Consider How You Have Fared
Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people
say the time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s
house. Then the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a
time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies
in ruins? Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have
fared. 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 you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how
you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that
I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD. You have looked for
much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought
it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts.
Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses.
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has
withheld its produce.
Haggai 1:2-10
There are things that happen to us when
we do not think things through. Careless thinking means we either do something
we should not do or don’t do something we are supposed to do. These wrong
actions or irresponsible inactions can be minor
inconveniences – or they can have serious lasting consequences. You would think
the people in Haggai’s day wouldn’t have committed thoughtless mistakes. Just
20 years before, they were living in exile in
Keep your thoughts in line, or they will
lead you astray.