Give Careful Thought To Your Ways

Haggai – Give Careful Thought to Your Ways, May 15, 2005, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Valparaiso, IN.

The events of Haggai took place in Jerusalem around 520 BC, 18 years after the first exiles returned from captivity in Babylon. This short book has great insights for us.

The Call

God called the exiles to rebuild the temple (Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s temple 586 BC). The call came to the high priest and the governor. We all have callings. God called our church to be devoted to prayer (intimacy with God) based on Colossians 4:2-6. To be watchful and thankful, praying that God would open doors for ministry, and that we be wise toward outsiders. All of us have a call to be ambassadors, witnesses, in our families, workplaces, and wherever we find ourselves.

Hindrances to the Call

Procrastination – 1:2, …These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’ Their work on the temple had been delayed for 18 years! Laziness, no passion, disobedience, or maybe they didn’t see or understand what God wanted to do. We are all prone to this, especially in things we don’t really want to do, seem too hard, will take too long, etc. etc.

They had the wrong focus. In 1:4, God said through Haggai, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Just as Solomon built his own palace before the temple, they were more concerned about their own houses than the things of God. We too often focus on ourselves, the things of the world, our possessions, our security rather than giving ourselves wholeheartedly to the calling God has given us.

Results of Inaction

In 1:6 God gave the “Haggai Refrain” that is repeated multiple times in the book, “Give careful thought to your ways. He goes on to say, 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.”

When we operate in our own strength and ignore God’s call, we don’t bear any fruit. Jesus said in John that we must be connected to the vine (Jesus) to bear any fruit. Our own efforts tend to produce frustration, futility, and lack. Solomon’s refrain in Ecclesiastes comes to mind, “all is hevel!” Hevel is the Hebrew word often translated as meaningless, vapor, or mist that disappears.
Has your calling been languishing? Have your dreams been forgotten, left behind? Haggai tells us “Give careful thought to your ways”. Be introspective sometimes, ask God to reawaken those callings and dreams.

What to Do

Be watchful, analytical (give careful thought to your ways…). What is God doing, what does he want to do? Do my ways match up with his?Press in and be willing to pay the price. In 1:8, God said “Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored.”

Go up… Walking in God’s calling can be hard, it takes effort, but press into his presence, where there is “fullness of joy” (Ps. 16) and it will be well worth it!

Bring down timber… Get the equipping you need. Worship, study the word, be active in fellowship with the saints.

Build my house… Love each other in unity, build up the body of Christ. If the Lord builds it, they will come!

Return to intimacy – in 1:12, the people obeyed, and they feared the Lord. They returned to intimacy and relationship. Even Jesus said about himself, “I can do nothing except what I see the Father doing”. It was the same in Haggai’s day, and it’s the same with us.

The Lord declared in 1:13 “I am with you.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of the leaders and the people to begin the work. He is with us, and we can depend on him, his Spirit, his strength.

Keep Going

In 2:3, who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? The oldest ones among them remembered Solomon’s temple that was destroyed. The one they were building seemed like nothing. Sometimes our calling, and our working it out, is very disappointing. We see others doing great things for God, and we don’t see much in our lives.

2:4-5 God tells the people to be strong, to keep at it. He also reminds them that his Spirit is there, and that there is nothing to fear.

The Future

In 2:6-10 God gives them an amazing glimpse into the future. “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

He is referring to the coming of Messiah, Jesus, and the new temple, his body of believers, who will shake the world! We tend to look at material things, but in God’s wisdom, he sent his Son, born in very humble circumstances, executed as a criminal, but rising again to glory at the Father’s right hand. Our small, seemingly unimportant work is unto something much greater!

2:10-19. We need purity and integrity to keep going. But he promises in v. 19, “from this day on I will bless you.”

2:23 ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” A signet ring in those days was an emblem of authority. Jesus is God’s signet ring, his right hand of power, who showed us what God is like. He has all authority. Just as God chose governor Zerubbabel as his signet ring, he also chooses us. Day by day, as we press into him, he is making us more like Jesus.