Daily Devotions

Hag 1:1-5 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.
3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
KJV
Haggai was a prophet on the scene about 50 – 75 years before the events recorded in the book of Nehemiah and that is important because of the content of the book. Israel had been permitted to return to the homeland, to go back to Jerusalem and they had been there sometime when Haggai received this message from God. The Lord seems to have a problem with ceiled houses. (Verses 4 – 5) What is a ceiled house and why does God have a problem with one? The problem is not with the ceiled house but with the attitude of the people living in them. At that time most houses were finished in what we would call a rough fashion. No coverings on the inside walls, no finished floors, few had working windows, they were rough. Some those were finished, walls on the inside, wooden floors, working doors and windows, some were finished, some were ceiled. To have a ceiled house all your energy, all your money, all your time had to be put into that house, all your time and money given to making yourself comfortable and when one did that God and things of God were set aside. (Verse 2) They had gone back to rebuild the Temple and the city, yet that work was undone while they attended to their own needs. There is much time that we must spend on our own needs, making a living, building a home, taking care of family, there is much time we must spend taking care of our own needs and there is nothing wrong with that. But what happens when all we care about is self, the things of the world, and we leave God out of the picture? Is God pleased with that? This week through the message of Haggai we will see that God is not and there must be time, energy, and money as well given to the work of God and the things of God. The problem here is not with the finished houses but with the attitude of the people who have left God out.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2017 at 5:36 am and is filed under Daily Devotions. You can skip to the end and leave a response.