Have you ever had a difficult job to do, but it was hard to get started? Maybe the project seemed so daunting you weren’t even sure where to start. It is easy to come up with reasons to delay. But as evangelist Billy Sunday once quipped, an excuse is “the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.”

The book of Haggai records four messages the Lord gave between August and December of 520 BC. Twenty years earlier, the Lord had worked a miracle. The Jewish people had been allowed to return from their exile in Babylon and were commissioned to rebuild the Temple (Ezra 1:1–4). Shortly after, they faced vigorous opposition from their neighbors, the Samaritans (Ezra 4:1–24). The work of rebuilding the Temple was put on hold.

Twenty years later the Temple mount was still in ruins. The work had never been restarted. The book of Haggai opens with a word from the Lord, “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house’” (v. 2). God gets right to the heart of the issue. The people were making excuses. From their perspective, it was not the right time to rebuild the Temple. The economy was struggling. People had their own worries.

The Lord saw their apathy as a sign of their spiritual condition. They have found time to make lovely paneled houses for themselves (v.4). So why was the house of God in ruins? It was ultimately an issue of the heart. It is not just ancient Israel that struggled with these issues. The apostle Paul lamented, “For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:21). God does not want our leftovers. He wants all of us. Our relationship with Him should be our first priority.

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