Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Ambition
- Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive. When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus. But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.
Look at
the inhabitants of the land and how they react to the Hebrew people
returning. They see what is going on in
Jerusalem and ask to participate. Now,
it is possible that they genuinely want to help. We aren’t told. But the reality is that when they are refused
they go out of the way to hinder the work being done in Jerusalem. For this reason, many Bible scholars imply
that the native inhabitants of the land were merely offering to help so they
could sow dissention and problems into the rebuilding project.
In any
case, the native people of the land are refused. So look what they do. The go to the regional leaders and bribe them
to get work to stop. They write a letter
to the king reminding him about the rebellious nature of the Hebrew people. They want to win. They seek their own will. They aren’t willing to leave well enough alone. Because of their ambition and their need to “win”
or “be right,” they pit themselves against God.
And here’s
the scary thing. In the short term, they
win. In the beginning, it looks like
they win the day. Human ambition always
does this. We think we win when we get
our own way. But quite often what we
have to realize is that when we win from an ambition perspective we actually
lose. When we pursue our own goals and
our own agenda – we are ultimately going to pit ourselves against God and His
will. That’s precisely what these native
people are doing in this chapter.
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