They Could Not Cause Them to Cease

“Let us build with you,” offered the people of the land, “for we seek your God, as ye do” (Ezra 4:2).

But did they? When their offer was declined, they immediately began working mischief, weakening the hands of the people of Judah and troubling them in their efforts to build the temple. Soon, the work on the temple halted entirely (Ezra 4:4-5, 24).

Enter two prophets: Haggai and Zechariah. When they “prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel,” the work began again (Ezra 5:1-2). When local political leaders challenged them, asking who had authorized this renewed construction, they simply continued building. “The eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease” (Ezra 5:3-5).

A new king, Darius, searched the records and discovered that a predecessor, King Cyrus, had authorized the building of the temple. All was resolved (Ezra 6).

It’s a happy ending, but its moral comes before Darius officially resolved the situation. Acting in accordance with prophetic guidance, the people kept building even in the face of adversity. Nothing could make them stop.

A prophet in the Book of Mormon named Lehi saw in a dream a group of people gathered around a tree that represented the love of God, eating its fruit. Nearby, people in a “great and spacious” building mocked them (1 Nephi 8:26-27). But even with “the finger of scorn” pointing toward them, Lehi and part of his family “heeded them not” (1 Nephi 8:33). When he related the dream to his family, he explained, “As many as heeded them, had fallen away” (1 Nephi 8:34).

Today I will be steady in working toward worthy goals. I will not allow others to deter me in my efforts to do God’s work.