On Excuses

“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” ~Haggai 1:4

Picture yourself living in Jerusalem or the surrounding villages around 538 B.C. You and your family have recently returned from exile and are starting to settle down in Israel. The joy you would feel must be nearly indescribable. The anticipation of harvesting the first crops. The contentment of living in your homeland. The thrill of planting a few fig trees in your garden. The knowledge that the Persian emperor, Cyrus, had given permission to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem! Worship according to God’s design was about to start again after so many decades! What a time of peace and eager expectation. 

So why does the prophet Haggai rebuke the people a mere 18 years later (ca. 520 B.C.) for having failed to build the Temple? What could possibly lead a people from such joy and eagerness to a season of complacency and indifference? Was it that there weren’t enough resources to complete the task? Could it be that they were prevented by hostile neighbors? Was the problem that the opportunity for rebuilding had never presented itself? Well, there is some truth to these possibilities. The work would have been quite difficult, and sourcing the materials would have been burdensome. There was hostility from angry neighbors who had threatened the work (Ezra 4). But ultimately the issue was that Israel had chosen to care for themselves and their material needs before caring for their souls. 

Here is the proof: they were living in “paneled houses.” By using this term, Haggai was harkening to the time when Solomon built the first Temple. He had covered its walls, floors, and ceilings with cedar and cypress (I Kings 6:9, 15; 7:3, 7). We can envision a Temple paneled from floor to ceiling. So if that was the template for the Temple, and the people had failed to complete it — likely based on the suggestion that materials were sparse, the economy was bad, and their enemies were oppressing them — how, then, were they living in “paneled houses?” Sounds like a lot of empty excuses to me. 

Are we any better? Many of us work diligently to panel our houses — whether this means strengthening our bank accounts, buying the most comfortable items we can, or simply resting in excess rather than doing the work of daily private or family worship. We are often guilty of working far harder at making sure our “houses” are well-appointed than we are of laboring to bring glory to God through our giving, worship, and time. Withdrawing from service to God based on the excuse that we don’t have the resources, or that we need them for ourselves, is a common malady in our day, just like it was in Haggai’s. 

Ask yourself, Christian: Am I centering my life on myself and my own needs, or is my life centered on God? Am I sacrificially giving, enthusiastically contributing to the worship of Almighty God, and laboring to grow in fellowship with Him; or am I hoarding my resources, withholding my participation, and settling into the status quo of life near God, rather than joyfully pursing life with God?

Let’s respond to Haggai’s words with a renewed commitment to worship — to strengthening our fellowship with the Lord and with each other — so that we might experience the glory of the Lord’s presence with us (Haggai 2:7).

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation