The work of God is always opposed, and when we get involved in God's work we too will be opposed. As Jesus said, because they hate Me they will hate you also (John 15:18-25). Too often we have this silly notion that the world likes Jesus and should like us. At present so-called same-sex-marriage is being promoted in much the West and there are many in the church who say we need to accept that the world has changed and we need to change with it if we are to have an impact. Such people are fools. Jesus and the gospel have an impact because they are going in a completely different direction to the world. The world's problem is that it is in rebellion against God. So if we are to say anything useful to the world we are inevitably going to be in opposition to the world and will face opposition.
First the enemies of Judah seek to infiltrate. They claim they are working in the same direction as the Jews. They may actually have believed this. There are many who believe that because they are working for a "good cause" they are trying to achieve the same things as the church. Now some of the things they are doing may well be good, but the gospel is about ending man's rebellion against God, and the world is not seeking to achieve that.
Zerubabbel and Joshua recognised the truth and that they were not working towards the same goal. If only more leaders in today's church had the same degree of wisdom. So the next tactic was to seek to discourage the people and to infiltrate Judah.
Opposition continued after Cyrus had gone and now included false accusations. Jesus suffered false accusations, the apostles did, and the church today does. They sought to claim that Jerusalem would be a source of rebellion and Persia would no longer receive taxes.
So an order was issued for the work to stop, and it did indeed stop until the time Darius, which we read about in Haggai and Zechariah.
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