Lessons from Haggai.
"1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built. 3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 6 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. 7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 8 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. 9 Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands."- Haggai 1:1-11
It's been a while since I've opened the Bible to this book. But the Lord truly blessed with this message from Rev W which I downloaded and listened to whilst jogging.
The background to this passage: Haggai, the prophet, was exhorting the people to rebuild the Lord's temple. This was right after their deliverance from Babylon captivity and some complacency had obviously set in, in 520 B.C. It was during the year of the reigning Persian monarch Darius that Haggai dated this prophecy to, as God's mouthpiece.
When I heard the message 2 things struck me- nominalism & lukewarmth. What could be worst than to have the Lord spew you out because you are neither hot nor cold?
But what has to do with the theme of Rebuilding the Temple?
Ye have sown much, and brought 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. An empty message of the provincial warning of "worldliness", you may think. Never-ending lusts to satisfy; we've heard that time and again. But on closer inspection, Haggai speaks about the state of the Temple (of God): it is lies in waste (verse 4). Why did these people in their ceiled houses (with luxurious boards of cedar all nicely built-up) not find the time, effort and energy to rebuild the house of the Lord? Surely their consciences would have been pricked enough to do something instead of wallow in their laps of luxury.
Alas, they were blinded by their sin. Their complacent, selfish desires that left them in the least satisfied. They were ineffective, bringing in little, and they were also never full enough or warm enough (verse 6). But still, they continued in their fruitless pursuits, oblivion keeping them away from the rebuilding of the temple. What a paradox- that they would lay up these corruptible treasures of earth, devouring their own lusts, whilst the work of rebuiding the temple for the Lord left undone would count towards something eternal.
Then Rev Wong asked- Does this reflect how you were at present? Not thirsting after the things of the Lord, leaving His house to lie in waste whilst your own was all spiffy? He even drew a relation- our bodies are the temples of the Lord, and since this passage involves a rebuilding of a certain temple, the symbolism was that the Lord's command to build the house was akin to a call to "get right with Him" if we knew we were over-indulging in our humanly pursuits (nary a spiritual dimension)- e.g. leisure, business. We should be ready to give that all on the altar of sacrifice instead of serving the Lord only when it's convenient and expedient.
It was a great rebuke. But the Lord, His mercies as high as the heavens, will hear those that call upon Him, those that call upon Him in truth.