A Bag with a Hole In It

The word of the Lord comes to the prophet Haggai to be delivered to the governor (Zerubbabel) and the high priest (Joshua). The people have busied themselves with rebuilding their houses and planting their fields, but the Temple of the Lord has remained in ruins. The people echo a pragmatic refrain: "The time has just not yet come." They will get around to it eventually; they aren't opposed to the rebuilding of the Temple. There are just more pressing concerns. And the Lord demands that they think carefully about their ways.

"Is it time for you to live in houses while the Lord's house is in ruins?" he asks. The Lord continues to question the people through the prophet, "Why do you think you have planted so much and harvested so little? Why do you think you are never satisfied?" He compares them to a worker who earns their wages but puts them in a bag with a hole in it. The Lord is the one who brings increase. And yet they have neglected him. How can they expect return on their labour when they are neglecting the one from whose hand it comes?

Are we living our lives like those who put their wages in bags with holes? Do we spin our wheels tirelessly for what feels like ever-diminishing returns? Maybe this is because we are putting our time, efforts, money, affections in all the wrong places. The God that we are so prone to neglect - so likely to treat as an afterthought to be squeezed into whatever margins we have leftover - He is the only source and giver of the peace and the security and the physical/mental/emotional/relational wholeness that we find so elusive! It eludes us because we fail to prioritize its true Source. If your life feels like a bag with a hole in it; it's because you value your wages too little, not too much. You value them too little to actually put them in the right place.⁠