“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 Jn 4:1).
Here’s the irony of the situation. The people who wrote the letter to Artaxerxes to convince him to stop the building project in Jerusalem didn’t even belong in the Land. And they had not emigrated by choice; they had been forced to move there. This land where they were living was the ancestral home of the Jews, yet these folks wanted to disenfranchise them and prevent them from restoring their capital. It sounds very similar to the situation today. On top of that, remember that the people trying to stop the construction had first tried to join the work crew! Now, like spoiled children, they were saying, If we can’t play in the sandbox, we’ll see to it that nobody can! Remember what they had said to Zerubbabel? “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here” (Ezra 4:2). Really? Why did they sacrifice to Him? You can read the account in 2 Kings 17:24-34. When they arrived in the land, they filled it with their idols. So God sent lions among them to cause them to take notice. They did, so a priest was sent to explain about the true God. The end result? “They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods” (v 33). Their claim of common loyalty to the Lord was a lie, and Zerubbabel knew it. The leaders of Israel responded, “You may do nothing with us” (Ezra 4:3). Beware! Jesus said wolves and robbers are out there, but the hireling is nearby. Or as Paul put it, “After my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch” (Acts 20:29-31). Vigilance is the price of freedom.