The Proving of God’s Provision

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 3:8-12

Here is the seventh of these passive-aggressive questions of the people back to God, which the prophet Malachi has been drawing out of them.1 Now if there was ever one of them that gets closest to a genuine question, this one gets close. It can be honestly asked. It should be honestly asked. So I am going to ask it in this way: How can God be “robbed” at all, by anyone, since He owns everything and is in need of nothing? It is that question that will set us up to understand the bill that Malachi is charging the people with in this passage.

Doctrine. Our giving of tithes is to prove God’s provision.

In speaking about this “proof” through such a medium as money, I will need to borrow from the language of economics and use the word currency, for two reasons. First, because of the two words used here—‘your tithes and contributions’ (v. 8)—neither one of them are necessarily money, at least in the modern sense of paper or especially digital currency. In the old covenant system, the second one certainly was not. That Hebrew word תְּרוּמָה comes from the root “to raise” (רוּם), which was used of the presentation of their offerings. Some translations will say “oblations” for this reason. But more importantly, the thing behind the word and sign here is the same thing that is behind money. Money is just the surface medium of exchange. We have to ask what are the real currencies being exchanged here.

• The currency of glory.

• The currency of worship.

• The currency of individual provision.

• The currency of corporate provision.

And in examining these currencies, we will see that our giving of tithes is to prove God’s provision.

The Currency of Glory

About that question: ‘Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ (v. 8) Often we will hear of an injury toward God, an opposition to God, a rebellion against God, and so forth. Have any of these any chance of succeeding or detracting from God? Not in the least. Yet the words are spoken truly if taken in the right sense. What they really mean is that one presumes to violate God in this or that way. So it is here with “robbing God.” We are told: “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). And elsewhere, the Lord says,

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills … If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine (Ps. 50:10, 12).

Through such poetic irony God is telling us, No—you can’t make a dent in my account. If a thief were to grab a portion of God’s property and transfer it to another place, guess far out of God’s account he would have moved it? Nowhere. All is inside of God’s “account,” and so what is robbed is not from God’s essence but from God’s glory toward the creature. “But surely God cannot be depleted of any glory either!” one might respond.

We distinguish between the essential or intrinsic glory of God which He has in Himself, which cannot be added to or subtracted from, and the extrinsic glory of God which benefits the creature either more or less. What makes this more and less? As His image-bearers, we bear the light of God either more or less. When we sin, we do not turn the lights out in God; we turn our own soul and others away from God’s light. That’s why John says that, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 Jn. 1:7)

But how could money be such a light switch? There is a simple statement by John Piper about the link between money and glory: “God increases our yield so that by giving we can prove that our yield is not our god.”2

Really, that is a portion of the a more general principle that we can state in this way: God has ordained material wealth to prove to our own souls and others that material wealth is not our god. In other words, when I say the “proof of God’s provision,” the ultimate meaning has to be that because God is our provision, all our investments will be weighted toward gaining more of God. I want to invest in whatever will get me and those I love a greater sight of God, a greater increase of that godly seed we talked about a few weeks ago: whatever will most glorify God and sanctify His people and pack the biggest bombs to obliterate the works of the devil.

As in any case of robbing God of His glory, in turning from light to darkness, we turn from blessing to cursing. Thus the next words: ‘You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you’ (v. 9). To use a fitting analogy: If we do not pay the electric company their bill, the lights go off. Of course the analogy breaks down because the electric company is made up of people who also need to eat and pay their other bills. So they have a need; and that need is met by the income they receive from us. God has no such need, so that, when He turns the lights out, it is not because He needs to, but because He has made the punishment fit the crime. As those who Paul addresses as God sending them a “strong delusion,” “because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess. 2:11, 10)—so, if we do not value His light, and He turns the brightness of His countenance away.

The Currency of Worship

Here Malachi turns to that currency that we should be exchanging for the currency of glory. The currency we have to give is called worship—and that makes money a worshiping thing, one way or the other. These are the key words: ‘Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house’ (v. 10a). The word translated “tithe” (מַעֲשֵׂר) means “a tenth.” Whether the amount of ten percent is part of the moral law or not—and I will get to that in our application—the “full” part is, and the “food” part is, and the “my house” part is moral law. We know that because all of these other elements are taught in one way or another to the New Testament church. What are these other elements and why do I call them moral law?

So the fullness of what is offered was in play in Acts 5:1-11, when Ananias and Sapphira were judged for what? A percentage? No—but for a fullness that they withheld. They lied, yes, but lied about what? A fullness, yes, but a fullness of what? It isn’t about a number at all, but a fullness of the heart. In the Malachi passage, we are reminded that in the old covenant, when there was a central place of worship, people would bring not the kind of money that we are thinking of, but animals.

