Ezra 4:17-24

The accomplishment of their wicked purpose may serve to show us how the Lord is pleased sometimes, for the exercise of faith in his people, to let the enemy triumph. And when the short-lived victories of our deadly foes have this blessed effect upon our hearts to make us more sensible of our nothingness, and to make Jesus and his fulness more precious; even our foes become instruments in the Lord's hand to his glory and our greater good. When the Jews had nailed Jesus to the cross, how distressed must have been the minds of all his followers. But behold, that cross soon after became his people's glory, and now it is the everlasting joy of all his followers, and will be the song of redemption in heaven with all the ransomed of Jesus forevermore.