Building a People of Worship: When Conflict Arises

In the summer of 2010, I was helping a summer camp get started on a Native American reservation. Most of the children there lived in poverty. Drugs and alcohol were constant problems in the culture there. The camp provided a safe place for the children to learn that God loved them and they were not alone. That summer, a wonderful ministry impacted the lives of children and their parents. Looking back, God moved that summer and many summers after that. I also remember the conflict.

There almost seemed to be constant tension from a nearby farmer. He hated the idea of this camp helping Native American children. He would come around and yell at us while we were preparing. He would call the camp a juvenile delinquency center (jail for children). All of this was to frustrate and disrupt our work. God was moving, but so was the enemy. And this has been true throughout my life. This is true of every believer throughout time.

When you are rightfully worshipping God, you will find conflict. So often we buy into lies that tell us, when we follow Jesus, life will be easy and happy. Jesus Himself said in John 16:33 that we will suffer in this life for following Him. Our hope is that He has overcome the world by His Word and Power. So, brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised when things are difficult as you worship God. Our enemy is active like a lion, according to Peter. What do we do? We continue to worship God.

If I could put today’s message into one sentence, it is this: We endure conflict as we worship God because of the hope we have in Jesus to overcome the world. We will see this truth play out over the next two weeks. So let us dive into the conflict of Ezra chapter 4.

Set the Scene:

Ezra chapter 4 is a beautifully written thematic retelling of the exiles' struggles to do the work God called them to do. They faced conflict in building the Temple, the city, and the walls. The readers were aware of the conflict in their day. So this chapter jumps between three times. This can be confusing with the different names of kings and people. We start with the story of building the Temple. In verse 6, we will jump into another time of Xerxes. There was conflict. Then, in verses 7-23, we jump into Artaxerxes' time.

This forms a type of sandwich. The bread is the building of the Temple. The lettuce is the time of Xerxes. The time of Artaxerxes. Then we end up back with the bread in the building of the Temple. The meat is where we see the writer teaching. Using the troubles in Cyrus’ and Artaxerxes' time, he is teaching that this current problem will end the same way. God will overcome the conflict. So let us hold our breath and dive in.

Conflict Compromises

4:1-5

So far, the exiles have displayed great faithfulness, and the message has been positive. They obediently came back to Judah and Jerusalem. They built the altar and built their lives around the right worship of God. They even laid the foundation of the Temple, as they were commanded. But from chapter 4 until the end of the book, there will be a battle to steal worship away from God. The exiles will face great conflicts. Hopefully for us, this shouts, we are not alone. Conflict is nothing new.

The people we meet in this chapter lived around Judah in a place the New Testament calls Samaria. Many of the people were moved there after the fall of Israel. Their worship was a mix of God and idols. The writer of Ezra rightfully calls them enemies. Even though they approached Zerubbabel to help, he rightfully understood this as a deceptive move. The real motives of the enemies become clear in verses 5 and 6. They wanted to influence the worship in the Temple. Zerubbabel knew this and rightfully declined.

His reason was right, too. Zerubbabel understood that they were called to rebuild the Temple and to practice proper worship. These people were going to challenge that. Since the exiles made the right and godly choice to worship God alone, you would think that something good would follow. But this doesn’t happen. Instead, their obedience is met with open conflict.

The first attack of the enemy was to get the exiles to compromise their worship, but now the enemy will openly attack them through discouragement, manipulation, and fear. Sound familiar? This is how the enemy attacks us as well.

As we seek to be people of worship, the enemy first tries to compromise worship of God and other things. We do not and cannot compromise. In the face of conflict, worship God rightly. Our enemy will try to discourage us. This is one of the most effective strategies. Our worship stalls because we become discouraged. I know. I’m feeling that right now. We have people in our lives (organization) trying to discourage us. This is an attempt to rob our joy in worshipping God. Many of you may feel the same. I don’t know all of the conflicts you are experiencing.

If we are worshipping God, enemies will rise and cause conflict. Brothers and sisters, find hope in the arms of God. Continue to worship. Lament the struggle, but don’t relent in our worship. Trust in the words of Jesus: “I have overcome the world.” The earth can do nothing that God can’t overcome. Hope in this. Read about it, and pray about it. For our exiles in verse 5, they give in to discouragement. It is sad to see, but it is familiar. They struggled with the conflict. God’s people who were worshipping God were discouraged. And yet God was with them. He is with you in your conflict as well.

