When God sent the prophet Haggai to them, they paid attention to him. In listening to Haggai, they honored God. (Haggai 1:12 The Message)
Listen
God had been troubling His people in response to their ignoring Him. In the time of Haggai (around 520 BC) the Jews had returned from the Babylonian captivity, but had neglected to start work on rebuilding the temple. The task was too hard. They were broke. They had so many more urgent tasks.
So what did God do? God sent His word, in the voice of the prophet Haggai. And they listened. And they did what God had directed them to do. Because they were God’s people, they were able to listen, hear, be challenged, and do.
We can listen, too. The entire Bible is God’s word to His people. We, too, might find the task of love too hard. We, too, might find our resources are not enough to fund kingdom work. We, too, might be overwhelmed with today’s urgent tasks.
But we can listen.
And when we do, we can rebuild His temple, His kingdom, His people.
We are peculiar, we can listen.