November 28, 2024 | Be God's Light
Robbing God vs. Full Tithe
Scripture: Malachi 3(NIV)
1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 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?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 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. 11 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. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God
13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Devotional
In Nehemiah 13, the priest Ezra brought reform to Jerusalem related to the temple usage, Sabbath practices, and intermarriage with those who practice idolatry. In the first two chapters of Malachi, that prophet addressed blemished offerings, ungodly priests, and unfaithful marriages. Here in chapter 3, he continued to call for reform, now addressing those who practice the occult, oppress those at risk, deprive others of justice, withhold tithes, and put God on the back shelf.
Remember that the people of Jerusalem had their rebuilt temple and wall, the physical representations of their spirituality and security. But their inner lives didn’t match their surroundings. Their hearts were far from God.
Four hundred fifty years later, Jesus was confronting the Pharisees when He said, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” (Matthew 15:7-9).
Their walk didn’t match their talk. This was true in the days of Isaiah, Malachi, and Jesus. It’s also true in our day. It’s one thing to go to church, listen to a sermon, toss some money in the offering, then go home. Uninspired. Unaffected. Unchanged. Go back to church the following week. Same song. Second verse.
It's a whole other thing to be completely in for God. Go to church. Enter His temple with reverence and expectation. Lean into what is being sung, prayed and preached. Give the full tenth of everything received. Go home to the family and the community. Inspired. Affected. Changed. Go back to church the following week. Anticipate even greater things.
What kind of spiritual life do you want to live?
Poem
The Only Hope I Know
I cannot stand before you
My sin buckles my knees
I cannot stand refinement
My life, like chaff in breeze
I cannot bear your scrubbing
Your lye soap rips my flesh
The only thing to save me
Your Son’s own righteousness
It’s He who stands before you
Forgiving all my sin
It’s He who is refining fire
Which purifies within
It’s He who with blood scrubs me
And makes me white as snow
Your Gift of love now given--
The only hope I know