The food part is quite literal. In the Deuteronomy passages on the tithe, it becomes clear that this was to create a “feasting community,” starting with care for the Levites, yes, but also any who were in need. Always the emphasis was to get together for a celebration of God’s provision. It was like having several Thanksgiving holidays every year.

The essence of worship appears in putting these together. Clearly the “storehouse” belongs to the same entity as “my house,” the imagery of a storehouse making the most sense to an agricultural society. Whenever God speaks of His own house in Scripture, He is speaking of a temple or place of worship that functions as a temple. So in one important passage the tithe is called “holy to the LORD” (Lev. 27:30).

And another clue comes from one of the two previous prophets whose ministries occurred right after the people had returned from Babylon a generation or two before: “ Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Hag. 1:4) It has always been absurd, in the Old and New Covenant eras, to expect a thriving house of God’s glory without the corresponding offering of funds. As someone has said in more modern times, “The gospel is free, the electricity and plumbing are not.”

Why would such a thing as mundane as money be a kindling for the fires of worship? In the New Testament we read Paul’s answer:

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).

The word most signifying worship there is CHEERFUL. The gift of the giver is, in a sense, incidental, as it was with the widow’s mite (Luke 21:1-4). For example, its not the decision of the heart per se. Ananias and Saphirra had made their decision. It isn’t in the amount or even kind, since these can be given, as Paul says, “reluctantly or under compulsion.” What moves the money in a way that the light of God’s glory bursts through is in the cheer—in the passion, in the vision to see the fame of Jesus Christ expand.

The Currency of Individual Provision

The most extended part of the passage and the one that is most abused as a bribe in the mouth of charlatans are these words:

And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts (vv. 10b-11).

Regardless of “name it and claim it” frauds, these are the words of God Himself, and He does use the word test and He does promise a blessing that is material in nature. So what do we make of this? In the first place, the argument is not that there is nothing material about blessing. That would be Gnosticism. The problem with the Prosperity Gospel, as it is also called, is always that they are shooting too low, even with material blessing. The question is not whether we are for material resources; but rather what material resources are for.

We must read that cheerful giver passage in its full context, because there is a massive clue as to the kind of blessing God has an interest in overwhelming us with from His storehouse. We already had the clue of the kind of food that is found in His house, but if that doesn’t do it for you, consider Paul’s whole statement:

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (2 Cor. 9:6-8)

If you exchange the currency of worship to gain the currency of glory, yet, God will absolutely bless you with His means of glory—serving others, multiplying the word, expanding the kingdom, and so forth.

In other words, the difference between what I am calling proving God’s provision and the Prosperity Gospel is the difference between ultimate joy and a private pleasure, or an overflowing glory and hoarded glory—which is a contradiction in terms. Jesus talked about hiding our light under a bushel (Mat. 5:15). The man who comes to God to gain his own bottom line, to hoard resources for a kingdom composed of himself alone, has gained no real glory.

The Currency of Corporate Provision

These last words are the final rebuke of the Prosperity Gospel rendering of this passage. If the problem with their pursuit of wealth was not in material blessing per se, but of an utterly private kingdom or a hoarded glory, then the opposite would be a pursuit of the maximum public glory to God, fueled by all material resources given to us.

With the investment in these storehouses made, it says to the whole house of God: ‘Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts’ (v. 12). NATIONS. LAND OF. If the goal of the currency exchanged was more people to love and serve and grow, then what would we make of anyone who says either, “Oh, too many people” or even “Ooh, too many things for the people have their hands in”? That is a rhetorical question. We do not want to be such little souls.

What this means is that maximal glory to God is gained by us in the exchange of money for the building of Christian nations, which just means the building of Christian populations, which just means the building of a whole lot of Christians in the whole of life.

Practical Use of the Doctrine

Use 1. Instruction and Exhortation. It is not the exact number “ten” that is moral law, but rather the heart to set the feast on the table in the Lord’s house. I remember, two decades ago, a couple who had little money and lots of kids with more on the way. They asked about the tithe. Both myself and the other elders were of one accord—No. Bring your hunger for God’s word. Bring your willingness to serve. Bring all those kids because they are not a distraction at all, but a blessing. Sure enough, within another few years, this individual blessed us by paying for our account on Sermon Audio.

If your hunger is there—not only to feast, but to prepare the feast for more and more people—the money will be there in God’s good time, and very likely, overflowing. But for what? That is the real question we have our answer to today. Grace is free, but the air conditioning costs money: and so do more interns.

Sure, God doesn’t need your money; but you and I need to not miss out on the biggest feast that our neighbors’ souls were made for, and to open up the biggest storehouse of the new-old world they have been looking for as the world around them crumbles. And that is worth way more than 10% of our everything.

___________________________________________________

1. To be exact, six take the form of “How?” (1:2, 6, 7; 2:17; 3:7, 8) and one “Why?” (2:14).

2. John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2003), 198.