If you're like most believers, you're pulled in a myriad of directions. Full schedules, necessary and worthwhile activities, family members, friends, other people, distractions and interruptions all clamor for attention. But where is God in the midst of our priorities? This is an ancient struggle that Haggai addressed over 2500 years ago.

To understand the messages of Haggai, we need to understand the historical context in which they were given. In 586 B.C. the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar defeated the southern kingdom of Judah and razed the city of Jerusalem, including the temple. They took many of the Jewish people captive as God's punishment for their sins, primarily idolatry. In 539 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon, becoming the new ruler of the Jewish people. A year later, he issued a decree that permitted the exiles to return to their land.

The first group of exiles (about 50,000) returned in 536 B.C. under Zerubbabel's leadership to rebuild the temple. Apparently, Haggai was part of this group. After laying the foundation, the exiles quit when their enemies threatened them and hired lawyers to frustrate their work. So the temple rebuilding stopped for fifteen years. These events are recorded in Ezra 1-4.

Then God sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to call his people back to this work. Ezra 5 tells about this event while the books of Haggai and Zechariah give us the content of their preaching.

Rebuilding the temple was an important task for the Jewish people. The temple represented their relationship with God. It was the focal point of their worship and fellowship with the God who called them to be his chosen people. But other things had gotten in the way of finishing this task, much like other things—even good things—get in the way of our doing God's will today.