May 20

" N ow, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts “Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Haggai 1:5-6

There are two key expressions in the little book of Haggai that give us the purpose of this prophecy: “Consider your ways,” and “Be strong.” There are six books of the Old Testament that are intimately linked together—three historical, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; and three prophetic, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These give us the story of God’s dealings with the people of Judah after the Babylonian dominion was overthrown and the Medo-Persian empire, which was generally favorable to the Jews, had succeeded to world sovereignty. In Ezra and Nehemiah we have the history of the returning remnant, and the three prophets throw light upon their moral and spiritual state. Haggai sought to encourage the people to go on with their God-appointed program, the rebuilding of the temple, which had been hindered because of the opposition of the mixed races (the Samaritans, as they were afterward known) who were dwelling in the land of Palestine. He sought to exercise the consciences of the remnant, and called upon them to face their low spiritual condition before God and get right with Him. His searching ministry proved so effective that the people were stirred to “arise and build.” Then he sounded out the note of encouragement, “Be strong.”

So many a life is one long fever!

A fever of anxious suspense and care;

A fever of fretting, a fever of getting,

A fever of hurrying here and there.

Ah, what if in winning the praise of others

We miss at the last the King’s “Well done”—

If our self-sought tasks in the Master’s vineyard

Yield “nothing but leaves” at the set of sun!

—Edith C. Cherry