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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
Focus Text: Haggai 1.5-7
“Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Consider your ways!’”
Some one has defined insanity as continuing to do the same thing over and over while expecting different results. If that be the case, Judah was insane! They continued to forget God, pursue their own desires, set their hearts on less than righteous goals, and expect God’s constant blessings. One has to wonder, “Why didn’t they learn their lesson?” Yet, over and over again each generation seemed to repeat the mistakes of the previous one before they realized that God meant business when he spoke through His prophets.
Haggai spoke poignant truth to his countrymen when he exhorted them to “…Consider your ways!” The problem was not with God; it was with them, with their actions, and with their hearts. Introspection is always a tough battle; how much easier it is to point out the speck in our neighbor’s eye rather than to remove the plank from our own eye (see Matthew 7.3-5). How much easier it is to focus on the faults of others while taking the Lord’s Supper than to follow the Lord’s instructions and to examine ourselves as we partake (see 1 Corinthians 11.28). It is one thing to see the Word of God in a theoretical and abstract manner, but it is quite another to look into the perfect law of liberty and to apply its truths to our own lives (see James 1.22-25).
Though it does not necessarily appear so in most of our English translations, the heart was an integral part of Haggai’s instructions to Judah. Young’s Literal Translation renders the phrase “Consider your ways,” as “Set your heart to your ways.” The issue with Judah was not about the literal temple; it was about the heart. God no more needed the Temple to be rebuilt than He needed it to be built the first time! Their hearts were set on material things (e.g. their own “paneled houses”) rather than on matters of true spiritual significance. They suffered from the same malady as some in later times when Paul wrote, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossian 3.2). Haggai ministered to a people who seemed to forget that God wanted their hearts!
Moses delivered the Ten Commandments but he also said, “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4.29). Likewise he wrote, “Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” (Deuteronomy 4.39). Continuing along this theme, Moses said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” (Deuteronomy 6.5-6). Introspection hurts sometimes because our heart is not right! “Consider your ways!”
Questions:
1. Look at the picturesque language of Haggai 1.6. Can you form a mental image of each metaphor in this verse? What does that do for impressing the lesson of the verse?
2. Do you agree that it is easier to focus on the faults of others than to try to correct our own? If yes, why do you think that is true?
3. From the verses cited in Deuteronomy, is it clear that God’s spiritual people have always been people whose hearts have been devoted to God?
4. Do we make the same mistake as Israel in focusing on the material? If yes, in what way?
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