Haggai 1 – Not Your Temple

Today’s Chocolate: Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Forest Mint

Today’s Passage: Haggai 1

Between our recent excursions into Ezra and Nehemiah and our present entry into Haggai, the theme of the moment must be rebuilding projects. Haggai, a short book that is mostly narrative, opens with God calling his people to rebuild the temple. Despite their initial reticence, Haggai’s prophetic message moves them to begin work.

I can’t help thinking how high-school me would have read a passage like this. In my enthusiasm to apply the Bible to my life and prove myself not merely a hearer but a doer of the word, I would have immediately asked myself what sort of temples in my life needed rebuilding. At the question “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?” (4), I would scrutinize my own world for houses for…