Devotions

Rev Gav

Orbit

Haggai 1.1–8

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 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 panelled 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 honoured, says the Lord.

Reflect

God wanted the chosen people to prosper, after all, they were to be his priests or representatives to the world, that the world might know that God is God. Yet, because their focus was on themselves and not on God, they were never going to be effective in their calling. God’s instruction for them to rebuild the ‘House of God’ was so that God could be in their midst and be the One around which their lives would orbit, and only when they did this would they fulfil their God-given calling to the world.

The question for us today is what ‘House of God’ is God calling us to build?

God no longer calls us to build a physical temple because, through Christ, we have been made holy and we, the Church, have become a living temple. God lives in you and God lives in me, therefore the House of God we build is the Church — not a building but a community — and our God-given mandate is the same, that through our words and actions we might let the world know that God is God.

Being human, and no different in nature to those Israelites to whom Haggai prophesied, we too can centre our lives around ourselves and not around God. For us to prosper in our calling, our lives should orbit around Christ.

The warning of Haggai, “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,” is a reminder that individualism and consumerism, i.e. the focus on ourselves and the pursuit of wealth or owning stuff, never satisfies. True satisfaction is found when we commit to centering our lives on God and building God’s Church — i.e. when we love one another.

Pray

Holy God
I choose to center
my life on you
and orbit my
life around Christ.
Help me to
build your Church
into a House of God
fit for the purpose
of sharing your
love with the world.
Now and always.