Will a man rob God?

Walter Lickley

In Malachi 3:8, God poses a penetrating question to His earthly people: ‘Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings.’ In verse 9 God says, ‘You have robbed Me, even this whole nation’. What a serious charge!

Tithing

The Jews had clear directions about tithing. The Old Testament Scriptures make many references to it, and it was impossible for them to evade the truth of the charge. They were not doing what they had been instructed to do. The flow of a share of their material possessions had ceased or slowed to a trickle. How vastly different it had become since the early days. In Exodus 35 the warm-hearted, the wise-hearted and the willing-hearted had come with their offerings to the Lord, and there was enough and more to build the tabernacle and all its furnishings. In Exodus 36:6–7 we read: ‘So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.’

At the building of the temple, David could rejoice and say, ‘In the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee’ (1 Chr. 29:17). In 2 Chronicles 24, in the days of King Joash, when the house of the Lord had been broken up by the wicked Athaliah, they made a chest and set it at the gate and made a proclamation for the people to bring in the collection, and all the people rejoiced and brought. The chest was filled day after day and the building was repaired. In Hezekiah’s day we read: ‘the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits … and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly … and laid them by heaps. … And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord, and his people Israel’ (2 Chr. 31:5–8). Even as late as Nehemiah’s day, probably only about 25 years before Malachi, the people gave liberally in tithes and offerings, and the firstfruits of their ground and of the fruit of all their trees (Neh. 10:35). Yet in the time of Haggai, so soon after the revival in Ezra and shortly before Malachi wrote, we see the trend of what God so seriously chides them about in Malachi 3: ‘This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built’. But God said, ‘Is it time for you … to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? … Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; … and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes’ (Hag. 1:2–6).

The Jews had become engrossed in building up their own assets and thus were neglecting the things of God. They had not had it so good for a long time! Indeed, since the days when their fathers were carried into captivity in Babylon, they had never had it so good. And this sudden prosperity had become the cause of their robbing God by denying Him what was His right to their possessions. The truth was that the Levites who did the work of God were dependent upon support from the rest of the people, and the house of God and all its requirements also depended upon the offerings of the people. So also in our day. And as then, when the giving of tithes and offerings diminished, the servants of the Lord were affected and the work of the Lord was retarded. Much work for the Lord could be done if there were more liberal support.

The firstfruits

Proverbs 3:9 says, ‘Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase’. This is a principle which many particularly older ones obey. From whatever source their income is derived, they are careful to see that at least one tenth goes to the Lord. And whenever there has been an increase, whether in salary, or as a result of an award, the first of such an increase has been given to the Lord. It has been well said that if under the law one tenth must be given to God, if less than that is given under grace then that is a disgrace!

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about laying by in store as the Lord has prospered (1 Cor. 16:2), he connected it with the first day of the week, the Lord’s day, when they came together to remember Him in the breaking of bread. As the great truth of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus who gave Himself for them on the cross came before them, it would surely lead them to yield in fullest measure of their substance to Him for His work, His servants and His saints in need. The remembrances of the Lord’s surrender and yielding up entirely to God for our sins should lead us to give abundantly for the sake of Him who has done so much for us.

A similar thought comes out in Deuteronomy 26. There, the tithe was to be brought to the place where the Lord had put His name among them. They were to give also to ‘the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow’. One has written, ‘The rich tide of God’s grace and provision had flowed to them, and then it was to flow through them out to the servants of the Lord and the needy.’ This is the outcome of the work of grace in our hearts. Giving as the Lord had commanded was an evidence not only of material prosperity, but of soul prosperity as well. The two should go together and be evidenced before the Lord.

In 1 Samuel 25 we see David in need of help and food, and going to the rich Nabal. This ‘harsh and evil’ man (v. 3) refused to give anything. Yet we read in verse 36, ‘he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king’. Little matter to him that outside the servants of David were in dire need of help. He was keeping for himself what he had, and enjoying himself with it all. But God was displeased and smote him. So we read in 2 Corinthians 9:6, ‘He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly’. The Lord loves a cheerful giver and a bountiful giver as well. We should be careful to give to the Lord that which is in keeping with how He has prospered us. We should also be careful about what we keep for ourselves and what we spend on ourselves, lest we too be seen living like a king while the Lord’s servants are going without. 

Stewards for the Lord (v. 9)

The subject of giving to God is vitally important. It is the means through which the Lord’s work is maintained and expanded, His servants sustained, the poor and needy provided for, and all assembly expenses met. Thus it should be obvious that wherever and whenever the Lord’s people are negligent as to their giving to Him it will be to the decline of His work.

Joshua 13:14 emphasises the principle. The land of Canaan was divided among all the tribes except Levi. The 11 tribes were provided by God with land and everything necessary for their livelihood and prosperity. But Levi received no such portion because they were fully engaged in the work of the Lord. They had no time to develop land or work on it. So God arranged that the others, who had been given possessions, should share with Levi what God had given them.

The tithe was one tenth. A little arithmetic will provide a short lesson in spiritual economics. Suppose an assembly with 20 married couples with an average yearly wage of $35,000 or about $675 per week. Something like $1,350 in the collection would result each week if tithing were the rule nowadays.[1] It is not, but as under grace we have received much more than those under law ever did we ought to be far more generous in our giving.

