But in spite of that, Darius the King of Persia, decreed that a number of Jews could return to their homeland from exile in Bablyon. Not many wanted to go back. In fact, it was probably less than 20,000 who left to return home. After 70 years of good treatment and finding a new way of life in the city of Babylon it was probably difficult to find people wanting to leave that and return to a country with very little to attract a new generation. It may have been easier for the second group led by Ezra 58 years later and even easier 12 years later by Nehemiah. But, the first group of pioneers were few.

The book of Haggai was written 16 years after the people had returned to Judah. When they first arrived they were not welcomed home. After the destruction and captivity of the northern tribes by Assyria, the Samaritans had been allowed to return but they had become so thoroughly mixed with the people inhabiting the land that the Jews no longer considered them brothers. For a variety of reasons, the Samaritans had no interest in the returning Jews rebuilding the Temple or re-establishing themselves in the land. So, for years they kept the courts of Darius busy with lawsuits and objections that threw up one obstacle after another to the first Jewish settlers. They didn’t take up arms against them. They just wore them down over time and made it more trouble than it was worth to rebuild the Temple.

1.  And that is when Haggai speaks. They have put off rebuilding the Temple. It wasn’t rebellion or idolatry. They just got busy being focused on things that were easier to do and more compelling.

They had not turned away from God but merely drifted into the course of least resistance and taking care of themselves. After all, they had learned to live without a Temple for the entire time in exile and how important could it be? Other things in life occupied them.

Haggai 1:2-6 and 9:

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 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.”

7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 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. 9 “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.”

“Give careful thought.” This is not condemnation or “woe to you”. It’s not anger or an indictment but more of a diagnostic question. “While you’ve been building a place for yourself, your work and your family have you have left off building the place where I dwell in your life?”

Have you allowed a temporary break or the path of least resistance to become a way of life?

What are we busy building? Good things mostly. Yet, even in the good things there is a hunger that cannot be filled, a thirst that won’t go away, a sense of never quite reaching our expectations. Those are signs from God and symptoms of a shrinking soul. Signals that we have become distracted from building the place where God dwells in our lives. Is God furious? No. He puts it to us in a way that makes us stop, put down what we are so busy doing, and give careful consideration to our lives.

Every time I go back to the book of Haggai I am aware of the quiet voice of God asking me the same questions. What am I so busy doing that I have become distracted from the main thing and that distraction has slowly become a habit and a way of life? What are the voices around me that throw up obstacles to my rebuilding?

What happened regularly in the physical Temple?

The reading of the Word.
Worship.
Prayer.
Fellowship.
Giving.
Serving and Sacrifice.

Those are still true today. Those are the essentials of the temple of God in our lives even now. I find myself deliberately considering what I have been building and what I have left unbuilt. My own self-examination in these six areas gives me a reason to stop and judge what needs adjustment in my life – and it might be the same for you. How are you building the place where God dwells in your life? Your Scripture reading? Your worship? Your prayer? Your fellowship? Your giving? Your service and sacrifice? Maybe, like me and others, you have become distracted by building other things, necessary things, important things and God is speaking to you through Haggai as He did to me. “You have been busy with other things and the place where I dwell in your life is unfinished. You’ve put it on hold.”

Again, it is not condemnation but an invitation to self-examination.

But God is not completely satisfied with careful thought or introspection and self-examination. What does he say to them?

“Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord.”

Take the first step toward rebuilding. Find one tree and bring it down. Don’t be overwhelmed. Don’t try to do everything at once. Just start in the most obvious place. Where did you leave off building when you were distracted by other things? Pick a place from the list and start there.

It is important that God is with you in this because – like His physical temple – he wants to finish the work he has begun in you.

Haggai 2:4-5: “But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘ and work. For I am with you’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”

It’s easy to be discouraged when you feel you’ve let someone down but God does not withdraw or become cold and distant. His Spirit remains among us. Several years ago, Leadership Journal did a survey of Americans’ image of God.

31% believe in an authoritarian God who is angry at humanity’s sins and ended in every creature’s life and world affairs. He is with us but he is not happy.

23% believe in a benevolent God who is forgiving and accepting of anyone who repents.

16% believe in a critical God who has his judgmental eye on the world, but he’s not going to intervene, either to punish or comfort. He is aware but not engaged.

24% believe in a distant God who is more of a cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on it own.

I’m not sure I want to believe in any of those. I want to believe in the God of Haggai. He invites me to consider my life, encourages me to act and then tells me as hard as it will be He will be with me.”

This is not a restoring of what used to be or a return to the past relationship – but a greater glory and a better place.

Haggai 2:9: “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Amighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” Peace. Isn’t that a wonderful thing to know. It’s the peace we cannot get in any other way. It doesn’t just pass all understanding. It is unattainable in any other way than as a gift.

Haggai 2:15: “Consider how things were – but don’t stay there immobilized by failure…but focus on the day you begin to rebuild.”

Haggai 2:18: “From this day on…give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid.”

And then what does he say?

“Give careful thought….From this day on I will bless you.”

Write today in your Bible if, like me, you have let good things distract me from building the Temple of God. Write today’s date in the margin if, like me, you have discovered that a temporary break has become a permanent habit of neglect.

Do you feel you have planted much and harvested little? Eaten but never have enough? Expected much but it turned out to be little? It’s not a plague or a disaster or a total crop failure but a sense that life has not met our expectations for all the effort we have put into it. But that’s what happens when we postpone building.

Start rebuilding the place of God in your life today. Start with one timber but start. Just pick one thing that you have put off or allowed to wither in your life.

“Be strong and work. For I am with you. My Spirit remains among you. Do not fear. From this day on I will bless you…and grant you peace.”