“Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.”-Haggai 1:4-5
The value of a home is far more than just four walls and a roof. Equity and investment. It is the center of your life. Your “homebase.” A place of shelter, safety, comfort, and security. A dwelling place. Yet, for all its value, it’s only temporary.
The prophet Haggai asked the people of God this searching question: “is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?” The house to which he was referring was the temple in Jerusalem. The temple which the scribe Ezra, and the cupbearer Nemiah had endeavored (by God’s help) to rebuild. Haggai saw the waste and destruction of God's house and challenged the people. The people had built cieled houses for themselves. Comfortable, safe, convenient, affluent homes to dwell in. While God’s house lay ruined. A cieled house was an extravagant house. It would have had paneling and covering. Proof that the people had money left over to give. Time left over to sacrifice, and energy left over to serve. Yet they spent all this on a covering for a covering. On coating and finishing for their four walls, while God’s house had no walls. The destruction of God’s house should have shocked them into action, but they passed by unconcerned, while decorating their own homes. The destruction of God’s house should shock us into action; however, the comfort of a cieled house cradles us in apathy. How can we sit at ease when the world around us cries out for the gospel? How can we dwell in fatness, when multitudes are starving for truth? Is it not the ones that live around us with whom God wants to dwell? Should we eat, drink, and be merry while the world burns? Can you face God honestly after spending your life at play? Heaping up treasures, comforts, and safety nets for your safety nets, while the Lord’s house lies in ruin? It is not brick and mortar that must receive our work, but men and women. The people around us who need the restorative power of Christ in their lives. Let us receive the exhortation of the prophet. Rise and work! Ministry is messy. It’s the life of a miner. Descending into the darkness each day to hammer against the hardest stone of sin and wickedness; praying that amidst all the filth and dust there lies a precious jewel. Ministry is a risky endeavor. It is an uncomfortable task. Yet, those who choose to follow Christ sign up for suffering. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18)
Our mission has taken us to the front lines of the battlefield, where excess is abhorred. No soldier would hold on to double rations while his brother starved. No medic would hold back life saving medicine, from the wounded and dying. We dare not stay home, while the rest of our brothers and sisters die on foreign lands, in foreign fields. For how can we dwell in cieled houses, and call ourselves disciples?
