The Call of God
J. King, B. A. Haggai 1:7 Thus said the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. I. THE PERSON WHO ISSUES THIS COMMAND. Note the Divine character of the speaker. The "Lord of hosts." This name, containing in it every perfection, commands our regard and challenges our awe. Omnipotence, omniscience, and unlimited authority unite their beams in one blaze of glory in this truly august character, "The Lord of hosts." II. THE COMMAND ITSELF. "Consider your ways." Fix your thoughts upon them with diligence, earnestness, and heart application. Be honest with yourselves, serious and particular in the inquiry into your real character in the sight of God. The command implies that — 1. God has given to us a revelation of His will as the rule of our duty, and the standard by which we are to examine our conduct. The Scriptures form the directory and rule by which we are to try our ways, and which God has in mercy given to us by His own revelation for this purpose. 2. God hath endowed us with the powers of recollection and reflection. By these we can bring the transactions of our whole lives into present view, and arrange the several actions of them in their proper order and colours. It is our wisdom to converse with our departed hours, that we may learn to redeem the time. 3. As God has given both the rule and capacity for the exercising of this duty, so the discharge of it is necessary and advantageous. (1) The frequent and impartial consideration of our ways has a tendency to humble us before the footstool of the all-glorious Jehovah, and to convince us of our weakness, unworthiness, meanness, and insignificancy. (2) The diligent and frequent consideration of our ways will be accompanied with this further advantage, of leading us to a cordial, entire dependence upon God, both for direction and assistance in every duty. (3) Compliance with that required in our text will lead us to see and own that the salvation of a sinner is, and must be, all of grace and mercy. We shall then no longer boast of our good hearts, the integrity of our conduct, or our regular duties. We shall cry for mercy. If you would be humble Christians, dependent upon and sensible of your obligations to the free grace of God, be frequent and impartial in the consideration of your ways. III. APPEAL TO EVERY MAN'S CONSCIENCE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. 1. Address the careless unconcerned part of the hearers. 2. Those who have experienced only some slight convictions of sin, and but a transient concern about their salvation. 3. Those who are backsliders. Invite them to serious thought about their present state and danger. 4. Those who are real believers. How crooked even their ways will appear in the review! How slow their progress in the path of duty and obedience. On the whole, as the consideration of our ways is a great duty, so it requires our present and most serious attention. The present now is the season that demands dispatch. Today we must hear God's voice, before disease incapacitate, or death prevent us. (J. King, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. WEB: This is what Yahweh of Armies says: "Consider your ways.