Ezra 4

Ezr 4:1-3 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the LORD God of Israel, (2) they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers' houses, and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here." (3) But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel said to them, "You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."

The enemies of Judah and Benjamin hear about Jerusalem being rebuilt. What do they decide to do? They decide to help Israel build the temple.

Notice that they were not looking to help build the walls, or homes, but they specifically were interested in building the temple. Why? Because the temple was the place of communion between Israel and God. This is where man would talk to God and God to man. It represented the relationship between God and His people, and if the temple was defiled than Israel was defiled. 1Co 6:19 tells us "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" This is the New Testament equilevent of the Old Testament Temple. We now, through the Holy Spirit that dwells in this body, have access to our Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 21:22 tells us that in heaven there is no temple, but only God. This represents that we will have complete access to Him and will no longer have to go through something else.

Our enemy has similar tactics. Satan will stop at nothing to get something in our temple that will distract us from Jesus. He will even make it sound like a good thing at first. He will say he is helping us. We let God rebuke Satan. But indeed, like Israel, we need to learn to say to those distractions in our hearts, "You may do nothing with us to build the house of our God..." Keep your eyes on Him and keep your temple undefiled from this world.