More Than Leftovers - Haggai 1:1-15

I can almost picture the joy and the sorrow that mingled on the faces of the Israelites that reentered the holy city of Jerusalem. Almost 70 years ago now, they had been taken from the land that God had promised them, they had witnessed their king killed and the great temple of Solomon utterly destroyed. Yet now, under King Cyrus, they were being allowed to return and to begin rebuilding the once great city. And so, through the reign of king Cyrus and into the beginning of the reign of King Darius the Jewish people began construction on their great city, even laying the foundation of a new temple upon the ruins of the last. This is where the book of Haggai picks up.

You see, though the foundation had been laid for the temple, any further work on it had long since ceased. The people told themselves, “oh yeah, we will build the temple… but there are some things we have to get to first.” And in response, God sends the prophet Haggai with these words “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Hag. 1:4) To put it in more contemporary terms, “Is it really a time for you to go get yourself an even bigger and fancier house, when you could be helping build my Church?” But even that has far less impact for us than God's original message to the Israelite would have had, because to the Jews the temple was the very source of correct worship and it housed the special presence of God. In fact, in the Jewish tradition, one can only make sacrifices for forgiveness of sin in the temple. So when the people said, “it’s just not time to rebuild yet,” what they were really saying is, “my pleasure is more important than my position before a holy God”.

But before we castigate the Israelites too strongly, it might do us some good to look inwards. Because we often act just this way towards the same almighty creator God. We say something along these lines… “I know I should pray more, but I’m just so busy with work and kids right now.” “I know I should tell my coworkers about my faith, but now just isn’t the time. There will be time later.”

Just like the Israelites, we love to try to just give God our leftovers. Leftover time, leftover money, leftover attention, leftover love.

But this first chapter of Haggai is a beautiful wakeup call to us, just as it was to the Israelites. The almighty, holy, everlasting, creator God demands more than just our leftovers. He ought not be “something we will get to” but instead should be the very thing we prioritize.

We have this internal bent to chase our own pleasure, to play the game, “if only I had that thing then I would be happy”. But how is that working out for us? We get the promotion, the spouse, the friends, the raise, the status, and then we find that it didn’t satisfy us nearly as much as we expected. It leaves us dry and exhausted. God says that when we pursue our own selfish gains that he will “blow it away” (Hag. 1:9).

But I don’t wish to leave us in this spot of, “well I better try harder.” I’m not saying that you have to quit all other commitments and focus all time and effort only on Church activities. That would be a news of works. But we have a good news of grace!

Instead I want to leave us with the words of Paul in Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Just as the Israelites required the Spirit of God to stir them up to begin building the place of worship (Hag. 1:14), we too require the Spirit of God to move us from our inward and selfish nature, to a true spiritual worship that takes place in daily life. And praise God that he pours out his Spirit on all who call upon the name of Christ to be saved! (Joel 2:28-32).

Whether we are at work, at home, on the couch watching tv, at our kids sports game, in the kitchen making dinner, let us be a people who ask ourselves, “Jesus, how may I worship you while I do this? How may I make your priorities my priorities?”

“Teach me to give you more than just my leftovers.”