There are days in our lives that it may see like everything that can go wrong, does. At least that’s what Murphy’s law states, anyways. But, whether Murphy’s Law holds any validity or not isn’t something we’re going to talk about today. But seriously, there are days that everything we seem to touch, turns to disaster. Or maybe even those days seem to be very common, and occurring more often than not. You can’t get ahead at your job. You’re in a struggle to see eye to eye in your important relationships. Your finances seem to be vanishing before your eyes, and you really can’t figure out where they’re going. Maybe your just restless and nothing is really fulfilling and satisfying anymore. I’ve been there more times than i’m proud to admit.

Well, there’s actually this tiny little book near the end of the Old Testament that talks about these things. It’s a book called Haggai. Haggai is one of the “minor prophets” of the Old Testament. The book itself is only two chapters long. It’s also called a “post exile” book, meaning it was written after the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem after they were exiled (kicked out of their home country) to Babylon for many years. God had removed the people of Judah (north Israel) and allowed them to become captives to the Babylonian empire. God only did this after years of warning and rebuking the people of Judah through prophets about their ongoing sin of idolatry and disregard for God in their lives as a whole. They had also deeply sinned by trying to replace God with empty things, or as Jeremiah 2:13 says, they “dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold any water.” After 70 years or so, the Babylonian empire fell to the the Persians, and under their leader, Cyrus, the Israelites were allowed to return the their homeland. That’s where the book of Haggai begins, or actually about 16 years after they had been back. We see Haggai bring forth a message from God to the remnant people that returned from the exile. in Haggai 1:4-6 we read the following:

4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while thishouse lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

The people of Israel have been back in Judah for 16 years, and the once great temple of God that was built by Solomon, still lay in ruins. However, the people had found it more necessary to build for themselves some vert nice houses; paneled houses at that. These homes were very nice for the time. They took time and money to build. And lots of both. If we go back to verse 2, we see that the people even said “it’s not time to rebuild the temple yet.” Even after sixteen years it wasn’t time? But yet they seemed to find the time to make sure their homes were nice and well built. Yeah, that’s pretty much what God said to them through Haggai. He even goes on to tell the people that the reason all their other endeavors in life, from their harvesting to their eating and drinking, all the way to their paychecks, was failing, was because God himself had caused it. That’s right. God had withheld his blessings because the people had decided to follow their own priorities instead of taking up God’s. See, the temple was a big deal in the Old Testament. It was where God met with His people. It was His dwelling place. Sacrifice for sin was made at the temple. And beginning to rebuild the temple should have been the first thing that happened upon returning home from the exile. It should have been the people’s priority because it was God’s. In contrast, the people took up their own priorities: themselves.

Does this hit home for you at all?

So many times, we wander. We wander away from God’s purpose for our lives. We wander away from his priorities and take up our own. Our priorities direct our lives, our time, and our money. We even take the things God has blessed us with, such as work and family, and make them our sole purpose for living. In essence, we commit the very sin that sent the people of Israel into exile to begin with (Jeremiah 2:13): we build for ourselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water. In other words, when we pursue our priorities over God’s, we will be unsatisfied with our results. Guaranteed. Not only will we be unsatisfied, we may see that everything we are trying to accomplish on our own is failing miserably and falling short of the desired.

The good news is that once the people of Israel heard this message of rebuke from Haggai, they saw the error of their ways. They repented, which is a fancy way of saying they begin to obey where the were disobeying. God told them after they repented, “I am with you.” And God stirred up their spirit and gave them the desire to rebuild the temple of God.

So, maybe this is you. Maybe right now, you’re seeing the dissatisfaction in your life, and how everything just seems to be not coming to fruition the way you’d like. Maybe you see the areas that you’ve made life all about you and what’s important to you. And now, maybe your making the connection between those last two sentences. Are you building your own temple? Have you been taking life into your own hands as you see fit?

The wonderful news is that if we find ourselves building our own little temples and not pursuing the God given purpose and priorities He has in store for us, we can repent. We can obey where we were once disobeying. And building God’s temple isn’t the same as it was in the Old Testament. We don’t have the need for a physical temple to meet with God. We are his temple, and as a Christian, the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us. But, to direct our priorities to the building of God’s kingdom in this present world for the sake of eternity is our new priority. When we make this our priorities, God is with us in our efforts. He will stir up our spirits and give us the ability to accomplish the things that He has given us to do.

And those efforts will not fail, because God cannot fail. And that, Christian, is worth making a priority.

Brandon Walker

South Fork Church