“Consider Your Ways” - Musings on Haggai
God had brought the return of exiles back to Jerusalem out of captivity, but the people prioritized their own needs before honoring the Lord’s work. Although the remnant had begun rebuilding the temple in the early years of the return, completing the task proved too physically and emotionally exhausting. The people lagged and neglected God’s priorities.
Although God had set a task before them and called them to rebuild His temple, they made excuses—excuses that sounded wise, rational, and even spiritual in their own eyes. God’s people in the time of Haggai rationalized and procrastinated until “the time felt right,” finding reasons to delay doing His work. They said, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Instead, they pursued their own priorities over God’s.
Does that sound like any of us today sometimes? We often rationalize obedience, convincing ourselves with excuses to justify doing things our own way. Many times we know God has called us to something, yet we put it on the backburner, telling ourselves, “the time has not yet come.” Meanwhile, just like God’s people then, we pursue our own interests and leave the Lord’s priorities on hold.
God had a question for them: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while My house lies in ruins?” Then, He asked them to consider their ways.
The people of God had worked hard since returning to Jerusalem—sowing much but harvesting little, eating and yet never satisfied. There was a sense of futility, of toiling in vain. Verse 6 gives us the imagery of “He who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”
There may be times in a Christian’s life when, although we are already God’s people, we need to reawaken and refocus. God often sends signs—warnings in our lives—to get our attention and call us to take heed. Often these warnings look like a series of unfortunate but ordinary events in daily life. I’m not speaking of a prosperity gospel here. Sometimes we wait for the Lord’s prompting to obey or act, even when we already know what we’re supposed to do. As an over-thinker, I’m often guilty of this myself. Since God’s Word is revealed and preserved in Scripture, we often already know what He is calling us to do through its precepts and principles.
To be wise, discerning, and obedient Christians, we must develop the awareness to recognize these warnings. Without that awareness, we may miss that the Lord is sending a drought in our lives as a call to refocus, repent, obey, and renew our faith.
We can work hard, earn well, and stay busy—yet still feel spiritually dry or dissatisfied. Why? Because there may be unsanctified areas of our lives where we haven’t truly prioritized Him. Even a small act of obedience—like choosing to delight in the Lord your God—can, if neglected, become a subtle form of disobedience that quietly robs us of spiritual fulfillment.
That emptiness or drought can sometimes be a wake-up call. A loving nudge from God saying: Return to Me. Here are My precepts—walk in them. Here is the way—walk in it. (Isaiah 30:21).
This isn’t about prosperity or performance—it’s about priority. Whose priority? There will always be one shaping our lives. God wants to bless us, perhaps not always with material things— but most importantly, He wants our hearts. The prophet Haggai called God’s people then, and calls us now, to pause and consider our ways, to realign our priorities, and to obey Him—seeking His kingdom, even in the small areas of our lives that no one may see.
Friends, in the book of Ezra, a contemporary of Haggai, we see that the people were joyous when they first returned to Jerusalem from exile. Ezra records that they laid the foundation of the temple, and the priests came forward in their vestments with trumpets and cymbals to praise the Lord. They sang responsively, giving thanks and shouting with a great shout—celebrating their return and the laying of the temple’s foundation.
But the older generation who had seen the first temple felt discouragement, doubt, and despair. They compared what they now saw with what they remembered, focusing on their own expectations and understanding, rather than what God had in store. Ezra says, “Many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping.”
Some rejoiced in faith, though they had never seen the first temple. Others, who had, wept in despair. Friends, which kind of faith do you think pleased the Lord? The childlike faith that rejoiced in what they could not see but still believed—or the rational one, whose comparison to the known former things only bred doubt and despair?
Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Impossible. And the author of Hebrews defines faith as: “Confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Those rejoicing were showing this very faith—assurance of what they did not yet see.
So often it can be the same with us today. We begin with joy and energy, but as time goes on, momentum fades, perseverance becomes difficult, and we listen to the wrong voices. Sometimes we don’t finish what we began.
