Tuesday, February 06, 2007

When your enemies

So this group is trying to rebuild a wall. And a governor of a nearby metropolis (Mr. Tattenai) peers into the work going on, and reports them. He writes to the guy who oversees the area, and says (in effect), "Make them stop." Granted, he's more smooth than that, and asks "Who authorizes this," but the entire letter is basically that of a guiling busybody.
At one point his letter reads,
"We questioned the elders and asked them, 'Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?' We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.

This is the answer they gave us:
"We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished. But because our fathers angered the God of heaven, he handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon."

The letter's sent, and for a while Mr. Tattenai was probably pretty smug, but there's more to the story. (If you want to hear it, see Ezra 5 and the following chapters).

But the point that I saw was --

When your enemies quote you, use it as an opportunity to glorify God.

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