Haggai 1:5

Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. NOW THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS; CONSIDER YOUR WAYS - literally, Set your heart on your ways. The plural implies, Consider both what ye have done (actively, ) and what ye have suffered (passively) (Jerome). Ponder earnestly whether ye have gained by seeking self at the sacrifice of God....

Here the Prophet deals with the refractory people according to what their character required; for as to those who are teachable and obedient, a word is enough for them; but they who are perversely addicted to their sins must be more sharply urged, as the Prophet does here; for he brings before the Jews the punishments by which they had been already visited. It is commonly said, that experience is the teacher of fools; and the Prophet has this in view in these words, _apply your hearts to your ways_; (135) that is, “If the authority of God or a regard for him is of no importance among you, at least consider how God deals with you. How comes it that ye are famished, that both heaven and earth deny food to you? Besides, though ye consume much food, it yet does not satisfy you. In a word, how is it that all things fade away and vanish in your hands? How is this? Ye cannot otherwise account f...

1-11 Observe the sin of the Jews, after their return from captivity in Babylon. Those employed for God may be driven from their work by a storm, yet they must go back to it. They did not say that they would not build a temple, but, Not yet. Thus men do not say they will never repent and reform, and be religious, but, Not yet. And so the great business we were sent into the world to do, is not done. There is a proneness in us to think wrongly of discouragements in our duty, as if they were a discharge from our duty, when they are only for the trial of our courage and faith. They neglected the building of God's house, that they might have more time and money for worldly affairs. That the punishment might answer to the sin, the poverty they thought to prevent by not building the temple, God brought upon them for not building it. Many good works have been intended, but not done, because men...

Verse 5. _CONSIDER YOUR WAYS_] Is it fit that you should be building yourselves _elegant houses_, and neglect a _place_ for the _worship_ of that God who has restored you from captivity?...

And now, thus saith the Lord of hosts; “Consider,” (literally “set your heart upon) your ways,” what they had been doing, what they were doing, and what those doings had led to, and would lead to. This is ever present to the mind of the prophets, as speaking God’s words, that our acts are not only “ways” in which we go, each day of life being a continuance of the day before; but that they are ways which lead, somewhere in God’s Providence and His justice; to some end of the “way,” good or bad. So God says by Jeremiah Jeremiah 21:8. “I set before you the way of life and the way of death;” and David Psalms 16:11, “Thou wilt show me the path of life,” where it follows, “In Thy presence is the fullness of joy and at Thy Right Hand there are pleasures forevermore;” and Solomon...

EXPOSITION HAGGAI 1:1 Part I. THE FIRST ADDRESS: EXHORTATION TO BUILD THE TEMPLE AND ITS RESULT. HAGGAI 1:1 § 1. _The people are reproved for their indifference with regard to the erection of the temple, and admonished that their present distress is a chastisement for this neglect._ HAGGAI 1:1 IN THE SECOND YEAR OF DARIUS THE KING. This is Darius Hystaspes, who reigned over Persia from B.C. 521 to B.C. 486. He is called in the inscr

NOW THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS,.... The Lord God omniscient and omnipotent, that saw all their actions, and could punish for them; since they were so careful of their own houses, and adorning them, and so careless of his house; he would have them now sit down, and seriously think of these things, and of what he should further observe unto them: CONSIDER YOUR WAYS; their sinful ways, and repent of them, and forsake them, particularly their ingratitude before observed; and their civil ways, their common ways of life; their labour, work, and business, they were continually employed in; and observe the event of them; what success they had, what these issued in; whether there were not some visible tokens of the divine displeasure on them, which rendered all their attempts to support and enrich themselves and families vain, and of no effect: and they would do well to consider to w...

The subject is the building of the second temple. The people had been busily employed in building their own houses some of them had gone to great expense and much labour upon these houses, but they had not built the temple of God. The prophet Haggai was sent to incite them to holy labour. Haggai 1:1. _In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Thus people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built._ A bad excuse is thought to be better than none. These people would not object to the building of the Lord's house, but they were willing to postpone so expensive a matter. There are always some per

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1:1-11 Haggai's First Address _ 1. The introduction (Habakkuk 1:1) _ 2. The reproof (Habakkuk 1:2) 3. Consider your ways (Habakkuk 1:7) Habakkuk 1:1. Darius Hystaspes had been king one year and had entered upon the second year, 520 B.C., when, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord was given by Haggai. It was addressed to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of josedech, the high-priest. Zerubbabel and Joshua were the prominent civic and religious leaders of that day. Zerubbabel was the son of Shealt

HAGGAI 1:2. Read _mg._ Haggai 1:3. is a superfluous editorial addition. HAGGAI 1:4. A cieled house was one lined with timber, ordinary houses being left as rough inside as outside. This house means the whole Temple area, as is evident from Haggai 1:14; Haggai 2:3. Haggai 1:5. Consider your ways: means take notice of your experiences. In Haggai 1:5 Haggai exhorts the people to