Gone for 70 Years

Hag 1:2-4 MKJV
(2) So says Jehovah of Hosts, saying: This people says, The time has not come, the time that Jehovah's house should be built.
(3) Then came the Word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet, saying,
(4) Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your finished houses, and shall this House lie waste?

What would your house look like after you had been gone for 70 years? What would the yard look like? Where would you even start to make it livable again? Apparently, this is the quandary the Israelites faced when they returned home to Israel after 70 years in Babylon. They were a bit preoccupied. The last thing on their mind was rebuilding God's house - His 'place' among them.

For many of us who grew up in prosperity, these economic times have been very hard - much like exile. For some, the last thing on our mind is to be about the commission God set upon us. It is a struggle to stay afloat, after all! But God says this:

Hag 1:5-7 MKJV
(5) And now so says Jehovah of Hosts: Set your heart on your ways;
(6) you have sown much and bring in little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you dress, but no one is warm; and he who hires out himself hires himself for a bag full of holes.
(7) So says Jehovah of Hosts: Set your heart on your ways.

Can you identify with this at all? Has it been really easy to get ahead? It's time to set our heart on the way we will go. The Temple is now our body, and the Kingdom commission calls us.

Mat 6:31-33 ASV
(31) Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(32) For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
(33) But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.