When God is at work we can be sure that the enemy will be seeking to intervene and to spoil what is good. Here it happens through the people who had been previously brought into the land from other nations to occupy it after the northern kingdom of Israel had been taken into captivity (v1-2; see 2 Kings 17 v24-30).

Their initial plan is to get involved in the work (v2) but Zerubbabel and the other leaders say an emphatic ‘No’ (v3). These people were not engaged in pure worship of the Lord but rather mixed it with other religion and worship. Their involvement would have brought about compromise in the worship of the Lord. We always need to be watchful that our worship is according to God’s word, is god glorifying and Christ-centred.

When the initial plan didn’t work these people then seek to discourage and hinder the people of God in their building work (v4-5) and then when a new king called Artaxerxes appears they write a letter full of lies (v7-16) and they get the work stopped (v17-24).

Compromise, discouragement and direct opposition are some of the tactics the devil will continue to use in your life and in the church’s life today. Be watchful of this and pray against the schemes of the evil one.