Haggai 1:5

Then comes the exhortation to consider their ways (literally: set your heart upon your ways). Had it been profitable for them? No. Ever since they stopped building His house, bitter disappointment had been their lot. All their self-seeking brought them no gain, but steady loss.

After this solemn appeal to the conscience comes the exhortation, "Consider your ways." God asks the remnant, as He asks us, to consider one thing. What comes of being taken up with our own things and our own soul's blessing, while we neglect the deeper interests of the LORD and the things that concern His glory?

The result then, as now, shows in the words, "You have sown much, and harvested little" — great activity but little return. Moreover, this neglect of the house of God leads to spiritual starvation, for, says the prophet, "You eat, but you never have enough." Again, it brings no spiritual satisfaction: "you drink, but you never have your fill." It leaves the spiritual affections cold: "You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm." And it carries no reward: "he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes."

No doubt they blamed the recession, the political instability of the time, the abnormal weather conditions. It never occurred to them that God was trying to get through to them.

As our own blessed Lord taught, "Whoever would save his life will lose it," so it was with the remnant. They set their hearts on rest, ease, and prosperity in this world. They wanted to find their "life" in their comforts, and so they lost it, for they had left God out of the account. They made themselves, and not God, their object. They put their own things first and grew indifferent to His honour, claims, and interests. So they forfeited the very blessings they worked for.

In this way God dealt with them, to exercise their souls, to wean them from their selfish aims, and to recall them to the purpose for which He had brought them back to their own land. He wanted them to lose sight of themselves and find their blessing in fellowship with the mind and heart of God.

Considering our ways in the presence of God should in fact be our constant, everyday work. There all delusions disappear. There, in the pure light of His holy presence, the secrets of the inmost heart come to light. And there alone we discern our true condition and our failures, and receive grace to judge ourselves by the infallible standard of God's glory. So, confessing our sins, we enter once again upon the enjoyment of forgiveness and restoration.

The frequent occurrence of the word "Consider" in this short prophecy is worth noting. Twice in the first section the prophet had to say to the people, "Consider your ways." In this later section the word comes three times. Now the prophet says in effect, "Consider God's ways." He is glad to recognise any measure of energy and faithfulness in His service, even when uncleanness and failure are mixed with it. And He delights to answer it with blessing.