Follow God’s Way
Ken avoided the migrant workers in his building. Their habits and way of life, so different from his, annoyed him. One day, however, while Ken was praying, a thought pierced him: They’ve been your neighbors for years, yet not once have you shared the gospel with them. Think carefully about your attitude towards them.
Scripture tells us of when God confronted the Israelites with a similar warning: “Give careful thought to your ways” (Haggai 1:7). After their captivity in Babylon, His people returned to Jerusalem, tasked to rebuild the temple. God had “moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia” (Ezra 1:1) to order the construction and provide funds (vv. 2-4). But after the people laid the foundation, opposition grew (4:1-5), so they neglected the project for fourteen years.
Through the prophet Haggai, God told them, “Give careful thought to your ways. . . . My house . . . remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house” (Haggai 1:7, 9). God was saying, “Think carefully about how you’re living. Are you doing what I want you to do?”
God disciplined His people (vv. 5-11), but when they resumed construction, He encouraged them, “I am with you . . . . Do not fear” (2:4-5). And the temple was completed in less than five years.
In what area of life do we need to “give careful thought to [our] ways”? Let’s ask God to show us and help us follow His correction.
By Karen Huang - Our Daily Bread Ministries
Haggai 1:1, 5-11
A Call to Build the House of the Lord
1 Inthe second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:
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. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 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.”
