Headed down to the bottom of the hill

After our two-day study on praying for salvation and relationship renewal for others, we are changing gears!
Back to Ezra!
We are in chapter four.
On Monday, we learned that the word had gotten around. Folks had begun hearing about the captives who'd returned and were trying to rebuild the Temple. This new beginning was of interest, but not for positive reasons!
Look at these verses:

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.” (Ezra 4:1-3)

Awwwww, how nice!
They want to help!
NOT.
This is one of the tricks from Satan's toolkit.
Seriously.
A new beginning can be so awesome! We're up at the top, scooting along just fine. Then the devil tries to mess up our new beginning - and he has all kinds of ways to do this. And if we're not careful, we will go rolling down to the bottom of the hill. "The slough of despond," was the way John Bunyan described it in Pilgrim's Progress.....
So what is this tool from the devil's tool-belt? It's called compromise.
And it sometimes is disguised by cooperation.
Huh?
On the surface, this seems really nice. Seems like they are being super nice. Here, let us help you with this big job here. We'll get this done in no-time-flat.
And it would have been really easy to not look much further and think, "Wow, this could be a way to have an outreach program!" Or, "we can befriend our neighbors and build relationships with them while we work together!"
Kinda leaves us wondering why Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the heads of the families turned 'em down. Did they have so many workers that they didn't need any help? Nope.
Were they just having a bad day?
I mean it. Their answer sounds kinda rude!
But we need to go back some in history, and figure this out. Then we'll understand.....
So that this post doesn't get too lengthy, I'd like to ask you to go and read II Kings 17:24-41. Will you do that for me?
Come back when you're done, OK?
(Grin)
Now, let's dive in -- these locals who were volunteering to work (but who really were disguising their true motives by wrapping up in the pretty paper of cooperation) were people who had moved into the Northern Kingdom after its fall in 722 BC. They had been moved there by the king of Assyria in a sort of "this-land-is-a-mess-why-don't-you-move-in-and-fix-things-up project.  When they first started living there, they didn't fear the Lord. He sent lions into the land, and some of the settlers were killed.
They assumed that the problems came from not knowing the customs of the god of the land. They told the king about it, and he said for a priest from Israel to be brought back. He was to teach them about God. The priest led the people in sacrificing to the Lord, but the people also continued worshiping their own gods from Babylon and other lands: Sukkoth Benoth, Nergal, Ashima, and many more.
So, as II Kings 17:41 sums it all up:

Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.

These people (who were the forefathers of the New Testament Samaritans) blended false religions with the worship of the one true God. They just added God to their list -- they never dropped their idols. If they had worked together with the returned exiles, God's people probably would have fallen into spiritual compromise and mingled idolatry with the worship of YAHWEH.
The danger here was that it was appealing to think that these people were fellow worshipers of God. Their words were, after all, not absolute lies. They were partially true: they did worship God and sacrifice to Him. The problem was, they didn't worship God ALONE!
I wonder if some of the remnant accused their leaders of being too hard on the locals. "They believe in God, just like we do!"
Why not make peace with them and let them help?
Because if you know some water has only a little bit of poison in it, you don't drink it! It will poison you!
There are lots of pressures on churches and on individual believers nowadays. We are pressured to joining with those who believe the gospel but perhaps add things to it. Or those who believe the gospel except for one or two things they take out.
If we add or subtract from the gospel of God's grace, we have compromised it. We've changed it for our own purposes. Who are we to add or take anything away?
We must be careful to be witnesses, but not to be compromisers.

The people in Ezra chapter 4 resisted the enemy's subtle approach. We will soon see that the devil shows his true colors by using more aggressive opposition. He will do that in our lives, too, if he can.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. (II Corinthians 2:11)

and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:27)

The remnant did OK this time . . . not to reveal "spoilers," but there's more coming from the devil and the people living around the re-builders.
I'm afraid they are headed down the long hill to discouragement.

More on that next week!