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Blazingson -> RE: Come build with me. (6/25/2008 3:48:09 PM)
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I've been reading the book of Haggai in the New International Version and the verses that speak of the houses being "ceiled" in the KJV are translated "paneled" in the NIV.
Where those verses spoke to you of a ceiling separating God and man, it spoke to me of a home that is complete or comfortable. I imagined something like an old fashioned den or men's club. Large rooms with dark wood panelling and oversized, leather upholstered club chairs, dim lighting, heavy velvet curtains and Persian rugs.
Then I began to consider other verses like Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
I began wondering if the remnant were not only more concerned with their own homes and comfort, but were becoming overindulgent.
Notice:
"You have planted much, but have harvested little." This speaks to me of grain and other crops lying waste in the fields. It's been planted, but never harvested because they planted more than they needed and no portion taken to the temple as an offering as God commanded.
"You eat, but never have enough." This speaks to me of gluttony. A person eating not only what they need, but more. The glutton never gets enough.
"You drink, but never have your fill." This is the drunk. Drunks never stop with one. They keep going until they are completely smashed. They are never satiated.
"You put on clothes, but are not warm." How often do you see a lady (Okay men too) who go out on a winter day wearing something totally inappropriate simply because it's currently fashionable? Expensive clothes that look good but serve no practical purpose, like warmth.
"You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." How often, as a child, were you told by a parent, "That money is burning a hole in your pocket." This sounds like a similar metaphor, indicating a spendthrift. The money goes into the purse, but it's spent so quickly on foolish things which don't last or aren't needed, that your purse might as well have holes in it.
Perhaps the remnant was not only concerned with their own needs over their service to God, but concerned with indulging their carnal lusts and ignoring the Lord completely. After having been in captivity, they were finally free to have whatever and as much as they wished and they went overboard and Haggai's prophecy was the Lords way of jerking them back in line.
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