The Lord has been taking the people to task for their unfaithfulness to His covenant with them. We concluded yesterday's passage with a promise that God would judge anyone who does not fear and obey Him. Today He reminds them that it is only because He is a covenant-keeper that He has not destroyed the nation for its unfaithfulness. He could say the same thing to us all! It's because He keeps His word and because He has great mercy that we have not all been wiped out because of our sins. We don't deserve His mercy but He offers it to us anyway.
"I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed." (Malachi 3:6) The prophet Jeremiah said something similar, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23) God has to be who He is even when we are not all that we ought to be. It's His nature to be faithful to His covenant promises.
The Lord tells the people that He would be within His rights to be finished with them. It's only because of His unchangeable character that the covenant still stands. "'Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from My decrees and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty." (Malachi 3:7a) The Lord is not saying that He has literally left Israel, but that Israel is not enjoying all the blessings that could be hers if she clung more tightly to Him. The return to the land should have included a wholehearted return to the Lord, but we have seen that in Malachi's day the priesthood had become corrupt and many of the people had become halfhearted in their worship.
The condition of our hearts is revealed by our actions. The people will profess innocence in having left God, but their actions prove otherwise. There is yet another thing the Lord has found fault with in addition to the blemished offerings and sacrifices, the pagan marriages, the divorces, and the unrighteous rulings of the law that we've studied the past several days. The people are withholding their tithes. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?' Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, 'How are we robbing You?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse---your whole nation---because you are robbing Me." (Malachi 3:7b-9) In not giving their tithes the people are robbing the Lord Himself, for the Scriptures say that a tenth of everything belongs to Him, "A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord." (Leviticus 27:30) If something belongs to the Lord, then no one has the right to withhold it from Him.
In addition, the tithe is used to support those who minister at the temple and to do good for the body of believers. In Deuteronomy 14:28-29 we find this example of how the tithe is used, "At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands." The Levites were given no territory in the promised land because they were to be supported by offerings made at the temple. These men fed their families with what was brought to the temple, so the withholding of tithes could cause a priest's family to go hungry. The priests might have to take a job outside the temple to support their families, which meant they wouldn't be able to fully devote themselves to God's work. Priests might even give into the temptation to take bribes when judging matters of the law. The Lord has had some harsh words for the dishonesty of the priesthood, but today we learn that the citizens had a hand in the dishonesty, so the Lord has harsh words for those who weren't faithfully bringing their tithes.
The Lord promises a wonderful blessing if the people will just do what they have been commanded to do. "'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,' says the Lord Almighty. 'Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,' says the Lord Almighty." (Malachi 3:10-12) The Lord makes this offer, "See if it isn't so! Take a leap of faith and do what I've told you to do, and see if I don't pour out more blessings than you can hold. I'm only asking you to take the first step; I will do the rest. I'm asking you to trust Me. If you don't learn to trust Me with ten percent, how will you ever learn to trust Me with the remaining ninety percent? Don't you want your faith to grow? Step out in faith and see what I will do!"
The New Testament doesn't speak specifically on tithing but it talks about giving in accordance with our abilities. Some members of the church may make a great deal of money and be able to give a lot, while others may make minimum wage and be able to give only a little. A person may also devote time and goods and services to the Lord's work. But the principle is that we can never outgive God. When we wholeheartedly devote anything to Him, He is able to pay us back a hundredfold. It's not so much the money or the time He's rewarding, but our faith. It takes faith to take that first step. Like a parent who is overjoyed and delighted when a baby takes its first step, the Lord is overjoyed and delighted when we take that first step of faith. Let's dare to believe His promises are true!
No comments:
Post a Comment