ROBBING GOD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 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.

“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. 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 3:6-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Israelites had failed and fallen badly, disobeying God’s word and disregarding His warnings of pending judgment. Unfaithful and disloyal, they pushed the Lord’s patience to its breaking point but although He took action, punishing His people, we also know He did not wish for them to perish, willing to sacrifice His one and only Son, Jesus, as a final atonement for sin, offering eternal life to anyone who would place their faith, hope, and trust in Him.

Indeed, the Lord is always waiting, watching, and wanting His people to return to Him. It’s true today and it was certainly true in the days of Malachi as we look at our passage today from the 3rd chapter, a passage that provides specific guidance to the Israelites (and to us today) as to how they could show the Lord they were back on His side:

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 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.

“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. 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 3:6-12

First, the Lord makes it clear that He was not responsible for any change in the relationship between Him and the Israelites. We find God reminding His people that He doesn’t change which is code for saying that He never goes back on His side of any covenant agreement, especially the agreement where He would be the God of the Israelites and they His people as long as they lived in obedience to His word, will, and way. In the case of the Israelites of Malachi’s time, it wasn’t God who turned away from His people but the people who turned away from Him.

This wasn’t the only covenant example that we find the Lord using here. For if you go back to the days of Noah and remember the great flood that wiped all creation with the exception of the people and animals on the ark, you should also recall that God made a covenant promise to never bring extinction to His people again and even placed a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of that covenant. So even though the Israelites had turned away from the Lord’s decrees and not met the requirements of His laws or commandments, He still would not utterly destroy them. In fact, He still yearned for a day when His people would return to Him saying:

“Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

Well, we get a sense the Israelites are anxious for the same thing because we find them asking the Lord how they could make it happen, how they could return to His good graces.

In response to this question, God hits at a core issue at hand.

The Israelites were robbing God and we find Him explaining to them just how it was happening:

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing Me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this 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.”  

God was blessing His people. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the people were not giving back to God who required them to bring tithes and offerings to the temple as we see in these two verses from Second Chronicles:

Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storerooms in the temple of the Lord, and this was done. Then they faithfully brought in the contributions, tithes and dedicated gifts. 2 Chronicles 31:11-12

Note here that the Israelites in Hezekiah’s day didn’t need to be threatened in order to give a portion of what the Lord had blessed them with back to Him. No, the scriptures tell us they faithfully brought in the contributions, tithes, and dedicated gifts. God wanted the Israelites of Malachi’s time to model this same attitude when it came to their stewardship, calling on them to bring “the whole tithe into the storehouse”, not just a portion of what was required or worse yet, nothing.

So what was in it for the Israelites? How would they be rewarded for their obedient giving?

God assured them they would find themselves blessed by Him in abundance as He threw open the “floodgates of heaven” to shower them with goodness and so much provision that they would have trouble finding room to store it all. And when other nations saw what was going on within Israel, there would be no doubt from the outside looking in that God was bestowing special blessings on His beloved people, all because they had returned themselves and dedicated what they had to Him and His glory.

Friends, this truth extends to this very day as we look at our lives in relation to God and what He expects from us. Just as He did in the days of Malachi, the Lord expects us to bring the whole tithe to Him, giving freely of our time, talents, and treasures. We can do this best through the work of our church who needs your contributions in order to best carry out the Lord’s mission, making disciples of all people in the local community and abroad.

God blesses us abundantly, all of us, and He wants to bless us even more. All He asks is that we return what is rightfully His to start with to accomplish His kingdom work here on earth.

To do otherwise, is nothing short of robbing God.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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