Rebuilding His House

This morning the Spirit led me to the book of Haggai and opened my eyes to a most interesting parallel, occurring even now, in our time. 
Haggai 1:5-11: 5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” 7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

As I was meditating on this passage of Scripture, I felt the fire of the Holy Spirit speaking to us, to Americans who have such an abundance of food, clothing, and monetary wealth. Despite all that we possess, so often we just seek more and more, never quite satisfied with what we have.  And yet sometimes we come to a place of genuine anxiety when we lose a job or wreck a car or cannot afford the school clothes and supplies required for our children going back to school. "What you brought home, I blew away," said the LORD. 

As I pressed into these verses, I saw that God was speaking to the ancient Israelites about His temple, which He calls "My house." I sensed that we can read these verses in both past tense and present. If we take it literally, we can see the parallel with modern-day Israel, whose people have not yet re-built God's "house" - but who are in a time of accelerating their plans to do so. But if we read it through spiritual lenses, we can see our land, the U.S.A., literally covered in overwhelming drought and fire in the west, and constant looming storms and flooding in the east. I can tell  you that the drought in Colorado is very real and incredibly concerning, as crops die and lakes and reservoirs dry up. In my own neighborhood we have been sharing with each other the strange anomaly this year as we find even zucchini squash and tomato plants in our gardens withered and dead.  And the LORD said, "Therefore because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine and the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle and on the labor of your hands."

I plant my garden each spring and then bathe it in prayer. I pray and bless the little plants each day as I water and tend them. But they are producing so very little. Only God can send the rain from heaven that gives these plants and crops the real water they need.  Could this be connected in some way with the overall attitude of our hearts?  Have we planted much but harvested little, have we eaten but never have enough, have we earned wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it?

In our day I believe that God is speaking to us about our "spiritual house," which is our hearts.  I felt He was showing me the emphasis we put on our own comforts, our own possessions, our own entertainment, and even our excessive spending. In other words, "each of us is busy with our own house" (verse 9), spending so much more of our time on our own wants and desires than we are on HIM.  He told the Israelites, "Go up into the mountain and bring down timbers and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored." 

THAT is His desire - that we would spend more of our lives giving HIM pleasure and honor than we do on ourselves.  THAT is His message to modern America, even as it was to ancient Israel.  It is indeed written in the Book that a third temple will be built in Jerusalem; but this morning I felt this spiritual message to our hearts is what He is communicating to this affluent nation. And I noted that in verses 14-15 it says "They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius." Hmmmmm. Because I am a watcher, I went to my Hebrew calendar to see when the 24th day of the 6th month is. Interestingly, the 6th month is the month of Elul, which is known in Hebraic understanding as "the month of repentance, prayer and introspection."  And the 24th day will be September 6th on our calendar, five days before September 11, the day that America marks one of her most devastating days in history.  How relentlessly our Father calls our country to repent and return to Him, to rebuild His "house" in our hearts.