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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of
the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to
Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Jozadak,
the high priest:
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say,
‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”
Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet
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 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 1:1-6
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
We’re coming down the homestretch in the Old Testament
with three books remaining. Today, we open our look at the Book of Haggai who
served as a prophet for the Lord in the period following the Israelite return
from their seventy year exile to Babylon.
Haggai was God’s messenger for about a four month period
in 520BC during the second year of King Darius who reigned over the Persian
empire. You’ll recall that God paved the way for any Israelites who desired to
return home to do so and 50,000 of God’s people came back to Judah under the
leadership of Zerubbabel who would become the kingdom’s governor. Once back in
their homeland, the returning Israelites would be allowed to rebuild their
homes and lives as they also restored their relationship with the Lord but they
were also supposed to make rebuilding God’s temple a priority. We’ll see this
central to the words we study within Haggai who prophesied during the same period
as Zechariah.
Unfortunately, this temple rebuilding effort didn’t get
off on the right foot, mostly because the Israelites, so caught up in their
homecoming, lost sight of the work the Lord wanted them to do. Look again at
these verses here:
In the second year
of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came
through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and to Joshua, son of Jozadak, the high priest:
This is what the Lord
Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s
house.’”
Then the word of
the Lord came through the prophet 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 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 1:1-6
As we see with all the prophets, the word of the Lord
comes to them. In other words, the prophets do not come up with the messages
from the Lord they share with God’s people. At least, not if they were
legitimate and authentic prophets (we know that false prophets often claimed
they spoke for God when they were really only speaking for themselves or
others).
So the word of the Lord comes to the prophet Haggai who
shares it with Judah’s governor, Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua, the Jewish
religious leader.
What was at the heart of the words Haggai shared from
God?
It was the matter of the rebuilding of the temple, an act
that the Israelites were not treating with any urgency. In fact, they didn’t
see that the right time had yet come for them to construct God’s holy house of
worship.
Why did they adopt this attitude?
Because they were gauging the right time to build on
their own motivation and that motivation was lacking badly for as we see the
Lord calling them out, it’s obvious the people of God were immersed in the sin
of complacency.
After all, they were residing in cozy “paneled houses” and
had planted crops. They had food to eat and drink to quench their thirst. They
had clothes to wear and were once again engaged in different kinds of work to
earn wages. Indeed, the Israelites were once again living a comfortable
lifestyle, a lifestyle that was light years better than the oppressive
enslavement they suffered through in Babylon. Indeed, the Israelites were on
easy street once again and it didn’t take long for them to forget all about the
God who made it all possible.
Maybe if we take a look around today we might find a lot
of people just like the Old Testament Israelites in Haggai’s day, people who
have become so comfortable in the life God has provided them that they fail to
honor Him as they should. To them and the people of God in the restored Judah,
God has these words to say:
“Give careful
thought to your ways.”
You see, the Lord is always calling us to examine what we
do, especially as it applies to the way we place His will and way above our own
or others. For if we purposely and conscientiously do this, then we can avoid
falling into the trap of the kind of satisfaction that leads to inaction, the
inaction that breeds the sin of complacency.
The bottom line here is that God expected His people to
start getting busy in building His holy temple. We’ll see Him underscore this
in tomorrow’s devotion as we continue to look at Haggai 1.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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