This post is Day 6 in a series of studies about “Haggai”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Haggai – Day 6

God gave very clear instructions here, they were not to take the wood from any nearby trees, maybe there were not too many nearby, but to go up high and take the stronger timber that had already withstood the weather, and would be better for the construction of His house.

Haggai 1:8

Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord.

The Thought

Some of us visit churches and cathedrals when we are on holiday or travelling for other reasons and some of us, (often the more charismatic among us), tend to think “God doesn’t live in that sort of house”, or “What a waste of expense!” or “All those relics”. We forget that it is quite possible that God Himself may have planned this building for His glory! We forget that ANYTHING we spend on Him, He will repay.

The Authorised version of the Bible for the last phrase in this verse suggests that the original Hebrew means accepting it done for My glory. God sees our hearts and knows when our intention is to glorify and honour Him, and He accepts those things with pleasure.

God’s instructions were very clear here, they were not to take the wood from any nearby trees, maybe there weren’t too many, but to go up high and take the stronger timber that had already withstood the weather, and would be better for the construction of His house.

This meant a lot of hard work for those Israelites, who thought that once back in their homeland everything would be fine. But it wasn’t! More about that tomorrow, but today we see that the root of their problems was a lack of honour of the Lord and His house.

Action

Ask yourself today what your attitude is to God’s house, wherever it may be. Think about a great cathedral, a small village chapel, a wayside shrine, a cross at the corner of the street. (Every small village has at least one of those in France where I live!)

Pray for God’s perspective concerning these places. Do they make Him happy or sad?

Thank Him that He lives in your heart.

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