Watch the Road!

"Watch the road!" My wife has the uncanny ability to know when I'm not, and she often must snap me back into the moment. I am so easily distracted by the things along the road that I fail to see where the road is going.

God needed to snap his people back into the moment. He told them, "Consider your ways." This Hebrew phrase is a figure of speech and can be translated, “put your heart on your roads.” Haggai asked God’s people to consider what direction their life was headed and if they really wanted it to continue that way.

It's important to remember that these were good people. A half a century before, hundreds of thousands of Hebrews went into exile. Only about fifty thousand returned. They had left the places they grew up, the businesses they operated, the family and friends they loved, in order to return to their homeland and re-establish themselves as the people of God. It was these "good ones" to whom the Lord said, "Consider your ways."

They had good excuses. The work was hard. They didn't have a lot of money or manpower. Recent harvests had been poor. They were in danger. Enemies resisted them. They remembered better days back in Babylon. Worship was OK - they were getting by with a partially restored temple. So, they said, "The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord" (v. 2).

God's response? Think about how you've had time to remodel your houses and enjoy your lives. Think about the condition of my house. Think about how all your labor for yourself has left you empty. Now get busy!

Do you need to hear and heed this word from the Lord? "Watch the road!"