Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Ezra 4:4: “Then the people of the land weakened the hands of Judah and troubled them in building.”
First a little background. This story takes place at the time of the return of Israel from captivity. Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon or the Assyrian Empire (Babylon was its capitol city). During their captivity Babylon fell to the Persian Empire. Daniel was a favorite of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC) and the Jews enjoyed favorable status with the Persian Empire. This, however, resulted in much jealous among the people of the other conquered nations. At one point we have the story of Hamon who plotted to have the Jews destroyed and the plot was put to rest thanks to Esther (a Jew) who was the Queen of Persia and, of course, had much favor with her husband King Xerxes who was the grandson of Cyrus the Great (486-465 BC). Esther’s step son King Araxerxes I (465-424 B.C.) granted a decree that allowed Nehemiah and Ezra to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple under the protection of the Persian Empire.
When Nehemiah returned to the land he found the land was occupied by colonist who were sent to occupy the land many years earlier by the Assyrian empire which was now defunct. These colonist who were from the land of the Amorites, Moabites and other nations were not too thrilled with the returning Jews and in fact feared them because of their support by the Persian empire. Thus, they were determined to harass them to the point where they would just give up trying to colonize the land and return to Persia. They could not declare outright war against the Jews as they had the support and backing of the Persian Empire which ruled the known world at that time. So they just started a campaign or war of attrition to wear the Jews down. In time King Araxerxes was burdened with domestic problems and the threat of other nations seeking war against the Persians. As a result King Araxerxes turned the responsibility of the Jewish nation over to his son Susa who was, for want of a better word, anti-Semitic. Thus, Judah’s support of Persian started to fade away, which was ok with Nehemiah and Ezra as they were of the mind that if God wanted Jerusalem rebuilt He would do it without the help of Persia. Indeed God did but from a practical standpoint, Persia’s waning support did embolden their enemies and their harassment steadily increased. What Nehemiah and Ezra did not reckon with was that God would keep His end of the bargain but the people would not hold up their end and trust in God.
According to Ezra 4:4 this war of attrition was apparently working. The people of Judah’s hands were weakened and they were troubled by their enemies in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The expression “their hands were weakened” expresses the idea of becoming discouraged and fearful. The word “weakened” in Hebrew is “meraphim” which comes from the root word “rapah” which means to “sink down” or to “loosen one’s grip.” The word is found in a Piel form so it really has the idea of just letting go. In other words, just giving up. Do you ever feel that way in your service to God? People just come at you from every end, criticize, condemn, and accuse you of things that you never did or intended. Eventually, you just become bitter and discouraged and you “meraphim” or give up.
The people of Judah just became weary of the constant harassment by their enemies. Although their enemies initially could not outright harm them physically, they would mock them, make fun of them, rob their homes while they were working on the building project or destroy their crops while they were rebuilding the walls. Nehemiah had returned to Persia for a period of time and when he returned to Jerusalem, he found a people who were in spiritual decline, they had given work on the walls to protect their own interests and they had fallen into spiritual paganism and idolatry.
Even in the secular world you are taught that to be successful you must surround yourself with positive people. You surround yourself with negative thinkers you will become negative yourself. I remember when serving as a Christian Education Director I found I had to fill in for the nursery one Sunday. I had a dozen infants that I was responsible for during the morning worship service. I learned a real lesson that Sunday. If just one of those infants began to cry, it would be a sure bet that in a matter of minutes they would all begin crying. We are not much different than adults. If we are around one person crying, complaining, bellyaching, it won’t be long before we too are crying the blues.
That is why Paul encourages us in Ephesians 15:19: “Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” Nehemiah, in Nehemiah 8:10, reminds the people of Judah as he reminds us that the “Joy of the Lord is our strength.” We will not fulfill God’s work for us if we fall prey to the work of the enemy like Judah did and allow negative thinking and words control us. Instead we need to fill our hearts with the Word of God like Ezra did and encourage each other with songs of praise and joy.
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