Malachi 3:7-12
7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8 “Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the entire nation of you!
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this,” says the Lord of armies, “if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
11 Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor will the vine in the field prove fruitless to you,” says the Lord of armies.
12 “All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of armies.
The Call to Obedience (1)
The true offering
This passage also proceeds in a dialogical format. “‘From the days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you’” (v 7a). (1) The reason God was not listening to the people’s prayers was their disobedience. This disobedience had continued from the days of their fathers. God calls to them and says, “Return to Me, and I will return to you.” God is always waiting for the people of Israel to repent and return to Him. (2) However, the people respond with a sarcastic question: “How shall we return?” (v 7b). They had no awareness of their sin. Rather than answering this question directly, God moves on to the next question. “‘Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!’” (1) The verb translated “robbing” is a participle, indicating a continuous action. The word “rob” can mean to take by violence or to take by deception (ref. Prov. 22:23). (2) The people’s response is, “How have we robbed You?” Here again, the shameless spiritual condition of the people is clearly revealed. They had become completely insensitive to their own sin. (3) God then points out their sin by saying, “In tithes and offerings.” In other words, the answer to both of the people’s questions is the same. Offering faithful gifts to God means: (a) Returning to God. (b) Giving back to God what belongs to Him.
Tithes and offerings
The “tithe” refers to one-tenth of all produce and harvest. This offering was intended to support the livelihood of the Levites (ref. Lev. 27:30; Num. 18:26-28; Deut. 14:22-29). The “offering” refers to the portion of the sacrificial animals that belonged to the priests (ref. Ex. 29:27-28). If these two types of offerings were not given, the priests would be unable to support themselves. We will study the subject of the tithe in greater detail next time. What we are studying here is a principle that applied to people living under the administration of the Mosaic Law. The principle of giving that applies to us in the New Covenant age is that “on the first day of every week, each one of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper” (ref. 1 Cor. 16:1-4). Let us learn to give our offerings to God with a sincere and faithful heart.
Today's prayer
O God of Israel, offerings are an expression of our faith in every age. Please enable me to present my offerings with sincerity and faithfulness. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.