Ezra 4:1-3 “ 1 Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, ‘Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.’ 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, ‘You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.’”

WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING

Notice a couple of words in these verses. Verse 1 says these were “enemies” and verse 2 they say they wanted to “seek your God.” Don’t believe anything you hear and half what you see. Do you really think these “enemies” had it in their minds to help them build the Temple? It was more likely that they were intent on sabotaging their efforts.

TEACHING MOMENT

As your children grow in their faith they are going to encounter people who may seem loyal to the Lord but really aren’t. The only way we can know is by the Holy Spirit. We all have, as believers, all the gifts of the Spirit. Sure, we all have a more prevalent gift that God has given us, but I truly believe when we are saved we get ALL of Jesus, which means we have Him working through us to exercise those gifts.

The gift of discernment is a gift that the Lord gives us to help us recognize other believers and whether something is of the Lord. We cannot judge a person’s salvation, but we can observe the fruits of the Spirit in their life. Zerubbabel and Jeshua recognized that these were enemies of God, not friends.

As you see things in your spiritual walk that they Lord discloses to you, point them out to your children and teach them how you “knew” that. As they see you using the gift of discernment, they will learn to develop that gift also.