Haggai: Building God’s ChurchPrøve

Let’s start by going back in time to 586 BC. The Temple in Jerusalem is in ruins, destroyed when the Babylonians invaded the city. The Jewish people are forced out of their homeland and taken into captivity. They’ll remain in exile for seventy years until the Persians rise to power and Cyrus the Great decrees that the Jewish people can return to Jerusalem and rebuild the centerpiece of their faith, the Temple. The Book of Haggai picks up the story there. Imagine the scene as the Jewish people return home. They are finally free. God has given them back the Promised Land and sent the prophet Haggai to spur them on in rebuilding the Temple. Everything is going according to plan… Until the concerns of the day get in the way. God’s priority of rebuilding the Temple suddenly takes a back seat as the people instead rebuild their homes and businesses first. They know what God wants them to do, they are simply too preoccupied with their own priorities to do it. Verse two tells us that they justified the choice, saying, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” “The time has not yet come…” Does that sound familiar? It does to me. The busyness of life so quickly distracts us. Doing what God wants us to—serving Him? Serving at church? Caring for others? The time has not yet come… Maybe next year. Maybe once things have calmed down at work. Maybe once the kids are a little older. It turns out that we need the same message Haggai delivered to the Jewish people: Neglecting God’s work is neglecting God Himself. The Jewish people learn this the hard way. As most of today’s chapter in the Book of Haggai describes, life does not go well for them while they put off the work God is calling them to. Their harvests are pitiful and their economy is a mess. And how does God respond? With the patient, gentle urging repeated in verses five and seven: “Give careful thought to your ways.” He’s saying the same thing to you today. Give careful thought to your priorities. Are you pursuing things —like money, status, or comfort—or are you pursuing the God who made all things? You are being invited into the most exciting building project on earth—building God’s Kingdom. Don’t delay another day.