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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
1:3-12 Consider Your Ways: Fruitless Prosperity. In the second word to Haggai, the Lord asks his hearers to consider whether their prosperity, such as it is, brings about the intended satisfaction, and he exhorts them to supply materials for "my house" (vv. 3-11). A general response follows (v. 12).
1:3-11 Work without Satisfaction. On the date of this oracle the people can reflect on the disappointing harvest season (cf. vv. 10-11). They struggle mightily for personal gain at the neglect of the Lord's house. God evaporates their gain in order to teach them that the building of his house will bring him glory and must be their priority.
1:4 paneled . . . ruins. The inattentive people focus on comfortable personal dwellings (v. 9) while the Lord remains "homeless" (2 Sam. 7:2; 1 Kings 6:9; Jer. 22:13-15).
1:5 Consider your ways. Ponder your actions and the resulting experiences.
1:6 sown much . . . harvested little. This describes the hard work the people have done, and the frustrating yield. God has not blessed their crops because of their preference for personal comfort over the rebuilding of the temple (v. 4). eat . . . drink . . . clothe . . . earns wages. Their efforts to care for themselves and their families lead only to frustration, so the Lord wants them to "consider their ways" (v. 5).
1:8 Go up . . . bring . . . build. The people are commanded to bring wood to build a proper house. As the Lord takes pleasure in acceptable sacrifice (Ps. 51:19), the sacrifice of temple-building will result in his pleasure and glory.
1:9 The word "house" is used three times with three different meanings: home (a place to store goods); my house (the Lord's temple); his own house (one's personal dwelling). busies himself with (lit., "is running for"). As compared with the implicit critique of v. 4, the misplaced priorities of the people are now made explicit.
