Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” (Ezra 4:1–2, ESV)
Through the Bible: Ezra 4-6
When the first wave of exiles returned from Babylon, they immediately set their sights on what mattered most: rebuilding the temple. They laid the foundation, restored the altar, and resumed the sacrifices (Ezra 3). That’s when the opposition came.
Ezra 4 opens with a group of men coming to Zerubbabel with what appears to be a generous and sincere offer: “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do.” The narrator tips us off right away: these are adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. But how did Zerubbabel know to reject the offer? A closer look at their words reveals some red flags.
1. “We worship your God…”
Some of these people may have had Israelite blood, carried over from Assyria’s forced resettlements. Over the centuries their worship had become a mixture—Yahweh plus other gods (see 2 Kings 17:33). By Ezra’s day, their claim “we worship your God as you do” was technically true in part, but fatally compromised. Syncretism always is.
Notice the distance. They didn’t say, “We worship our God.” They claimed an association, but not a covenant relationship. Worship in Scripture is never just about practices; it is always about belonging. Yahweh is not “your God” or “their God”—He is our God.
When someone talks about God only in borrowed terms, it should prompt questions. Do they know Him as the covenant-keeping Lord, or just as a vague higher power? Lots of people use spiritual sounding language. Dig deeper. You may get to that Princess Bride moment where you are forced to say, “I do not think that means what you think it means.
2. “We have been sacrificing to Him…”
Once again, a superficial reading of the adversaries’ words makes them sound pious. “We’ve been making sacrifices all along. But Zerubbabel was right to push back. Where had they been making these scarifices? Ezra 3 makes clear that the altar had only just been rebuilt, and the temple itself was still a pile of rubble. There had been no legitimate sacrifices in the land for decades. Even if they had been making sacrifices, they had not been doing it in the way the Torah prescribed. The Torah prohibited making sacrifices anywhere but at the temple.
In Matthew 7:22–23, Jesus warns, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
The parallels between Ezra 4 and Matthew 7 are striking
- Spiritual claims without covenant relationship. “Your God” in Ezra; “Lord, Lord” without knowing Him in Matthew.
- Religious activity without obedience. Sacrifices apart from God’s command; exorcisms and miracles apart from doing the Father’s will.
- Exposure of the heart. Ezra calls them adversaries from the start; Jesus says, “I never knew you.”
The lesson is sobering: external acts of worship or power don’t guarantee genuine faith. What matters is knowing God—and being known by Him.
Words can sound spiritual but prove hollow when tested against facts. Discernment means comparing claims with what God has actually revealed in His Word.
3. “We worship your God” (but not only Him)
Worship of Yahweh has always been exclusive (Deut. 6:4–5). Saying “We worship your God” is not enough if He’s just one name on a long list. Without the word only, it isn’t true worship.
They aversaries worshiped God, but not God alone. This fits the pattern we see back in 2 Kings 17:33, where the resettled peoples in Samaria “feared the LORD but also served their own gods.” Syncretism was baked into their identity. Yahweh was one among many, not the One and Only.
Half-hearted allegiance is still disobedience. To call on the name of the Lord without exclusive devotion is to miss Him altogether.
The Bigger Picture
Ezra doesn’t just describe one awkward interaction. Chapters 4–6 show how opposition took many forms: discouragement, fear, political pressure, and legal maneuvering. What began as an offer of help turned into a campaign of harassment that lasted for decades.
And yet, through it all, God’s hand was steady. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah rekindled the people’s courage (Ezra 5:1–2). Darius upheld Cyrus’s decree, forcing Israel’s enemies to bankroll the project they had opposed (Ezra 6:6–12). Most importantly, “the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews” (Ezra 5:5). Opposition was real, but God’s oversight was greater.
The church still faces offers of “help” that come with strings attached. Sometimes it’s pressure to downplay the exclusivity of Christ. Sometimes it’s the suggestion to make the gospel more palatable by blending it with other beliefs. Other times it’s the subtle temptation to accept partnership without probing whether it will dilute the mission.
Faithfulness requires discernment. Not every hand stretched toward us is building the same kingdom. Like Zerubbabel, we need courage to say no when compromise threatens the purity of God’s work.
At the same time, we can rest in this promise: God’s eye is still on His people. Opposition will come, but His purposes cannot be thwarted. What He has begun, He will finish.
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