That’s why the author of Hebrews exhorts us, and I paraphrase, “to run the race set out before us with perseverance, or endurance, throwing off every hindrance and sin that so easily entangles us”.
Once the people of Haggai’s day began to repent and obey, the Lord encouraged them despite His initial rebuke. Like a loving Father giving nods of encouragement to his children, saying “I am with you. Go on, work, for I am with you.” The pattern is clear: once they committed to obey, then God then stirred their spirits to encourage them.
In chapter 2, verse 3, God says through Haggai: “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it nothing in your eyes? Yet now, be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Joshua the high priest. Be strong, people of the land. My Spirit remains in your midst.” God was encouraging all 3 tiers of the remnant to have faith and be strong, and continue working even though they did not see the full finished picture just yet.
When we are engaged in the Lord’s work, other voices will try to slip in—doubt, discouragement, and despair—disguised as rationalization and even wisdom. In Ezra 4, again a parallel to Haggai, we learn that: “The people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build. They bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose and wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem” God’s people, trying to derail their plans.
Spiritual discouragement and doubt—especially the kind that keeps us from doing the Lord’s work, building His house and His kingdom—must be recognized for what it is: unspiritual. And whenever we engage in the Lord’s work, there will be opposition that takes advantage of doubt or despair to derail God’s purposes. Friends, we will face discouragement—voices of doubt or cynicism that sound rational, even wise. But often that so-called wisdom is worldly wisdom, which we know is no wisdom at all. We get discouraged because we cannot see the end result with our eyes. But as people of God, we are not without hope.
There will be many voices, just like the people in Haggai’s day had to filter out threats, and doubts from their own people, but as Christians we must train our ears to hear the one voice that matters—the Lord’s. As our Lord Jesus said in John’s Gospel: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
But the wonderful thing about Haggai is that God’s people actually obeyed quickly. Had they delayed, it would not have been obedience, for delayed obedience is still disobedience. In Verse 12 of Haggai we read that: “[and]...The people feared the LORD.” Their obedience—taking heed of the Word of the Lord—restored a righteous fear of Him. They no longer feared their oppressors, the voices of men, or gave in to doubt, discouragement, or over-rationalization that led to spiritual lethargy and inertia. Instead, they listened to the voice of their God—and feared Him alone.
After Haggai’s rebuke, the people reconsidered their ways, repented, feared the Lord, and resumed temple construction in 520 BCE. The pattern is clear: warning, repentance and obedience, the Lord’s encouragement, and then blessing. We are reminded here that the Lord disciplines those He loves—not to punish cruelly, but so we can turn back and walk uprightly in obedience.
Although Haggai is short and concise, there is so much packed into its two chapters. Though one of the shortest books in the Bible, Haggai is full of patterns, prophecy, conviction, and wisdom for how we are to live.
In Chapter 2, God gives Haggai a warning about His expectations about holiness:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.
A key theme in Haggai is the call to recognize unrighteousness and unholiness. A holy people offering unholy things in worship does not make those things holy. When a holy people touch or tolerate unholy things, it does not make those things holy but instead defiles the people, or what is holy. Such is the nature of holiness—being set apart. We are a people called to be holy and set apart for God.
Dr. R.C. Sproul comments: “They have defiled the work of the temple and their offerings because their estrangement from God is deeper than they realized. The mere presence of a rebuilt temple will not render them holy as a people (cf. Jer. 7:3–7); God demands genuine change of heart and life, not mere outward conformity.”
The people’s neglect of the temple revealed their deeper lack of desire for God’s presence. They were under covenant curses (1:6, 9, 11) but did not see it.
Friends, we may no longer be under the Old Covenant—thank God for that—but the principle behind the law still stands, even if its expression has changed under the new covenant: holiness only goes one way.
