Context No. 2959 of 4322 · Haggai

Haggai 1:7-15: in context

7“This is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Consider your ways. 8Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says the LORD. 9“You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. 11I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.” 12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the LORD their God’s voice, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the LORD. 13Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says the LORD. 14The LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of Armies, their God, 15in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Through the prophet Haggai, God gives the returned exiles a diagnosis: consider your ways. You have paneled your own comfortable houses while my house lies in ruins, and that is why your harvests fail, why you sow much and gather little, why I have called for a drought. Go up and build the house, God says, and I will take pleasure in it and be glorified.

The problem is one of priorities. The people had put their own comfort first and left God's house in rubble, and all their striving came to nothing. God ties the frustration of their labor to the misplacing of their priorities. But the moment they obey and put his house first, he speaks the words that change everything: I am with you. And he does more, stirring up the spirits of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the people, giving them even the will to work. Priorities set right open the door to God's presence and his help.

Have I put my own comfort first and left God's priorities in rubble, and do I hear his call to consider my ways?

Sources

Haggai 1:8: "Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified."
Haggai 1:9: "Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house."
Matthew 6:33: "But seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well."