The point is that the kingdom of God is going to face conflict; it is going to be opposed. Maybe the encouraging part of that lesson is that even though the work of God will stop for a while, it cannot be stopped forever. It can be stopped in the short term; it will not be stopped in the long term. And the people of God will be re-established in the Promised Land and they will fulfill their calling, in that the Messiah Christ Jesus will be born in Bethlehem as prophesied by the prophets. So the work of God will go on, but it will go on in the face of opposition and it will be thrown up before this major barrier over which the people of God must leap. They must overcome this. For seventy years it will stop; it will be halted. It will seem as though God himself has abandoned his people, but yet he will revive his work once more and the work of God will go on. And Israel will fulfill its calling, and the Saviour of the world will be born from this people as promised, as prophesied. Do not underestimate the opposition, the hostility that the church of God, the kingdom of God, the people of God will face.1
Terry L. Johnson
4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build