Prioritizing Your Priorities

The date was around August 520 B.C., the children of Israel had now been now delivered from Babylonian captivity for almost some Twenty years. The rebuilding process had gone pretty well. They were working on rebuilding a nation from scratch. As the years passed slowly but surely Jerusalem came back t life again. Homes were built, stores were opened, commerce established, fields planted, crops harvested, and life began to resemble something of a normal pattern. There was really only one major problem; according to this passage the economic condition was tough! People were working hard but still not getting ahead. They were in better positions and had more possessions than they did during the period of exile but yet something was still missing. In the context of this passage you will discover that the people were experiencing perpetual frustration and discontentment. They were freed from bondage, they had possessions and positions, but yet, they were still looking for satisfaction. They were still searching for contentment. It is to this group of people that Haggai is speaking to in this passage. He is directly addressing their lack of commitment and their mixed up priorities. Let me make sure that I am clear, because I don't want you to get the wrong idea. The people of Jerusalem were committed and they had priorities but they were committed to the wrong things and their priorities were way out of line! This is the very reason why Haggai the prophet of God shows up and says “Consider your ways!” He is challenging them to consider their ways because they were committed to rebuilding and reconstructing everything except the temple of God. History tells us that the temple had been destroyed and the wall had been knocked down by the Babaloylians. The returnees immediately set out to rebuild the temple in about 356 B.C. Ezra chapter 3 gives details of a great celebration that takes place during the laying of the foundation. The only problem was, this laying of the foundation caused too much of a celebration for the enemies of the children of Israel, the Samaritans. They quickly became the opposition to them rebuilding the temple and with persistence the Jews finally stopped the building process and never got started again. That is at least not the building of the temple of God; they did however start rebuilding their own homes! It is now some 16 years later and the temple of God is still not rebuilt, but the people of God are now living in lavish plush homes. It is with this in mind that Haggai the prophet of the Lord comes on the scene and he begins to preach the first of five sermons. He is clearly challenging the people to reconsider their level of commitment, and to reorder their priorities! Please make note that these were not anti-prosperity sermons. These were not sermons against the people having a plush house, and lavish furnishings. They were however sermons to call the people to a consecrated conscience about their commitments and their priorities to the God that enabled them to have those nice and paneled homes in the first place. Thus the real tension of this passage is not about the actual building of the temple that really is just a surface symptom. The real tension of this passage is about a people that have been blessed by God, but have forgotten about the God that has blessed them! It is about a people who are more concerned about what they have been blessed with, than they are with the God who has blessed them! Their lack of commitment and poor priority placement becomes evident as a result of the fact that the temple of God has not yet been completed. I think that I need to suggest that this issue of neglect is a monumental issue to God.