NOTES for Hag 1:1-8

Through the prophet Haggai, God tells the Israelites who returned from the Babylonian exile and are trying to establish a new life in the resettled land that they are beginning in the wrong place. It appears that the people have succumbed to a perfectly understandable temptation: first to provide homes for themselves and only afterward for God; first to care for the body and only afterward for the soul. Do you remember the not-so-distant “philosophical” slogan, “Being determines consciousness”? Marxism now seems to have been discarded, but “creeping” materialism, the obsession with possessions, and consumerism remain strong. “The new generation chooses Pepsi!” Two and a half thousand years ago, God already explained what this leads to (v. 6) and proposed the right order of action (vv. 7-8), flowing from the right order of priorities: spirit is above flesh!