City Church Seven Hills

This is a special devotional series on the book of Haggai, written by our Youth Pastor, Lucas Dutil. Lucas will be preaching a message from Haggai on September 3 and we felt led to prepare our hearts for this important message by reading and reflecting on the book in the days leading up to Sunday.

Lucas Dutil

Youth Pastor

The book of Haggai sits near the back of the Old Testament.  As it is one of the shortest books in the Bible, one would not blame you for lacking familiarity with its content or message, but I believe the Lord has a message for our church right now contained within its pages. Haggai was a prophet of the Lord who received his message and declared it to the Israelites upon their return from a 70 year exile in Babylon.  His message is simple: you have misplaced your priorities.  At the time of the writing of Haggai, the Israelites had been home for 16 years, yet the temple remained in ruins.  This is significant because the temple was the dwelling place of the manifest presence of God.  For them to leave the temple in disrepair was to make a decision about their priorities.  

Verses 4-6 read, 

“Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?  This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little.  You eat but are not satisfied.  You drink but are still thirsty.  You put on clothes but cannot keep warm.  Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!” (NLT)

The first thing to notice is that the sin of the people was not laziness.  The Scripture is clear – the people were working – but not with the right intentions, and not towards God as their highest priority.  The second thing to notice is this phrase in verse 5, “Look at what is happening to you.”  Notice the invitation the Lord is giving here.  You can almost imagine Him imploring,  “STOP.  Take an account of where you are at.  Is this where you want to be?  I have something better for you!”  

Also, notice the passiveness in which they are living.  Life is happening to them, and not the other way around.  It has been said that one will never drift towards God.  We never float upstream on accident, and I believe we know this is true if we only stop to recognize it in us.  When we take our hands off of our intentions and we let life happen to us, it does not produce the kind of Godliness and presence that he desires for us to hold.  And holding his presence is what we were created for.  Notice in verse 6 that the people were trying to find contentment in good things that ultimately left them dissatisfied.  Why?  Because good things are an empty substitute for God things.  Joy is the blessing of a rightly intentioned life.

“Put first things first and second things are thrown in.  Put second things first and you lose both first and second things.” – CS Lewis

As a church we have been given a clear directive – to pray and commune together to bring about  the will of God for the city of Lynchburg.  He has called for a revival and we must respond.  Today Haggai asks us this question, “Whose house are we prioritizing?”  We must answer this honestly.  It is not only our lives that depend upon our response.  Recognize that building his house will take intention and priority.  It will not happen without discipline, sacrifice, and pursuit.  We have a God who will help us at every step.  The city is waiting.