Waist Deep 2018 - August 8

Haggai 1: 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.” (NIV)

All the good things of life are God’s to give or withhold.*

For a few years, while my husband was the city manager, the city was able to provide nice Christmas bonuses to its employees. When the economy took a downturn and the city had no extra funds, many of the workers grumbled that the city had “taken away” their Christmas bonus. They were expecting to continue to receive a reward they did not earn or deserve.

God’s people expected much from God because that is what they were used to. Through his prophet, Haggai, God made it clear that those days were over and the reason why: they were too concerned with their own affairs to see to the rebuilding of the temple of the God who had delivered them from exile. 

God’s judgment in this instance was for these particular people at this particular time. We cannot look at this story and think that it applies to every similar situation today; however, there are examples enough to determine that God does occasionally withhold his blessing until we get our priorities in order. The Jews had Haggai to point out to them that their misfortune was not the work of Satan or just rotten luck but the result of their own disobedience. If we are to learn from our troubles, we can heed the lesson from Haggai: look to God, humble ourselves and glorify him.

God simply will not bless a people determined not to do his will.*