Leadership means losing the right to be selfish. The workers in Haggai had stopped following their actual mandate to build the temple and had instead started working on their own houses and running their own business. It took a leader like Haggai to lead them back to their true mandate. Chapter 1 shows what happened when they neglected their highest priority:
- They failed to consider that their actions contradicted their faith (v3-5)
- They worked hard, but saw no significant results (v6)
- They invested a great deal, but got very little back (v6)
- They were dissatisfied with their productive power (v7-9)
When leaders and their people focus on the wrong priorities, the consequence is almost always disappointment. The Pareto principle says that 20% of activities produce 80% of the results. But with the wrong priorities, 80% of activities produce only 20% of the results. It's not about working harder, but about working smarter.
Haggai 1:3-9
3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 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.
7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
9 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.
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