Consider Your Ways
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.” -Haggai 1:7
In the book of Haggai, we read of the prophet’s message to the people: consider your ways. And just what did God mean when He said this? First, some background:
God had given the people a charge to rebuild the temple of the Lord, and they were dragging their feet and thought that it wasn’t the right time to do the Lord’s work. They hesitated, and the rebuilding of the temple was neglected.
As a result of their lethargy, God sent inexplicable poverty and failure into the lives of His people, to get them to take notice of their rebellion.
“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 1:6
And it was this—this chastisement and correction from the Lord—that Haggai was talking about, in trying to steer God’s people back into their work. God was saying: consider what you are doing, and what the outcome has been. And yet, for all that God had afflicted them, the people still had not taken notice: they hadn’t put two and two together.
“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.” -Haggai 2:17
Finally, after all of these chastisements were not getting through to the people, God rose up a prophet, Haggai, which told them plainly of their rebellion and their neglect of God’s house.
Haggai spelled things out very clearly, and showed the people that their current miseries were not just random happenings, but that there was a clear purpose from God:
“Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.” -Haggai 1:9-10
Haggai also expresses the desires of God, and shows the people the project that God has for them: the one that they have been avoiding. “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD” (Haggai 1:8).
A message for today: consider your ways
Even today, I believe that God works in a very similar way in a Christian’s life as He did in the life of the nation of Israel. When we neglect to do God’s will—if we are truly born again—God will correct us and sent things into our life to make us take note of our wanderings.
“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” -Hebrews 12:6-7
Perhaps there is something in our present circumstance where God is placing His finger upon us, and gently telling us, “consider your ways.” We ought not to continue on in ignorance and give no regard to the Lord’s promptings; but our troubles ought to give us a pause in our life, and make us stop and give consideration to the path of our feet.
Where did we go off course? At what point did we diverge from the Lord’s will? And, how do we get back on the right track?
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” -Proverbs 3:5-12
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