Haggai 1:3,4 – Comfort Over Courage

I like comfort. Most people do. But doing the right thing is often uncomfortable. I remember moving to Dallas, TX, driving on the interstate to get there, and being pulled over by a state trooper, for speeding most likely, and him noticing what I knew to be an expired inspection tag (we had to get inspected twice a year in Memphis), but remarking that I was due for a new one in a year, right (they only inspected once a year in Texas) and me agreeing with him. It was a small lie. I didn’t want to also be cited for failure to have an inspection. It was too uncomfortable to tell the truth, to possibly get cited and have to pay extra in fines, so I lied.

³ Then the word of Yahweh 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?” (Haggai 1:3,4)

The people of Israel were putting off rebuilding the temple, saying it wasn’t the right time to do this good and necessary thing for their national well-being. But Yahweh was calling them on this insufficient excuse. It wasn’t time, huh, for building the temple, but they had plenty of time and right situation and money to make their own homes more luxurious.

“Paneled houses”? Did this mean “internal wood-lined walls or ceilings” (Grace and Truth Study Bible),  or something more expensive that was “usually connected with royal dwellings, which had cedar paneling” (NIV Study Bible), or maybe “indicate the charge is intended for the governor and high priest, two high status officials who may well have enjoyed some touches of luxury in their private dwellings…Some suggest the term has more of a sense of ‘finished,’ that the prophet’s concerns here relate more to the idea that the leading officials have ensured their personal homes are finished” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary).

The point is that they were choosing to be comfortable over doing the right thing. Yes, rebuilding the temple would be expensive, could even possibly be dangerous, and would certainly require effort, all quite uncomfortable, but to have Yahweh dwelling in their midst was worth it. Doing the right thing is always uncomfortable to some degree. Choosing comfort is always self-centered and near-sighted, not seeing things the way God sees them nor having the courage to live as aliens in the world, in the world but not of the world.

What is more important to you, comfort or truth, taking care of yourself or taking care of God’s business, relaxing in your cowardice or getting out of your comfort zone to boldly do what is right?

Why would anyone expect us to change the world? But that is exactly what God expects of us and what He believes we can do.  That is why He keeps sending us these challenges He sends.  He makes us aware of women who are in difficult marriages and need support and help just to survive another day.  He shows us children who seem to have no chance of becoming anything but thugs if their worlds are not rearranged in some miraculous way.  He parades in front of us countless co-workers whose lives seem empty and shallow and pointless but who could find life worth living in Jesus Christ.  He opens our eyes to problems in our society that need solutions and we start to wonder if that solution could actually be us.  Like Popeye in the old cartoons, He faces us with something that desperately needs changing until we say, “That’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more.”  He makes us consider becoming Braveheart William Wallaces who will lead our people to freedom.  He scares us out of our wits by making us wonder if we might really be the ones He wants to use in challenging and perhaps dangerous ways.