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Bible study · Ezra 4:1-24

Ezra 4: The work stopped

Read Ezra 4:1-24 before you meet.

In a few lines

The letter in Ezra 4 is about a city, not a house: the charge was walls and tribute (4:12-13), and the order was that "this city not be built until a decree is made by me" (4:21). The chapter ends with work on God's house stopped "until" (4:24). The Aramaic verb for "cease" comes back in 5:5: "they didn’t make them cease".

The verse to carry

“But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.””

Ezra 4:3

To talk about

  1. 1. The chapter's first opposition comes as an offer: "Let us build with you" (4:2). How do you decide whether to accept help with something you believe God has given you to do?

  2. 2. "The people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah" (4:4). What weakens your hands for good work? Who, or what, strengthens them?

  3. 3. "Then work stopped on God’s house" (4:24), and the next chapter begins it again (5:1-2). Is there something you began for God that has stopped? What would it take to begin again?

Prayer requests