Haggai 1: Hurrying
Thursday, September 12, 2019
In this brief but important prophecy we hear a vital message; Haggai exhorts us to look to our behaviors to see what we value. And the prophet asks us to re-build the fallen Jerusalem of our hearts. From the CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE (1157): “At this critical moment, when defeatism and a certain lethargy had overtaken his repatriated countrymen, Haggai came forward with the exhortations to them to complete their great task . . . The call to rebuild the temple. The economic distress so apparent in Judah is due to the Jews’ neglect of the Lord while they provide for their own needs”.
And we pause to reflect on this verse 1:9: You expected much, but it came to little; and what you brought home, I blew away. For what cause? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while each of you hurries to your own house.
This is not a petulant or childish God who sweeps away all that we have gathered around us in retaliation for some slight we may have delivered. No. This is the call of a God who loves his creatures and who wishes them to rise to the potential gifted to them at their inception. This is not an angry and selfish God who destroys all that does not please him. No. This is a God who knows that we have become enamored of that which drains us rather than saves us. These are not the words of a fickle and deceitful lover. No. They are words that encourage, words that animate, words that ask us to focus on what is truly important.
Those who had been deported have returned home to ruins and they know they must come together to rebuild that which has been lost through their own folly. God calls them to himself and asks them to evaluate what they hurry toward and what they hurry away from.
Do we bustle home each evening to get on with our own agenda without including God in our plans?
Do we scurry out each morning to complete our own list of chores without taking God along?
Do we work harder on our own dreams without considering the common good and the call from God?
We seem to always be in a hurry . . . toward what . . . away from whom . . . in answer to what call?
A re-post from September 5, 2012.
For more thoughts on the prophecy of Haggai visit the Haggai – The Great Task page of this blog at: https://thenoontimes.com/the-book-of-our-life/the-old-testament/the-prophets/haggai-the-great-task/
For more on setting priorities, prospering in tough economical times and taking the words of the prophet Haggai to heart, click on the image above or go to http://www.barryclingan.org/index.cfm/pageid/584
Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990.1157. Print.
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