Give Careful Thought (Haggai 1:5)

 


Monday, October 7, 2024


Psalm 90

Haggai 1:1-11

Colossians 3:1-11


Give Careful Thought (Haggai 1:5)


We take another short interlude away from the historical narrative of the rebuilding work in Jerusalem, but it is not to go very far. Haggai, as we discover in the opening lines, was there on the ground with the returned exiles. He was among the people making a great noise when the foundation stone was laid; he may have even been part of the original group of exiles. Having been discouraged by the surrounding pagans and their dibber-dobbing to the king, the people have laid down their tools. Haggai steps in, filled with the Holy Spirit, and encourages everyone to get back to work, in some of the most kindly words ever spoken by a prophet: “give careful thought to your ways”.


The people have been working very hard at certain things, but have not reaped any rewards as a result. (And as a side note, can we bring back the phrase “earning wages, only to put them in purses with holes in them” as a way to describe inflation?) Haggai wants everyone to give careful thought as to why their work is so unfruitful. Because, as the Lord says, it is because they are just coasting along. God has brought them back out of exile and returned to them the holy city. But they are just living their lives as if they are still in Babylon.


St Paul brings home the point for us in his excerpt from his letter to the Colossians. We have been brought out of our imprisonment. The old self was put to death with Christ on the cross, and the new self is who we now are. It is so easy to set our minds on the old ways, to fall back into old habits of thought. But we have been raised with Christ, and so we ought to think and behave like it.


Pick up your sword and your trowel, pilgrim. The keys to the kingdom of heaven have been given to you, bought with the price of the blood of Jesus. What is in your thoughts and daily habits that any old exile could be doing? What is in your thoughts and daily habits that are deserving of a child of God?


Lord Almighty, you have set me free for wonderful things, most wonderful being communion with you. Raise my thoughts to the place you are, so that I may aspire to do the works you call me to.

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