Haggai 2:15-19

Unfaithfulness always reaps sad rewards -- Haggai 2:15-19: The people needed to remember that before they began to rebuild he Temple that they had been disobedient to God. God punished their disobedience by greatly reducing their harvest. Haggai wrote, "But from now on, things will get better. Before you started laying the foundation for the temple, you recalled what life was like in the past. When you wanted twenty bushels of wheat, there were only ten, and when you wanted fifty jars of wine, there were only twenty. I made all of your hard work useless by sending mildew, mold, and hail--but you still did not return to me, your LORD." (Haggai 2:15-17) Amos 4:9 says, "I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD." God wanted the people to observe that their hardships had continued to the very day they laid the foundation for the Temple. God said, "Although you have not yet harvested any grain, grapes, figs, pomegranates, or olives, I will richly bless you in the days ahead." (Haggai 2:19) Consequences for sin may go on and on but obedience to God will open the door to His blessings.