Conflict Discourages

4:6-23

Conflict is nothing new. It wasn’t new for the exiles. Conflict is a persistent part of our lives as followers of Jesus. The exiles struggled to build the Temple. They faced conflict under Xerxes, and were facing conflict with Samaria in their contemporary time. Jesus faced conflict, and so did the church for the last 2,000 years. We experience the same thing today. It may look different, but it is the same problem. The reader in Ezra faced serious attacks on their efforts to rebuild the city and worship God.

The time jump here alerts the reader that they have been here before. Two, the work is still not done. And three, like the Temple, the work will be complete despite conflict. The break in the story is to connect their current situation with the situation from the past. We get to do this, too. Take some time and reflect on how God overcame His enemies throughout history and what that means for your conflict today.

This doesn’t make it easier, but you are not alone. We struggle alongside believers of all ages. And we struggle alongside our mighty King, who will not lose. Ezra’s readers were under threat of force. The Samaritans had contacted the king to manipulate him into stopping the work of building the city. We can understand why that would be scary. The weight of the government was about to be against them. Previously, the king had been for them; now that will change. What will they do?

That question is not answered in this chapter. In verse 23, they are reminded that they had been forcibly stopped from their work. The enemy seems to have won. But the writer has something else to say. This stop in God’s work is temporary. They must wait for God to move and get the work going again.

This text can seem discouraging. Here are God's people, doing what He called them to do. They were worshipping Him. And yet they were in conflict. That doesn’t settle well with us. What do we do? We do what the writer of Ezra did. He put their conflict into a historical perspective. He reminded his reader that we, as God’s people, have been here before. Let us likewise, when we experience conflict, remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness and power to overcome worldly powers.

Wherever our conflict comes from, let us not stop praying to and worshipping our God. Even if the pressure comes from a boss, pray and worship God. Be patient, He will act. He has in the past, and He will now. We are not called to overcome conflict, but to be faithful worshippers in it.

God Continues

4:24

Ezra jumps back to the time of Darius, completing our sandwich. The construction had stopped for many years. Certainly, some of the exiles who returned had died before the Temple was completed. In chapter 4, the Temple sits incomplete, and the people are discouraged. But let me give you a little hope. The work had stopped until the second year. It didn’t stay stopped. God would again step in and defeat the opposition. Worship would continue along with the work. God acts for His people.

Ezra’s audience would have taken great comfort in looking back to this story. The Temple work was opposed, but the opposition was overcome. God will build a people of worship by His mighty hand. In the waiting room, they needed to be patient and trust that if God did it in the past, He would do it again for them.

We have that same hope today. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire, and God was with them. Daniel was thrown to the lions, but an angel was there. Jesus promised that as we suffer and endure conflict because of the gospel, He will be with us. I love to look at the life of Paul. He was in jail because He preached the gospel. And Jesus was with Him in the prison. Whatever we go through as a church or individually, God is with us. He has not left us.

I’m going through a conflict right now. The enemy is attacking, and it is discouraging and tiresome. But God is with me. I will keep worshipping Him. Certainly, the work seems to stall sometimes because I am emotionally exhausted, but God will overcome the conflict. I don’t need to overcome it. I need to be a faithful worshipper in it. The work of God may have stalled in your life, but be faithful. Keep worshipping God. Keep doing what God has put you here to do, and He will overcome the conflict in time. Endure faithfully, Beloved.

Conclusion

The summer of 2010 was one of my best and worst summers. The conflicts certainly took a toll on me. But the work did not cease, and God has since used that camp to reach hundreds of kids with the gospel. As we go through various conflicts, let us bear one another’s burdens. Let us encourage one another to continue in the faith and to worship. Let us be a church that carries the weary and protects the hurting. Let us be a light in Pingtung that shines in the darkness, calling all who see it to faith in Jesus.

As we do this, do it knowing that conflict will come. The waters will rise. Cling to the rock of Christ. We can’t avoid conflict, but we can endure it. And our God will overcome it. We endure until we see Jesus face to face. On that day, He will welcome us into His Kingdom. That will be a place where conflict dies, and we will know eternal peace as we worship our King forever. Keep that picture in mind in the present. What God has done in the past, He will again do for us. Beloved, endure through God’s strength!