Digging in Deeper: Haggai 2:3-4

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“Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn’t it seem to you like nothing by comparison? Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel — this is the Lord’s declaration. Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land — this is the Lord’s declaration. Work! For I am with you — the declaration of the Lord of Armies.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever tried to pick up the pieces again after blowing it? That’s no small task. In the first place, you have to remember where things were. That can be its own challenge. Then, there’s the challenge around the fact you may not want things to be just like they were. Sometimes a complete and total restoration is simply impossible. In this situation, we begin to wonder if it’s even worth it to try. This is something the people of Israel struggled with when Haggai called them to rebuild the temple.

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Morning Musing: Haggai 1:12-13

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“Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, delivered the Lord’s message to the people: ‘I am with you–this is the Lord’s declaration.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Yesterday we talked about doing things the wrong way versus doing them the right way. When we do things the wrong way they just don’t work very well. There’s really no way to avoid that. But when we do them the right way, they start working again. This is true with specific tasks we are trying to accomplish, and as we’ll see this morning, it’s true with God too.

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Morning Musing: Haggai 1:5-7

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“Now, the Lord of Armies says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.’ The Lord of Armies says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever watched someone try and do something the wrong way and struggle with it? There are some tasks for which the path to successfully accomplishing them is straight and narrow. If you don’t do them a certain way, they are going to be all but impossible to complete. What Haggai was trying to help the people understand here is that life is one of these tasks.

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Digging in Deeper: Haggai 1:1

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“In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

A new book and a new theme today. And this is yet another minor prophet book, written some 2,500 years ago to a people entirely different than us on almost every count, yet whose central message is remarkably relevant to our lives today. Perhaps that’s why God preserved it for us. What is this message? It all centers on this question: What comes first in your life?

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Patterns

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As we continue in our new series, Going It Alone, we talk about the thing that has more power over our lives than just about anything else. Know what this is? Our habits. Israel set in place some habits and we have as well in our own lives. The question is: Where are these habits taking us? Join me as we look at where they took Israel and how we can be sure they’re taking us where we most want to go.

Patterns

So, I have been told on occasion that I have a habit-forming personality. Personally, I think this is totally preposterous. I mean, sure, I have to eat grapes in sets of two (then my mouth is better balanced), carefully nibble the shell of jelly beans or M&Ms before I eat the core (then the gooey insides don’t get stuck in my teeth so badly and I can savor the flavor longer), I have to totally unpack from a trip as soon as I get home (then I don’t have to do it later), collect things obsessively when I buy part of a set until I have the whole thing (who wants an incomplete set of something anyway?), and generally get ready in the same order every morning (that way I don’t forget to do anything), but those hardly mean I have a habit-forming personality. Right?

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