Does the Lord’s work in the area where you presently are suffer from poor support? Would there not be much more that could be done if more support was forthcoming? Further note that the tithe was only the ordinary thing. On top of it were the offerings, sacrifices, the first and the best! 

The Lord’s work and workers identified with scripturally-gathered assemblies are mainly provided for by those associated with such companies of the Lord’s people. Those workers should, therefore, always receive the first priority in giving by those expressing practical fellowship with them in assembly worship. Perhaps our spiritual poverty may in part stem from our laxity in giving attention to this important part of our Christian life — that of being stewards for the Lord of His property which He commits to us. It is not for ourselves only, but also, through us, for others.

Prove me now (v. 10)

In Malachi 3:10 the prophet writes, ‘“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”’ These words have been an inspiration to the servants of the Lord down through the ages and still are in our day. They show God’s cure for their carelessness in giving to Him, His rich provision in place of their poverty, and His blessings and abundance which would follow their obedience to what He expected of them.

When the Lord’s people withhold from Him their material possessions, God will withhold spiritual blessings from them. When they give to Him in abundance for His work and servants, God opens the very windows of heaven over them and pours out His blessings on them. No one ever loses by giving to the Lord! How important it is to see this. God largely gives to His own in the proportion in which they give to Him. Note, it is not the actual amount which is taken into account, but the proportion which He notes.

God’s call to Israel was to get back to the first principles. ‘Fulfil what you have been told before’, He is saying to them. ‘Bring the tithes to me, into my storehouse, into the place where I have placed my name among you. Do not continue to keep for yourselves what you know rightly belongs to me.’ 2 Corinthians 8 ought to be read again and again to emphasise the importance of proper giving to the Lord. And also consider the words of the Lord Jesus, ‘Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you’ (Luke 6:38). Striking words from Him who gave Himself and all He had for us (2 Cor. 8:9; Gal. 2:20).

Malachi 3:10 is one of the most inspiring and uplifting verses in the Word of God. It gives God’s promise of rich and abundant blessings upon His own of that day, blessings for which there would not be room enough to hold them. Surely everyone would respond to this. As we consider the spiritual poverty of our day, the trickle of blessings, the lack of fruitfulness in the gospel, the lack of response to ministry, and lack of growth and development in assembly life and practice, we must surely yearn for God’s promised blessings.

Their part was simply to ‘bring all the tithes into the storehouse’. God’s part was: ‘I will … open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it’. What was the reason for them to do this? ‘That there may be food in My house’. God did not require this food for Himself. It was for the priests and the Levites — those who did His service.

‘How comes it to pass that almost in every place the saints have to be reminded, again and again, that there is not enough money in the Lord’s treasury for even necessary uses, and that collections, private and public, are continually being made to conceal our shortcomings and to provide means for the sustenance both of the Lord’s poor and the Lord’s work? All this only reveals the fact how feebly grace is operative in our hearts and how unlike we are to the giving God, by whose bounty it is that we have been set in the possession of such priceless blessings. And may we not ask also whether our own barrenness and whether the lack of blessing among the Lord’s people — in their meetings for praise and edification — may not be traced to our own narrowness of heart, to our withholding from God of the substance, small or great, which He has entrusted to our stewardship?’[2]

The heavens contain the riches of God’s blessings. But they are shut up from us unless we keep to the principle which is here set before us: ‘bring, and try me’, says the Lord. The windows of heaven will be opened to the people who give ungrudgingly so God’s house may be filled with food.

Does serving the Lord pay?

These people of Malachi’s day go on: ‘What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance …?’ (3:14). Looking only at their possessions, they might have said, as we in this age might say, ‘What has obeying God put in my bank account? Or into my home? Has it been the source of my car(s), my boat, my equipment, my entertainment, my household comforts, etc? What profit then is there to me in keeping God’s Word?’

This is a short-sighted and lopsided view which we ought to consider in conjunction with verses like: ‘we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, … whether good or bad’ (2 Cor. 5:10); ‘every one of us shall give account of himself to God’ (Rom. 14:12); ‘every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work what sort it is’ (1 Cor. 3:13–15); ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven’ (Matt. 6:19–20).

To amass material possessions upon earth is a poor ambition if it will result in spiritual poverty in the life to come (1 Cor. 3:15). How utterly foolish and short-sighted to chase the shadow of earthly gain in preference to the substance of heavenly glory and to choose the temporal for the eternal. This is to value the passing more than the permanent and to substitute the earthly for the heavenly. Where in all this is a sense of right priorities or values in the light of eternity?

Walter A Lickley [3]

[1] These figures reflect average wages in Australia when the article was written. We trust that readers will appreciate our late brother’s argument notwithstanding inflation and the like over the last few decades. Perhaps some gatherings of 20 married couples may have reason for exercise if they find that, even today, the weekly collection is less than AUD 1,350 (eds.).

[2] Edward Dennett, Malachi: The State of Things at the End.

[3] Extracted and adapted from Malachi: Lessons for Today (1999 ed.). Most of the scripture quotations in this article are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2021