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Putting God First - Haggai
Putting God First - Haggai
As we were reading Ezra, we came across the mention of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1). Now we will read the actual writings of these two prophets. As with so many Bible books, these are ‘situational’, that is, they were written to address a particular situation that the people of God faced.
Haggai specifically dates the various parts of his book (1:1, 15; 2:1, 10, 20), but they are all in the ‘second year of Darius’, which we understand as 520 B.C. They had laid the foundations of the temple back in 539 B.C (Ezra 3). Haggai is preaching 19 years later. There is NO temple. There has been no progress on building the temple. What happened?
Having had their country, cities, and the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, they returned to try to rebuild. First things first but what is first? They built the altar and begin offering sacrifice unto God. They laid the foundation of the temple. Yet, there is so much to do. Rebuild houses and cities. Rebuild their fields and pastures. They were ‘busy’.
Day after day they chose what is important. Year after year they chose what is important. 16 years go by and there is no progress on building the temple! Is God and His temple really important to them? What is ‘first’ in one’s life is shown by what he does. Everyone knows that the list is to have God at the top, yet in living out life we often betray such lists. God ISN’T first on our list!
Haggai states: “Consider your ways!” (1:5, 7; 2:15, 18). It is hard not to be reminded of Jesus’ parable concerning those invited to the dinner feast (Luke 14:16-24). They all excused themselves. As you know, excusing self is giving an excuse, but often such does NOT in reality excuse our actions. Look again at the excuses they offered. Are they really any different than our excuses? We are so busy building our own houses, businesses, communities, etc., that we do not have time left for our ‘number one priority’. Is God really number one?
Someone said that we can always find time to do what we want to do. Our actions display our hearts in this matter. What does your life say about your love for God?
Hugh DeLong
Remember the end of this story in Ezra: “And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15 This temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar; it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius” (Ezra 6:14-15). That is, once they began building it took them from the 7th month of 520 to the 12th month of 515 B.C.
