Preparing a house

We were talking staff meeting about the distraction of preparing our house instead of preparing out hearts this Christmas and the issues with that. What is interesting is that this predates Christmas.

Haggai comes to rebuke the Israelites:
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house.’”

3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Haggai 1:2-6 NIV)
They have gone to a lot of effort to make sure their houses in order but they have not taken care of God's house, the temple still lies in ruins. As a result of that all their efforts have been fruitless, everything they try to do fails because they haven't looked after God first. This isn't even about the temple necessarily but about their hearts and that they were self centered instead of God centered.

So God acts:
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” (Haggai 1:7-11 NIV)
God takes away any chance that they'll be fruitful, it's a strong message, but what's important here is that this isn't a punishment but rather a reminder that they need to show their faithfulness to God first. God gives them a choice, they can either go ahead and keep going the way they are and suffer actual punishment OR they can repent, turn around and come back to him and live in his glory.

So what do they choose?
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD. 14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. (Haggai 1:12-14 NIV)
They do come back to God, they obey God's command and they rebuild the temple. And as a result God is good on his promise, he declares "I am with you". That is a phenomenal thing as it is something they have not heard in a very long time. God is back with his people, because they are finally starting to listen and understand that it is better to live under God's will and please him than it is to do our own thing and miss out on something.

This isn't about God wanting us to be rich, that's plainly not true, but it's about worrying about serving God before we serve ourselves, sometimes we struggle with that because the world can have it's distractions. Particularly at this time of year when we find ourselves so distracted by what "needs to be done" that we forget what comes first is our relationship with God and putting his house in order. Let us not let Christmas distract us from Christ!