Dear Friends:

Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. Then the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals and on all their labors (Hag 1:2-11)

Nebuchadnezzar took everything of value from Jerusalem and burned the city. The exiles returned to devastation. They had to rebuild their homes, shops, government buildings, temple, walls, gates, cisterns, and streets from the ground up.

The work ethic of “these people” was excellent. They planted crops and established businesses. They labored to put roofs over the heads of their families and food on the table. At the end of the day, they hurried home to do the kinds of things that one can only do at home.

What’s not to like about this picture of hard work, entrepreneurship, and family values?

They were prudent too. “Let’s build our homes and our businesses first and then turn to rebuilding the Lord’s house,” was their thoughtful plan. Most observers, then and now, would say that they had the right priorities.

So why were these people struggling so much, getting little return on their efforts; working harder, but getting less? Why was it a dry time for them physically and spiritually?

The people had returned to Jerusalem eighteen years before with a mission —

Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of those among you who are of his people — may their God be with them! — are permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel — he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let all the survivors, in what ever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2-4)

Now on a hot August day of worship and reflection, the prophet Haggai stepped forward to state the obvious — the people were off mission. Their good was getting in the way of God’s best. The flaw in their “no margin, no mission” strategy was that there was never enough margin for mission.

The single most overlooked fact about our life with God is that it begins with God not us. This is the secret of grace expressed in Jesus Christ– “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things come into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:1-4). Grammarians, please note John’s prepositional phrases “with God,” “in God,” “through God”, and “without God,” to gain perspective on the Divine order of life.

When we forget this Divine order and reverse the role of the creature and its Creator, we live graceless, laboring lives full of chaff, but precious little wheat. Haggai was speaking to this grim spiritual and material reality. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared . . . You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? . . . Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses” (Hag 1:7-9).

What is God supposed to fill if we are so full of ourselves? How do we get to God’s new business if our agenda is so crowded with our never-ending old business? We use up our lives with our exertions for our purposes and obtain,at best, nothing more than mere survival when the Lord wants to give us life.

The inevitable result is drought and famine, God said through Haggai. “Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land, on the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the old, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labors” (Hag 1:10-11).

The popular concept of “idolatry” conjures up thoughts of sybaritic pagans dancing around wood and stone effigies in the woods. In truth, an idol is anything that takes our affections and worship from God. Most hard-working, virtuous people can’t conceive of themselves as idolators, but even work and virtue can become idols if our focus is on our performance rather than on God’s grace.

This can get really tough when our idol is something good like home and family.  The most criticism that I ever received for these messages is for one I wrote many years ago on the idolatry of family. My point was summarized, perhaps too tersely by the statement, “We aren’t called to focus on the family. We are called to worship God and trust our families and their values to him in obedience.”

You would have thought that I had blasphemed Jesus on the Cross which really proved my point that the family can be an idolatrous substitute for God. Many of those writing critical comments turned out to be the children of pastors who had ignored and neglected their spouses and children on the pretext that they were doing the Lord’s business. Their emails revealed a lot of pain and anger toward God and their fathers who they kind of had all mixed together, again proving my point.

My response to them was, “If your dad found the temptations of pulpit, the flattery of church members, and addressing other people’s problems more alluring than being home, changing diapers, washing dishes, doing yard work, playing games, and talking with your mom and you, that’s not God’s fault. That’s your dad’s idolatry. I am writing about those who worship a rigid, formulaic image of family rather than the God who blesses us with family and the grace to live within and outside of family. Until you forgive your dad and move on with God, you are perversely making an idol of your dad, expecting him to give what only God can give you.”

These are hard truths, but righteous ones. If God doesn’t come first in our lives, what does?

The people that Haggai was addressing had been exiled to a place where they had no roots and few possessions. Their interest in building and establishing solid homes is understandable, but doing so at the expense of God is not acceptable.

Putting our security and comfort ahead of our service to the Lord does not just dishonor him. When these people said, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house,” they were not trusting him to take care of them. Their hurry and busy activity were a hedge against the possibility that their faith was misplaced, which means, of course, that it wasn’t faith. Here’s the rub–“Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6).

Without faith, the attendance by the hard-working, home-loving citizens of Jerusalem at the religious services that hot August day was only “lip service.” God called them out on it through Haggai.

God calls us out on it as well. Do you ever wonder what God is telling you if you are working harder, but getting less for it, sowing a lot of seeds, but reaping little, eating and drinking, but finding no satisfaction in it, clothing yourself, but finding yourself as cold of soul as you are empty in heart, and your take-home rewards keep being blown away? What is God saying to you if your life is dry and unproductive?

God is calling you to honor him by giving priority to his plans and purposes in your life. That’s probably not a surprise, but are you listening? Do you get it? What are you going to do about it?

The next message in this series on Haggai will discuss what it means to say “Yes” to God.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.