Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses when this House lies in ruins?’ It seems a severe judgement. Surely they should settle themselves first before embarking on some bigger project? But I don’t think that is Haggai’s point. He is hinting at priorities. Everyone is busy sorting out their own affairs while the larger affairs of the community, the nation, are neglected. We don’t have to reflect much to realise that this is always the way we are tempted to act.
The culture that we have created for ourselves in Zimbabwe is one where everyone is thinking of themselves and their survival. And who can blame them? Conditions are so tough that it has become a full time occupation. I needn’t list the daily occupations of walking to town, queuing at banks, searching for food and so forth. But the problem is it overflows into dishonest short cuts; helping oneself from others’ groceries, holding back 10 litres of fuel for me when pouring 50 for you, using this and that opportunity to get something for myself. And when I start on this road of cheating you my conscience alerts me at first. But if I persist I will soon quieten my conscience. Cheating and twisting the truth becomes habitual. A nation can lose its integrity. That, it seems, is what lies behind Haggai’s warning.
Several papers have carried a photo of the signing of the power sharing agreement’ in which the president is seen happy and smiling at his opponent whose face is only partly visible. The smile seems unbelievable in the light of what has happened these past four weeks. What was he so happy about? That they had worked out a good deal that would benefit the people? If so why do we still not have a working government a month after the signing? Or was he happy because he had neutralised his challenger by absorbing him on to his own side? As the days and weeks go by this has to be a likely conclusion. Meanwhile the temple’, the bigger project of rebuilding the country, lies in ruins.
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