Haggai 1:5-6

The Lord called "the people" to evaluate what they were doing in the light of their present situation (cf. Haggai 1:7; Haggai 2:15; Haggai 2:18 [twice]). They were not experiencing God’s blessings very greatly. They sowed much seed but harvested only modest crops (cf. Haggai 1:10-11; Haggai 2:15-17; Haggai 2:19). The food and drink that they grew only met their minimal needs. They had so little fiber from which to make clothing that their clothes were very thin and did not keep them warm. Their purses seemed to have holes in them in the sense that the money they put in them disappeared before they could pay all their bills. This may be the first reference to coined money in the Bible. The Lydians in Asia Minor were the first to coin money, in the sixth century B.C., and there is archaeological evidence that there were coins in Palestine when Haggai wrote. [Note: See Ephraim Stern, Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period 538-332 B.C., pp. 215, 236; and idem, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. Vol. II: The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, 732-332 BCE, pp. 558-59.] This was divine chastening for disobedience (cf. Leviticus 26:18-20; Deuteronomy 28:41). They should have put the Lord first.

"An affluent generation of Christians that is wasting God’s generous gifts on trivia and toys will have much to answer for when the Lord returns." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 445.]