Bags with Holes
Devotions for Growing Christians
Bags with Holes
Haggai 1:6 - "You earn wages, only to put them into a bag with holes."
Read all of Haggai.
A bag with holes is not a good place for saving your hard-earned cash. It's like trying to collect water in a sieve! Who would be so short-sighted as to dump money into a bag with holes? Well - you and I do! When our priorities aren't in line with God's priorities, that's exactly what we're doing!
Background
In order to better appreciate the teaching, let’s first look at its historical background of Haggai. The events of this little book took place relatively late in Old Testament history - about 1500 years after Abraham, about 1000 years after Moses, and about 500 years after King David.
Haggai is known as a "post-exilic" prophet because he preached and prophesied after the Jewish people returned from their 70 years of exile in Babylon. This return to the homeland was permitted by the decree of Cyrus, the Persian king who overthrew the Babylonian Empire in 539BC. Approximately 50,000 Jews returned to Jerusalem at that time, under the leadership of Zerubbabel (1:1).
With genuine thanksgiving to the Lord who had brought them safely home, these zealous Jews began to rebuild their Temple. The altar was reconstructed, the offerings and feasts were re-established and the foundation of the new Temple was completed. Read all about this joyful time of thanksgiving and praise in Ezra 3.
Unfortunately this revival atmosphere was short-lived. Enemy threats from neighboring nations, and fear and frustration among the Jews themselves resulted in great discouragement. Construction of the House of the Lord came to a complete standstill (Ezra 4). For fifteen long years it was left as an open and exposed foundation. Until the prophet Haggai arrived on the scene, the people of God had an "I couldn't care less" attitude towards the job of rebuilding God’s Temple (1:2).
How tragic - and yet how familiar, even today! How often we see the work of the Spirit of God quenched or stifled after a promising foundation has begun! Many Christians have a good firm foundation in the faith, but are no longer growing Christians. They started out with a lot of enthusiasm, but they’re not building any more. Their once-solid foundation lies exposed to the weathering effects of this world's system of values and attitudes.
Is it possible that your spiritual building program has been discontinued and your foundation has been forgotten? What about your time for prayer and reading of God's Word each day? Is there continuous construction going on, or is there a general strike?
The same question could be asked of many of our churches and fellowship groups. Is building activity progressing, or are we looking at abandoned foundations? Are we concerned about the continued need for teaching and worship, fellowship and prayer? (See Acts 2:42 for these necessary “building materials”!) Are we actively involved in a building program for our fellowship - or are we content to sit comfortably on the sidelines, ignoring (or unaware of) an exposed and crumbling foundation? Is it possible that our situation is even worse than this? Are our words and actions hindering the building that God is doing through our fellow-believers?
The Problem: Priorities
Why had the building of the Temple stopped? Why did the people have such an apathetic attitude? The answer is found in the scathing sermon in Haggai 1 (v3-11). The problem was their priorities! God's people were spending much more time, effort, and money on their own houses than on the House of the Lord (1:4)!
In Haggai's day, a panelled house was a sign of luxury, because the expensive cedar wood had to be imported from Lebanon. God saw this luxurious, materialistic lifestyle as inconsistent with His building standards. The people were told in no uncertain terms to re-examine their priorities and "Consider your ways!" (1:5 and 7).
There certainly are lessons for Christians today in this ancient sermon. God's living Word never ages. Do we have "panelled house" priorities? Are we putting our own building projects ahead of God's building program? Our building projects, of course, can be more than just literal houses. We can spend all kinds of building time and energy on our businesses or bankrolls or books - or even our bodies! Meanwhile the Lord's building work is neglected and left unattended.
It wasn't wrong for the people of Haggai's day to have houses, and there was nothing wrong with cedar panelling. The problem was priorities! While the people were beautifying their own houses, absolutely no work was being done on God’s House. The open foundation of the Temple was staring God's people in the face, yet they continued unashamedly to expend their time, energy and money on their own houses.
Priorities continue to be the number one problem for many of God's people today. Most Christians aren't involved in glaring sins like adultery and theft. And there’s nothing inherently evil about spending time and concern on our businesses and homes! But it is a sin to put any of these things higher on the priority list than our worship and service to God. We may say, “This would never happen in my life!” - but a brief examination of our priority list might surprise us. The Word of the Lord is, "Consider your ways!"
Lost Blessing
In Haggai's day, the full tragedy of the situation was not only that the House of the Lord was forgotten, but that the people of God were involved in a losing proposition. Because of their inverted priorities, the Lord had withheld His blessing on their land. Their herds were unproductive and their harvests were puny. The people were investing a lot of time and labor to get ahead, but there was no progress. In essence, they were throwing their money into bags with holes!
Reversed priorities always lead to bags with holes. When we replace God with our own interests, we invariably face disappointment, discouragement, and loss. Although there may be some short-term "gains" in pleasure or prosperity, wrong priorities ultimately result in no gain at all. How much of your “investment” this year will end up in a bag with holes?
Reverse the Priorities
The Word of God never points out a problem without giving a solution. The solution to the problem of priorities is simply to reverse them! God's simple, straightforward solution for Haggai's day was systematically laid out for the people: "Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the Temple!" (1:8).
The answer seems so obvious that we wonder why God had to say it! God said it because His people then were like His people now - slow to learn! Sometimes we're so thick-headed that God has to teach us the ABC's of Christian living again and again before we straighten out our priorities.
How many times, for example, does God have to teach us the ABC of "How Not to be Uptight"? (See Matthew 6:25-34 and Philippians 4:6-7.) And what about the ABC of "Tests of Your Faith"? When will we ever learn not to expect smooth sailing all the time in the Christian life? The New Testament is loaded with verses that teach us that our faith will be tested for our good by trials and persecutions. (See John 15:20 and 16:33; Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 3:12; James 1:2; 1 Peter 1:7 and 2:21; 1 John 3:13.)
From Apathy to Action
The remainder of this little book gives us the positive response of the people to Haggai’s ministry. The response to preaching is not always so positive, but this case should be an encouragement to God’s people today who are somewhat discouraged, and may be doubting that God still works through preaching.
As a result of Haggai's sermon, the people showed reverence for the Lord. They were stirred up in spirit, and they returned to the work of the House of the Lord (1:12-15). What a remarkable change of attitude - from irreverent apathy to reverent action! And it's not impossible today!
Haggai's ministry continued while the Temple was being completed (chapter 2). The people were encouraged with promises about the future, and challenged to continue holy living. It took about four years to finish the Temple (Ezra 6:15), but they were four years of blessing on the land and on the people (2:19) - because they were years of right priorities! No longer were the investments of God's people going into bags with holes!
May the people of God today take the words of the prophet Haggai seriously. As a result, we’ll hear the voice of the Lord saying, "From this day on I will bless you" (2:19).
- Dave Reid