We cannot receive the hopeful message without first facing the sobering truth. We cannot receive blessing—the part that we all desire—without acknowledging and confronting our sin or negligence. Confronting unrepentant areas in our lives—even those we do not immediately recognize—is the necessary first step to real change. That is why God prompts His people, both then and now, to examine our ways and the consequences they produce. As God’s people, we are called to live in righteousness and obedience—for our God is holy, and we are His holy people.
In Haggai 2:19, the Lord asks:
19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing.
In other words: Have you done what I asked?
Yet, when we fall short, He remains faithful. “But from this day on I will bless you.” He says.
We see that the Lord at the end of the book actually chooses to bless His people despite their sin. Not because the people deserved it, but because He is faithful, for His namesake.
Even if it may not seem like it at first, Haggai’s message is actually one of encouragement. The good news is that every sobering admonition ends with God’s gracious promise of redemption. Repentance begins with confronting the issue but ends with encouragement when we obey—and it doesn’t stop there. When we obey, blessings follow—even if not material or earthly, but simply the joy of walking with God. Our Lord loves us enough to confront sin with grace, and when we respond in obedience, He strengthens and encourages us to continue His work.
As with every book in the Bible, all things point to Christ.
Verse 2:9 says that “The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace.”
The Lord promises: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.”
This prophecy was, of course, fulfilled through Christ.
God promises to make Zerubbabel His signet ring—a sign of authority and covenant promise. All of this in Haggai ultimately points to the coming King—the Messiah—who came through Zerubbabel, from the line of David. This King now dwells not in a physical temple, but among His people, the new spiritual temple. That temple is us—His Church under the New Covenant. As Jane reminded us on Monday, we are that temple, where God dwells among His people. Friends, isn’t that great news this morning?
As Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:4–6:
“You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture:
‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone,
And the one who believes in Him will not be put to shame.’”
The incarnation of our Lord and the indwelling of His Spirit—not in a physical place, but among us—is really good news. Jesus came in the flesh, died, and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins, and all things are placed under His feet. Praise the Lord! (Ephesians 1:22)
The Gospel is still good news 2,000 years later—and we need to hear it every single day. This most excellent news is not only for unbelievers, but also for believers daily. We must fight discouragement and disunity that threaten the body of Christ by preaching the Gospel to ourselves and reminding one another of this most wonderful news.
And here’s more good news: the work we do at SPC and BGA builds up the spiritual temple of the Lord. Edifying the Church and sharing the Gospel with those who don’t yet know Him is what building the living temple—the body of believers—looks like today. Encouraging and strengthening one another as we pray for God’s kingdom to come is our work, which is why we Christians pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Because Jesus has already won the victory, we can go forth empowered, not discouraged, to build up the body of Christ—the temple where God dwells—by sharing Him with one another and with those who don’t yet know Him.
At times, discouragement will come, and we may be tempted to listen to voices that sound wise in the moment but only lead to stagnation and spiritual inertia. Yet when we know the Word and the voice of our Shepherd, we can resist such schemes:
“...in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” – as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:11
Fellow Saints & Scholars, I want to share something personal. I had the pleasure and blessing of visiting Montreal this past week. When I travel, I like to visit old churches or chapels, and I found myself sitting in a chapel in the Religious Studies building at McGill University.
As I was praying there, asking the Lord for some personal things for my future, I heard Him speak internally—not externally audible, but still audible internally in my mind, in my right ear, a very clear response to my ask: “But have you done the things I’ve asked you to do?”
In my own head voice, I heard myself responding “No, Lord… no, I haven’t.” It was so subtle I almost missed it, almost passed it off as my own thought. But over the next two days, I could not stop thinking about it, and that conversation grew stronger with time. I became convicted. Not to mention, the grammar of that question was not in my own first-person perspective; and there is just something about the way that the Lord asks prompting questions to answers He already knows that makes His people stop and think.
He was asking me to consider my ways—whether I have been faithful in the tasks He has given me this season, and whether I have completed what He asked with joy, perseverance, and without grumbling.
May you be blessed today.
Soli deo gloria.