BIBLE PASSAGE:
“A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the
honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord
Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask,
‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ “By offering defiled food on
my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the Lord’s
table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not
wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try
offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he
accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
(Malachi 1:6-8)
MEDITATION:
Why is giving to the Lord so important for believers?
There are two main reasons:
1. It shows that we are allowing Him to live in our hearts.
2. It is an act of obedience.
Warning:
Rather than thinking,
“Here we go again, more talk about money”,
continue reading in order to understand that tithing is not
about money at all – it is much more important than that.
God was very specific regarding His requests for what the people should
bring to His altar. He did not want anything that people did not want, He
wanted what they preferred to keep. Why? Because when they gave what
they wanted to keep, it was a genuine sacrificial gift to Him.
God clearly explained that they should bring unblemished animals to be
sacrificed. However, they decided to offer Him less than what He requested.
They chose to keep the unblemished animals and give God the blemished
ones. In their minds, they probably justified to themselves that they should
keep the best and give God the second best. As a result, they would keep the
superior and give Him the inferior. That doesn’t even ‘sound’ right, does it
What was the primary cause of this kind of reasoning? They had not
allowed God to be in control of their hearts. As a result, they were not
only disobedient, but they insulted God and had failed to give Him first
place in their lives.
How did God respond to their selfishness?
In Malachi 1:13-14, God says,
“…..“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer
them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says
the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his
flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal
to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and
my name is to be feared among the nations.”
He told them that He was not going to accept their inappropriate and
insufficient sacrifices, because they were being selfish and disobedient.
In essence, God was telling them that they may as well keep their inferior
sacrifices because they were of no value to Him, and He would not accept
them.
In Malachi 2:1-2 God continues,
“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. If you do not listen,
and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty,
“I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I
have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.”
To paraphrase, God warns them that their acts of disobedience will
result in His withholding (cursed) their blessings. If they expected
God’s blessings, then they were required to give Him exactly what
He asked of them.
But no, they wanted to receive God’s blessings at a discounted rate,
as if they had some coupons that exempted them from paying the
full cost of sacrificing. By giving God less than He asked for, they
exposed themselves as selfish, rebellious, disobedient people, who
had not invited God into their hearts and were being disrespectful
in a way that insulted Him, and yet, they still expected Him to bless
them anyway.
Okay, so what does all this information about sacrificing animals have to
do with us? To answer this question, we need to identify the sacrifice God
requests of those who consider themselves as His children. It should not be
something we have diluted down to fit our wants, but it should be God’s
full request for sacrifice.
When you stop and think about it, we have many opportunities to show
our faith to others by our words, attitudes, and actions. But how do we
prove our faith in God, to God? Out of the sight of others, how can we
prove to God that our faith in Him is genuine?
There are at least three ways we can communicate our faith to the Lord.
1. Communicate to Him regularly through prayer.
2. Be obedient to the things He requires and expects of us.
3. Bring our sacrificial tithes to Him
(in the same manner that others brought sacrificial animals to Him).
Look at what He says in Malachi 3:10,
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.
Does God need our money? Of course not! He can acquire any
resources He desires. So why does He ask for our tithes? It gives
us an opportunity to prove our faith is real, and it opens up the
opportunity for us to receive His blessings.
There are a few things we see in Malachi 3:10:
1. Bring the ‘whole’ tithe.
In other words, don’t bring God anything that is less than what He has
requested. When our offering is less than the tithe He requests, we are
giving Him ‘blemished’ offerings. We are showing the same selfishness
and disobedience as those who brought blemished animal sacrifices.
When we give Him less than He desires of us, should we expect Him to
gratefully accept our offerings? Not according to what He told those who
brought Him blemished animals. If we refuse to give Him what He asks
of us, then why bring any offering at all?
2. He says to bring the tithe into the storehouse.
Where is His storehouse in our world? It would have to be the church house,
right? God wants us to bring our tithes to Him in His house, and yet some
don’t go to His house on a regular basis. Other things have replaced their
desire to spend time with Him. Some may have even decided that if they are
not attending church, then they won’t have a requirement to tithe. But that’s
not how it works. We don’t avoid church, so we don’t have to tithe; we tithe
as He requests, and our obedience leads us to His house.
3. When we obey God we can expect His blessings.
We may or may not receive financial blessings, but there are many other
ways we can be blessed. We can be blessed with a good job, a good home,
good health, love from others, peace of mind, good attitudes, etc. God says
that we could be overwhelmed when He
‘throws open the floodgates of heaven and pours out so much
blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’.
We should not expect His blessings if we have chosen to disobey His
command to give Him the full tithe expected of those who love Him.
When we give Him less because we have decided to keep what we
want, then we can expect our blessings to be withheld (cursed).
ACTION:
How obedient are you in regards to God’s commands? Do you give Him
all He requests, or do you selfishly keep a portion for yourself? Are you
going to His house regularly to worship Him and give Him the tithes He
has commanded from those who love Him? Does it seem that others are
receiving more blessings than the ones you are receiving? If so, it could be
that they have decided to be obedient to the Lord in areas where you aren’t.
Spend some time personalizing what the Lord expects of those who love
Him. Assume that you asked someone to do something specific, and if they
did, you would give them an unexpected gift or reward. If that person did
what you requested, you would be excited to give them their reward, right?
But what if they refused to do what you asked, or only did part of what you
requested? They didn’t do what was required to receive a reward, so you
would withhold it, right? Not only that, but you could assume that they did
not have enough respect for you to do what you asked.
Do you sincerely want to have fellowship and a close relationship with
the Lord? Do you expect His blessings regardless of your disobedience
and lack of respect?
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me opportunities to show
the genuineness of my faith. Forgive me for the areas of my life
where selfishness still exists. Soften my heart so that I will become
more obedient to You. I want to enjoy the many blessings You have
for me. I realize that I cannot expect Your blessings as long as I
remain disobedient of Your commands and disrespect You as my
Heavenly Father. You and I know the areas of my life that I have
not given to You. I need You to help me rearrange my priorities so
that I will be more obedient and pleasing to You. You have given
me so much already and I cannot imagine the additional blessings
You have for me when I choose to obey You. You are my Heavenly
Father and I want to learn to enjoy spending more time with You.”
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