Have you ever heard the phrase, “The Cobbler’s children have no shoes”? If you saw the children of a cobbler, a shoemaker, walking around with worn out shoes, or no shoes at all, you would wonder why! Wouldn’t caring for your children’s needs be a priority? In a similar way, the prophet Haggai warned God’s people that their priorities were out of alignment. They were neglecting what was most important.

Israel was back in the land after 70 years spent in exile. While they returned in excitement, the rebuilding process had been discouraging. The Temple in Jerusalem was still not completed, and the people had turned instead to building their own homes. Through Haggai, God confronted them about the situation: “Is it time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” (v. 4). His question needs no answer. Of course, it was not time for them to be focusing on their own homes while the house of the Lord was in shambles. This was an embarrassment, an affront to all sensibility.

God’s displeasure is evident as the prophet points out that they have been suffering economic distress (v. 5). Their crops have failed. What they do have, they find satisfying. When they save money, it disappears like money in a bag with holes (v. 6)! They were failing to prioritize the most important things and this affected everything else they did.

The solution was to put God first. They needed to expend energy, making God’s work a priority in their lives. They needed to be less busy with themselves and more busy with the things of the Lord. Specifically, that meant redoubling their efforts to gather the building material to finish the Temple and working hard to get the work done.

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