"Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."
The next verses give even more meaning to what has been described in verse 5. God says "consider your ways". I am used to that meaning in this context, that I'm not eating right, saving enough money, paying too much interest on debt, or unwilling to be satisfied with what I have. But in the book of Haggai, God explains to the people that he has put a curse upon them. In verse 9 he says
"Ye looked for much, and lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house."
It does seem true, that men run to their own houses nowadays, or first. God's house lies waste. Sure there are exceptions or places where this is not true. Maybe in your home. But it is surely true for me. I don't go to church, not finding churches that quite match up with me. That is not what the book of Haggai is about. It states it in just two chapters, but very plainly. God says it as a question in verse 4:
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
In verse 2 he suggests that "the people" are just making an excuse, by saying
"The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built."
By verse 14 all is resolved and the people are working in the house of the Lord. Chapter 2 makes promises to the people, for building the Lord's house, that peace will be given there and the glory of the house will be greater than the one which came before it.
