Roughly 20 years after Daniel ends, some of the people of Israel have made their way back to their homeland and have started to rebuild. They have faced opposition and hardship in their endeavour to resurrect both the temple and the walls of the city of Jerusalem and for a variety of reasons they have shifted their focus from desiring God's presence in their midst to rebuilding a life for themselves in the absence of it. Their priorities have drastically changed; they have become (returned to being?) self-centred and although their consciences convict them they push the voice of truth and love away, concentrating on personal wealth and comfort as their functional deity. Haggai's message to them is as relevant today as it was over 2500 years ago: what is our priority, God or ourselves?

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