Think Carefully

Monday, November 7, 2022

On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai:  “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says.  Ask the priests this question about the law:  ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’”  The priests replied, “No.”  Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?”  And the priests answered, “Yes.”  Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord.  Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin.  Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple.  When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten.  When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty.  I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce.  Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.  “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid.  Think carefully.  I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn.  You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops.  But from this day onward I will bless you.”  Haggai 2:10-19

When God told the prophet to tell the priests and the people to Think carefully, it was the kind of tone that carried a considerably-eternal kind of weight.  I recall a conversation with my Dad when I was just a teen.  Dad wanted a no-frills, no-embellishment, truthful answer from his son.  When he asked me to speak, his tone told me I’d better take him seriously, otherwise there could be dire consequences.  (I’ll let you fill in the blank about what Pastor Russell, the younger, had done).  At this point in my life, I’ve long forgotten what the substance of the conversation was about, but I still recall the important and serious tone of Dad’s voice.  He meant what he said.

The point God was making through prophet Haggai was that “worship” from a soul that has not carefully-considered his or her heart condition, is not really worship at all.  Anything, offering, song of praise, even attending Sunday School, or preaching a sermon, when tainted by sin, is discarded before it reaches the throne room in Heaven. 

Worship should be joyful, because of God’s requirement that our life match the worship we’re offering, honest, transparent, humble, and committed to be His disciple.  And you might say:  How do all those requirements equal JOY?

Well, I’m glad you asked.  It’s because God is all that back at you, honest, transparent, honoring, and committed to keep every promise He’s made. 

To Israel, God kept back the strength of a great harvest because He’d told them to be obedient, and they weren’t; when they were careful to obey, the harvest was plentiful.  God keeps his promises; what’s not joyful about entering his presence with that sure hope?

For You Today ,

Let me encourage you to not skip the small things.  Small things, even uninteresting details, are the place from which a life of grander obedeience springs.  If you want to serve God (and experience His presence) start small, consider carefully all you do (or don’t do), and watch him grow your walk into a grand blessing!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions libraryI.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       So...Do Not Be Afraid   and   Lenten Walk - Part 25

[1] Images: Title image courtesy of The Denton Orator, Used with permission by Bingham family   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©