Christians can have just as much trouble as non-Christians in getting their priorities right. We tend to ignore what is most important for Christ and the Kingdom and instead concentrate on what is of importance for ourselves. But this never ends well, and we suffer great loss with these wrong priorities.
The Bible of course speaks to this often. The short book of Haggai is really all about this theme. Sadly, this Old Testament book however is usually neglected today, except for when a church embarks upon a new building program – then it comes in quite handy!
The book has to do with how the Israelites were living since returning from captivity. Yahweh, through his prophet, has to give them strong encouragement to rebuild the temple now that they are back home. The people are living in fancy dwellings while God’s house remains unfinished. As we find in Haggai 1:2-11:
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’” Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 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.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
I notice that I also wrote on this ten years ago, so let me share a bit of what I had said back then:
Yahweh through his servant Haggai is reminding his people to get their act together, and start concentrating on what is really important. The context of course is the Israelites have returned from captivity, and while they are all nicely looking after themselves, they have neglected the much more important work of God, primarily, the rebuilding of the temple.
They have spent a lot of time and effort on their own houses, while neglecting God’s house. The word “paneled” indicates this lack of godly prioritising. As Mark Boda comments, the Hebrew term is a bit ambiguous, but however we translate it, it makes a strong case against the selfish Israelites:
“Haggai contrasts the houses in which the people are living with the house of God. Defining the precise nature of this contrast is difficult because the word translated ‘paneled’ in the NIV can also be rendered ‘roofed.’ If the word is ‘roofed,’ the contrast is between completion and incompletion. If the word is ‘paneled,’ the contrast is between luxury and austerity. Considering that Haggai describes them living in these houses while also referring to financial matters in the following message, the NIV is most appropriate. While the temple lies in ruins, the people are living in nicely decorated homes.” https://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/09/26/time-to-get-our-priorities-right/
And we note here the futility that comes when we get our priorities wrong. They are doing many things, but getting little in return. So the prophet has to remind them to put God first, and then see his hand of blessing on their efforts.
Bear in mind that the blessings in the Old Testament were primarily physical in nature: if Isreal obeyed God they would have healthy herds, great crops, peace in the land, and so on (see the Covenant blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28). But the same message about priorities applies to believers today. It may not mean we will become rich and famous, but we will know God’s blessing on us, certainly in a spiritual sense.
Several more commentators can be drawn upon here to see how this old book applies to contemporary Christians. James Montgomery Boice notes how believers today are quite similar to the Israelites back then:
They are not unbelievers. They are not even unconcerned believers. These people want to know the will of God and do it. At least they did at one time–perhaps when they were in a Youth for Christ group in high school or in Campus Crusade or InterVarsity Fellowship during their years in college. Perhaps they were zealous for God in the years immediately following their conversion. But life has moved on. Now there is a job or a wife or children (or any one of a dozen other things) to think about, and somehow they have let the work of God slide. They have left the work to younger or older or newer or merely other Christians.
The word of God by Haggai comes to such people–to you, if you are one. God says: What is the condition of my house? What is the condition of my work in your home, your church, your neighborhood, your city, your land? He says: What are you doing to fulfill the purpose for which you have been set apart by Jesus Christ?
Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (Reformed Expository Commentaries)by Duguid, Iain M. (Author), Harmon, Matthew P. (Author)
Iain Duguid and Matthew Harmon speak to how unproductive and futile life can be when we get our priorities wrong:
Why was life this way? Certainly, the problem was not with God’s lack of power to bless them. The problem lay rather in their own actions, which is why the Lord tells them repeatedly to “consider your ways” (Hag. 1:5, 7). In settling for a “plan B” lifestyle, a life turned in on themselves, they were not acting in faithfulness to their obligations as God’s covenant people. They had put their own interests before God’s interest, and as a result, they were reaping the consequences of that set of priorities: a life of futility. They were running faster and faster, like hamsters on a treadmill, getting precisely nowhere.
They continue:
To be sure, the result of seeking first God’s Kingdom will not necessarily be earthly prosperity, or even large, “successful” churches. Jesus does not promise us a “plan A” experience in this world. His own earthly ministry was not characterised by prosperity or a large following. But God does promise to be with his repentant people in the present and to fulfill his kingdom goals through us in the longer term. Even now, he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
Lastly, Walter Kaiser says this:
God’s work in rebuilding His house ought to have had priority over the exiles’ work on their houses, even as it must take priority over our own work. The religious condition of the people’s hearts could be directly gauged by their attitude toward working on God’s house. In that sense, the building of the temple was a barometer of the people’s spiritual condition. And insofar as the house of God was being neglected, the people were committing an act of spiritual treason. How could they call their God Lord when they refused to do what He commanded? This was a patent violation of their claim that they served God as their King.
However, by rejecting God as their King and Lord the people were inviting God to reject their own labors (v. 6). How disingenuous was the exiles’ excuse that the time was not right and that conditions and circumstances prevented them from doing what they really wanted to do.
If the times were so adverse, how did it happen that so many of the exiles were able to live in “paneled houses?” We are not exactly sure how we should translate the Hebrew word. Some translations render it “wainscoted” houses; others suggest “vault-roofed” (LXX), “panel-ceiled” (Vulgate), or “covered with cedar boards” (Chaldee). Regardless of how the word is rendered, the point is fairly clear. The people’s position that they were too poor to rebuild the temple due to the bad economy, inflation, and the poor value of the shekel was untenable. Their lavish spending on themselves exposed their hypocrisy and lies….
God’s Ways Must Come Before Our Ways
The Hebrew text uses a series of infinitive absolutes in the questions that are asked in verse 6 to emphasize their eternal and universal relevance. Put in modern parlance, Haggai’s questions from the Lord ask: Are you sowing more and harvesting less? Are you eating and drinking more and enjoying it less? Are you wearing more and feeling less warmth? Are you earning more and able to buy less?
No one cheats God without cheating himself at the same time! The old Puritan commentator T. V. Moore said it best: “The events of life are hieroglyphics in which God records His feelings towards us, the key to which is found in the Bible.”
And one final comment from Kaiser:
The purpose of obedience was not merely to see a building raised; it was first and last to bring pleasure to God and to glorify Him. As God says in verse 8, He wants the people to be obedient: “that [He] may take pleasure in it and be glorified.” God makes it clear, then, that His pleasure does not come from buildings per se; it comes, rather, from the people’s attitudes and the condition of their hearts while they are working on the buildings. The chief end of the work of every man and woman of God is not so much to build temples, or to carry out other external works of righteousness or good works, as it is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
These are fundamental lessons which all believers need to learn – and relearn. We will never go astray when we get our priorities right and put God first in every situation.
