Project 119: Heaven and Nature Sing | Haggai 2:1-9

 |  Project 119  |  Dr. Wayne Splawn

Reading for Saturday, December 5: Haggai 2:1-9

O come, Desire of Nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
-"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

What do you want for Christmas? This is a question we tend to ask people this time of year, especially those for whom it seems to be difficult to identify exactly what their hearts might desire. I find this to be particularly hard for people on my Christmas list who are well advanced in years. I think this is due, in large part, to the fact that people who have seen their fair share of material possessions come and go simply do not desire things as much as they once did. Many of them have had it, experienced it, seen it all, and as a result they know that true contentment does not lie in material possessions. They long for a contentment money can't buy.

The people of Haggai’s day had looked for contentment in the material things this life affords, but were left wanting. Haggai proclaimed, “...Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:5-6 ESV). In their vain attempts to find fulfillment in material things, they had neglected the work of God, experienced no peace, and perpetrated violence against one another. 

In Haggai 2, we read of a future time when God will provide the peace His people long to know. In Haggai’s day that meant the Lord would provide material resources necessary for completing the temple, the place where God had chosen to dwell among His people in a special way. This promise would find ultimate fulfillment, however, in the person of Jesus Christ, who would dwell among His people in the flesh. It is only in knowing Him that we will experience the peace and contentment no material possession can provide. 

During this Advent season, spend time in prayer asking the Lord to help you see through the false promises of contentment the things of this world promise so that you might have the desires of your heart met fully in Jesus Christ. Only then will you be able to experience true contentment and point others to peace found only in the Desire of Nations, Jesus.