Too tired to think of an exceptional title.

I love history. As such, I love the sermons preached on Sunday with history within them; it shows how God has worked, and how He is working now, through events that have already passed.

Today's history lesson was about the tribes of Israel. The kingdom divided after Solomon passed away, ten tribes in the north and two in the south. Israel slipped into apostasy. God sent prophets in His mercy, to instruct them and warn them, but Israel refused to listen, and so was demolished, completely wiped out, its people taken into slavery.

God raised up "Reformer kings" in Judah, returning to true worship of the Living God. But even so Judah began to slip as well, falling into sin. God used Babylon to judge them. They were sent into exile. Even there, God, in his mercy, sent prophets to them: Daniel, who was a prophet to kings and lords and wise men, and Ezekiel, who was a prophet to the people, the lowly.

Babylon itself is judged by God, and the Persian Empire takes over, becoming the greatest empire in the world, ruled by Cyrus the Great.

This is where Haggai comes in. The prophet who calls out: Get building!

Haggai 1

The Command to Rebuild the Temple
1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 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 he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

The People Obey the Lord
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Can you imagine? The people of God were told to rebuild the temple. And for a while, they did. But then, their selfish interests got in the way. They began to work on their own homes, their own crops, their own lives, forgetting God in the process. The temple was on hold for SIXTEEN years!

This is all really a picture of our lives today, as well as being history. We may not be building a temple, but we are building lives - souls - for the glory of God. Have we slowed? Have we lost the vision, and turned to our own selfish ways and desires?

Pastor Bob asked, "What are our priorities?" Is God on the back burner, while we take care of what's "really important"?

God says, "Consider your ways." This means Look at yourselves! Think about this! Listen up! I am God, and you've turned your back on me.

Our life priority should be the kingdom of God. If we are God's bondservants, we ought to be working diligently with every breath to glorify God and further His kingdom.

God rebuked the Israelites back then, and He rebukes us now, in differing ways. But, there is always a promise. "I am with you," declares the LORD.

God is always merciful. He is always with us. The steadfastness of the Lord is...well, steadfast! It will not falter and it will not change.

We are the holy dwelling place of God. There is no physical temple anymore. It is not necessary; Christ made it unnecessary.

He has chosen us, washed us in His blood, and adopted us as His children. We have His mark upon us. Therefore, wherever we go, we're representing God. Are we doing a good job? How do we know we're doing a good job except through the Word of God? We can't know God except through the Word, and we can't know His laws and His ways without knowing Him.

We are temples that are built through evangelism, by God's word. Therefore we must live holy lives, expecting and looking forward to eternity! What a beautiful God we serve.

So. What are we doing today that works toward the glory of God? What thoughts are we thinking? What proceeds out of our mouths? What sights do we take in? What do we listen to? It all matters. Every last bit. I would venture to say, if it isn't glorifying God, we should stay away from it. And when we fail, we should fall at the feet of our Ever-merciful God and Saviour, who will never leave us nor forsake us.