“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.” – Haggai 1:6
The prophet Haggai spoke these words to the children of Israel who had returned from their captivity in Babylon. Though they were free men in their own land, they found themselves trapped in a different kind of bondage – the futility of misplaced priorities.
The Condition Described
The Lord, through His prophet, describes a people caught in endless toil without satisfaction. They plant their fields, yet the harvest disappoints. They eat, yet hunger remains. They drink, yet thirst is not quenched. They clothe themselves, yet feel no warmth. Most telling of all, they work for wages only to watch their earnings vanish as if placed in a purse riddled with holes.
This is not mere poverty – it is the curse of fruitless labor. These people were not idle; they were industrious. Yet their industry brought no lasting benefit, no true prosperity, no genuine satisfaction.
The Cause Revealed
Why did their efforts yield so little? The answer lies in verse 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.“
The temple of the Lord lay in ruins while each man built and beautified his own dwelling. They had reversed the proper order. Their own comfort came first; God’s house was neglected. They sought first their own kingdom while the kingdom of God waited.
The Divine Response
When men place their temporary needs above eternal purposes, God withdraws His blessing. He “blows upon” their efforts – not in malice, but to awaken them to their error. The bag with holes is God’s discipline, designed to show that life without proper foundation brings only emptiness.
The drought described in verse 11 – “And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands” – reveals how God can make even the most basic necessities fail when His priorities are ignored.
The Path to Restoration
The remedy is clear and direct: “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” (verse 8).
First comes obedience. First comes the proper ordering of priorities. First comes the acknowledgment that God’s purposes must take precedence over personal comfort.
When Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest heard these words, along with all the remnant of the people, “they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God” (verse 12). They stopped making excuses. They stopped waiting for a more convenient time. They began the work.
The Principle Applied
The bag with holes teaches us this: when we seek our own kingdom first, even our legitimate efforts will prove frustrating and insufficient. Our wages will seem to disappear. Our work will feel meaningless. Our efforts will bring no lasting satisfaction.
But when we align our priorities with God’s purposes – when we build His kingdom first – then our earthly labors take on meaning and our daily bread becomes sufficient. The bag holds what we put into it because God’s blessing rests upon the work of hands that serve His will.
This is not a promise of material prosperity for spiritual service. It is a promise of purposeful living, of work that matters, of efforts that build something eternal rather than merely temporary.
The choice remains before each generation: will we run every man to his own house while God’s house lies waste? Or will we seek first His kingdom, trusting that all needful things will be added unto us?
The bag with holes awaits those who choose wrongly. But for those who choose rightly, there is work worth doing and wages worth earning.