05 August 2009 Devotion for Today “Frustrations” Ezra 4: 1-5

05 August 2009 Devotion for Today “Frustrations” Ezra 4: 1-5

1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the LORD God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “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.” 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, “You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” 4 Then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, 5 and hired counselors 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: 1-5)

Young William Wilberforce was discouraged one night in the early 1790s after another defeat in his 10 year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired and frustrated, he opened his Bible and began to leaf through it. A small piece of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John Wesley shortly before his death. Wilberforce read it again: "Unless the divine power has raised you up... I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that (abominable practice of slavery), which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of His might." (Daily Bread, June 16, 1989.)
I believe it would be safe to say that everyone has frustrations in life. Frustrations are as much a part of life as breathing and eating. I do not wish to discourage you on this fine day, but if things are going well right now, it is only because the devil has not heard of your high spirits and will soon find out. Don’t be surprised if he should send one of his demons over to mess it up for you. The situation that we find in our text in the book of Ezra was no different. At the end of the previous chapter, there was great jubilation over the laying of the foundation and with the construction of the Temple. The people’s spirits soared. But as soon as we go to the fourth chapter, the people began to encounter trouble from the pagan occupants of the land. They asked first if they could build with them- meaning- they had hoped to establish the Temple as an “inter-religious” center- make it a place where all the pagan religions and the Hebrew God could be worshipped in the ideal of peace, harmony and co-existence. This was a noble idea, but a worldly one. Satan loves to inject this ideal everywhere he can by diminishing the importance and the power of the One True God by placing Him at the same level of all other faiths and religions. The main reason that the leading pagan citizens wanted to do this was greed. They could not afford to build their own pagan temples as they desired, and they saw that the Israelites carried with them much money. Should the Israelites rebuild their old Temple, in time they would become more powerful than the pagans and soon displace them. The Israelites returned their request by an equally gracious but firm “No!” Soon afterward, they started playing “hard ball” with Ezra, Zerubabbel, and the Israelites and began to harass and to frustrate their efforts.

You may encounter several different types of frustrations today; some may be caused by circumstances, while others may be caused by people. Those caused by people usually come about because they do not understand your purpose or because, more likely, they feel threatened by you for some reason. Resist treating them badly for the sake of your witness to them. Reacting to the frustration they are causing you will likely make the situation much worse. Remember that Satan is the real enemy here, and when we submit to God, resist the devil, he will flee from us. (James 4:7).

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me not to become disheartened by the frustrations that I encounter today. Instead may I meet my frustrator with the power and the love of Jesus Christ. Help me not to become bitter in my reactions to the people who seem to want to thwart my goals today, but to look beyond them to the evil one who tempts them to be afraid of the power of Christ in me. Help me overcome the frustration I have that I may bring you greater glory, and to seek more time with you in prayer over it. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.