Malachi 3:8 - To Whom It May Belong

Malachi 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings.”

One of the hardest things that many pastors and churches find to address is the topic of money. Many churches err on not talking about it, making it a hidden elephant in the room, while many other churches talk about it too much, making it seem that they are more interested in money than in Christ. Its a difficult subject because to many people its one people don't wish to hear about, yet please give me the allowance of writing on it today. Since I am not asking nor am I interested in your money I should be able to write this rather painlessly for everyone.

Money is a hard subject for people. After all, we work hard for our money, we waste hours of our life at the office or on the job earning these little pieces of paper that society tells us has value. We work hard because without this money we can't pay for things like food and rent, gas for our car, and maybe even something nice for ourselves every once in a while. We never seem to have enough money for everything, and so we make choices about how we spend it. We prioritize how we use the money that we spent hours and even days of our lives to earn. We grumble about the taxes we have to pay, taxes that are taken directly out of our earnings before we ever see them. We grumble about the bills that never stop coming. We grumble about the price of milk, eggs, and bread rising. We grumble about everything when it comes to spending our money. We even grumble about tithing!

The tithe is God's way of making us rely on Him more. He gives us all we have, and all He desires is that we show our trust in Him by giving Him back the first ten percent of all He gives us. We have a mistaken idea about “our money.” It isn't “our money”, its God's money. We may have put effort and work into gaining it, but God is the one that allowed us to be in a situation where we can have access to a job to earn money. Its understandable that God wants us to work, since we don't value anything we have not struggled to attain, but our money is still God's money that He allows us to use.  The tithe, or the first ten percent that we earn is His, its a tax of sorts that goes to all sorts of purposes.

The secondary purpose of the tithe is to support those who work in the Church, not for an earthly employer but for God. “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.” (Numbers 18:21) After all,it takes money for your pastor to buy food, pay rent, buy gas, and print church bulletins with snappy slogans on them! Our tithes go to help the pastor take care of his family, as well as all the other church workers.

The primary purpose is to teach us to trust God for our needs. When we give the top ten percent of our paycheck, our earnings, we start struggling a bit more to make ends meet and the decisions we make about how and where to spend our money get tougher. When we make an offering of our tithes to God however, it becomes a joyful affair since God ensures that our needs our met. He will provide. After all, a good master does not let his servants go hungry or naked.

We should not worry so much about our money. If God can make a fish carry a four drachma coin to pay the tax for Peter and Himself (Matthew 17:24-27) then  I'm sure He can work something out for you and I. So this week, lets work on having an attitude check. If we give with joy, then we are much more able to receive with joy! Its not ours, its Gods!

Malachi 3:10 states “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 you will not have room enough for it.”