Haggai

October 6

Haggai

"“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”" (Haggai 1:4-6, NIV)

 

God brought the Israelites back from exile, but they continued to ignore God’s presence in their midst. They came back to Jerusalem and built their houses. They not only built their houses, they took time to do their interior designing and landscaping. Paneled houses were houses that had taken extra time to build and would have been ornate. God does not say there is a problem with building these houses, except they had ignored the temple. They always put off rebuilding the temple. It never got high enough on the priority list to actually begin the work.

Many people who do not go to church say; “I plan on going to church but right now I have other things going on in my life.” Some people say; “I know I should be following Jesus, but the time has not yet come, I have other things I want to do first.” We focus on building our career, our 401k, our families, and we ignore God. Our relationship with God, we know we should be giving attention to, but it never gets high enough on our priority list to actually begin the work.

God told the Israelites that their frustrations in life, low yields of crops, hunger, thirst, cold, poverty, and losses were a result of their ignoring the work on the temple. God wants to be present in our lives. He does not want to be put to the side only to be turned to when we are in a crisis. Perhaps some of the problems and frustrations we face are a result of our ignoring God. God told the Israelites that if they turned back to Him and built the temple, they could know that He was with them. On the day they laid the foundation of the temple He said; "Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit. “‘From this day on I will bless you.’”" (Haggai 2:19, NIV)

Maybe it is time we stop focusing on building our own lives up, and focus on our spiritual foundation, our relationship with Jesus. Perhaps then, God will bless us and our labor will not be in vain.