Bible Stories for the Young
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As we told you in the last story, when the building of God’s House got hard in different ways, people started making excuses. They said, “Well, maybe right now isn’t really the best time to build, build, build. Maybe we should just take a break for a little while and wait until a time when it’s easier. Besides, we have our own houses that we need to fix and make nice.”
One by one, the people started spending all their time getting their own houses all comfy, cozy and updated. Adding an extra room here, fixing a little crack there, buying some little decorations to go on the wall. And like we mentioned in the last story, the work on building God’s House stopped!
How do you think God felt about that? Yes, God was very sad. His People were giving up on HIS House! God decided to send a message to the people, through His Seer, Haggai. This is what He said:
“Why are you spending so much time making your own houses pretty and fancy and nice, when MY House is still a broken-down mess?!
“My Children, you know I can’t let you live that way. Look around you! Do you see what’s happening?
“You plant lots of seeds in the spring, but in the autumn, you don’t get any good crops.
“You spend your time trying to make lots of money, but when you put the money in your pocket, your pockets have holes! Your money just falls out and is lost.
“All these troubles you are having with your money and your crops — it’s because you’ve forgotten about My House. Look! Pay attention to what’s happening! My House is a mess, but all you care about is making your own houses nice and fancy. You’ve been making bad choices, so I’ve been trying to get your attention by making the sky not rain, and the ground not give good crops.
“Here is what I really want: Go find good trees to chop down so that you’ll have good wood to build My House. If you do that, then I will be very happy! My Name will be honored again!”
When the people heard Haggai telling them this message from God, they were very sorry! They wanted to change! They LISTENED to God’s words through Haggai. Long before this, the people had NOT listened to Isaiah. They had NOT listened to Jeremiah. They had NOT listened to Ezekiel. They had NOT listened so many times! But, THIS time, after 70 years of discipline, they DID listen.
(You see? They were learning their lesson! God is a LOVING DADDY who teaches His Children through discipline! And, His Children learned and changed because of it! Yay!)
This time they made choices to listen and obey, and they started to build God’s House again. Work. Work. Work.
When God saw that the people wanted to change and start serving Him again, instead of themselves, God had another message for them.
God said to His Children, “I am with you!”
Ahhhh… Those four beautiful words from God changed everything! “I am with you!” When God said those words to His Children, they were ENERGIZED — RECHARGED! They discovered a bounce in their steps, energy in their hands, and songs in their hearts. And they WORKED! They worked, worked, worked with all their strength on God’s House. And every day God gave them enough energy to keep on going — build, build, building His House!
