Consider Your Ways

I love the message of the book of Haggai. About fifteen years had passed since the Jews had returned to Jerusalem, and the temple still had not been completed (the reason Cyrus had sent them back in the first place). Haggai came with this powerful message to the people of his day: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:4-7). They had finished their own houses but not the temple, the house of the Lord. And in their temporal efforts to meet their own needs they had found that their efforts were often ineffective. Because they had not put the Lord first, they brought in little for themselves and did not have enough to drink or to eat or to clothe themselves. They could not obtain wealth for it was as if they were putting money into a bag with holes: it could not be stored. Haggai’s important instruction for them was to consider their ways, to stop putting their own desires about the work of the Lord. They had not followed the spirit of the message the Savior would give in mortality: “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Luke 12:31). If we want success and help in our temporal endeavors, our best course of action is to put the Lord first and then He will multiply our efforts in all areas of our lives.

                Throughout the rest of this short book we see that the people did change and because of that the Lord helped them and was with them. We read, “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.” They went to work on the temple as the prophet instructed them. I love the Lord’s response to this act of repentance and obedience of the people: “Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord” (Haggai 1:12-13). When they put Him first the Lord gave them the greatest promise of all: He would be with them. I love these words of encouragement that Haggai also gave them, “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.” If they would be strong and work the work that the Lord had laid before them, then again His promise was that He would be with them. And their work would lead to something glorious: “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:4, 7). Their work would be rewarded in that He would fill the house they were building with glory, and His presence would be there in it. These passages have powerful applications for us today: as we put the Lord first by seeking to do His will above all else, His presence will be with us and we will have His glory. And in particular as we put the temple at the center of our lives and focus on it more than all the other distractions of the world, He will be with us in His holy house and cause us to be fruitful in all our worthy endeavors.