judah, harassing them as they built…In fact, in the reign of Xerxes, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against those living in Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 4.4, 6, MSG)

Later, they wrote another letter to King Artaxerxes who responded:

Peace be with you. The letter that you sent has been translated and read to me. I gave orders to search the records, and sure enough it turns out that this city has revolted against kings time and again—rebellion is an old story there. I find that they’ve had their share of strong kings who have taken over beyond the Euphrates and exacted taxes, tribute, and duty. So do this: Order these men to stop work immediately—not a lick of rebuilding in that city unless I order it. Act quickly and firmly; they’ve done enough damage to kings! (Ezra 4.18 – 22, MSG)

And chapter 4 ends:

That put a stop to the work on The Temple of God in Jerusalem. Nothing more was done until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4.24, MSG)

Starting is easy. Finishing, especially in the face of opposition, is hard. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! (Hebrews 12.1 – 3, MSG, emphases mine)