Haggai 1:6-8 — Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
One of the besetting sins of modern times is that we pursue the wrong priorities. Jesus was quite clear — “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33). When we should be focused on building the church we are chasing after “all these things” that seem to matter so much …
It’s not a new problem. The Lord sent a very clear message to the Israelites. “You’ve been working so hard but you’re hungry, thirsty, cold and broke. Why do you think that is?”
In 586 BC the temple has been destroyed and the Israelites taken into exile. It wasn’t until the reign of Cyrus the Great that a party led by Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest and the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah was allowed to return and begin the rebuilding of the temple. After a couple of years, though, the local Samaritan leadership and a group of Persian nobles collaborated to have the work stopped. Apathy had set in, and the people set about pursuing a living, and ignored the temple. God had not blessed their efforts, and now sent the message to Haggai to rebuke them and spur them on to finish the work.
So here we are, two thousand five hundred years later. Look around. How are we doing at building the house? There are lots of physical properties — but the real house, the Church, isn’t doing so well is it? And so many of us spend so much time on “all these things“. “And”, (to quote Doctor Phil), “how’s that working for you?” Look around … I’m going to suggest that, in many ways, we’re hungering and thirsting, naked and poor.
It’s past time to get on with building the house. I’m not suggesting that working in the place where God has set us isn’t what we should be doing. Nothing like it! But that work should be part of seeking the kingdom, and part of building the house — or we’ll end up like the apathetic Israelites — short of blessings!