Consider Your Life

Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways!”           

—Haggai 1:7

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to consider my life in an unexpected time and place. I went elk hunting with a friend who had successfully hunted on Colorado state game lands the year before. We hired no guide and camped on public land. Our trip only cost us money for gas, food, and license. Colorado was advertising an abundance of elk so I anticipated the hunt of a lifetime with elk behind every tree.

We began hunting each day with a pre-dawn breakfast before hiking up a mile high mountain. We mistakenly hunted the elk much like we hunt white tail deer or rabbits in Pennsylvania. My friend kept saying to his dad and brother, “We didn’t hunt this hard last year.” On my dream hunt for elk, I was thoroughly disgusted that we were seeing no elk, and I was exhausted.

On those long days hiking up and down steep mountains, I began to consider my life. I determined I was not a true hunter; I was a shooter, a killer. Back home in Pennsylvania, I seldom spent much time in the woods during the late summer and the beautiful, peaceful autumn scouting for turkey and deer. I would merely go out during hunting season and look for some game to shoot and kill. Now, as I considered my life on this dream hunt in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, I became disgusted at myself for being frustrated with the lack of opportunity to shoot an elk. I became so disgusted with myself that I didn’t go hunting in Pennsylvania after that for two full years.

Haggai prophesied to the Jews who returned from the 70-year Babylonian Captivity. King Cyrus had issued a degree sixteen years earlier that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. The returning Jews began to rebuild the Temple, but amid difficult economic times, soon turned their attention to their own lives and comfort. Haggai received a Word from the Lord calling the Jews to consider their ways and the reason for their economic distress. “You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied” (1:6a).

The Word of the Lord through His prophet, Haggai, reveals to the Jews that the reason for their economic distress is that they did not seek to rebuild the Temple and glorify God; rather, they sought personal pleasure and comfort. A second call to “Consider your ways,” was followed by the call to “‘Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,’ says the Lord” (1:7). Israel heeds God’s call and resumes the Temple renovations within the month.

Haggai chapter 2 again calls upon the Jews to consider their ways and how the economy had improved. “Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on I will bless you.’” (2:19). It might be difficult to put ourselves in the exact situation of the Jews of Haggai’s time, but if we seek to follow the Lord, God can bring all the resources of the universe to meet our needs. Jesus said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Consider your life. Is your life in shambles and unprofitable? It is time to seek the Lord and His Kingdom. Consider from this day forward if God does not add “all these things” to you as well.