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Haggai 1.9 (NIV)
“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 his own house.”
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| All the good things of life are God’s to give or withhold.* |
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For a couple of years, while my husband was the city
manager, the city was able to provide nice Christmas bonuses to its employees. When
the economy took a downturn and the city had no extra funds, many of the
workers grumbled that the city had “taken away” their Christmas bonus. They
were expecting to continue to receive a reward they did not earn or deserve.
God’s people expected much from God because that is
what they were used to. Through his prophet, Haggai, God made it clear that
those days were over and the reason why: they were too concerned with their own
affairs to see to the rebuilding of the temple of the God who had delivered
them from exile.
God’s judgment in this instance was for these
particular people at this particular time. We cannot look at this story and
think that it applies to every similar situation today; however, there are
examples enough to determine that God does occasionally withhold his blessing
until we get our priorities in order.
The Jews had Haggai to point out to them that their
misfortune was not the work of Satan or just rotten luck, but the result of
their own disobedience. If we want to learn from our troubles, we should heed the lesson
from Haggai: look to God, humble ourselves, and glorify him.
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| God simply will not bless a people determined not to do his will.* |
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