If you have been in church for any length of time, you have heard Malachi 3 spoken, preached on or proclaimed in a service.The famous question, will a man rob God? has led people to convince us to give a tenth of our income to the church, which I believe is a discipline we should be consistent in. But, this is more than an issue of money, it is about our belief system. Giving our money without the right beliefs will lead to more problems than rewards. I don’t know about you, but I have been tithing for my whole Christian life, yet I have yet to see the promises of Malachi 3 manifest in my life and that is what led me to this revelation. I know God would not say it, if He was not going to do it, so the question that lead to the revelation is where is the disconnect and this is what I learned.
Those who don’t tithe curse themselves (Malachi 3:8-9), but those who do tithe need to ask themselves if they are dubious. Dubious means doubtful; questionable; of uncertain outcome; wavering or hesitating in opinion; inclined to doubt; unclear; undecided; hesitant. We can give our tithe out of obedience and be dubious in our thoughts about if God is really going to reward, return or bless us like He said He would (Malachi 3:10-11). When we do not see an instant return on our financial investment, the enemy can use time to make us dubious in our beliefs about the reward, the return or the promised blessing. I don’t know about you, but I had to repent of being dubious.
Malachi 3:13-15 speaks of the harsh words we have said against God, not necessarily out loud, but in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our attitudes, in our actions. When promises do not manifest when we think they should, we are prone to becoming dubious and in our impatience we complain, get frustrated and stop giving. Most people, myself included are completely oblivious to the truth we are robbers or complainers and have become dubious. So, what is going on with all the prophesies, the arrival of the Kingdom Age and everything we are hearing about?
I believe, God is once again starting with Malachi 3, he is sending His messengers to prepare the way for He is here as a Father, the orphans are being brought into families, where provision, protection, safety is assured and we will cease to be beggars. We will give without fear of lack, because we have a Father who provides for everything we need. Then all nations will call us blessed (leaders, guides), we will be valuable, desirable, acceptable, delightful, pleasurable in the eyes of the nations, because we have a Father and we are apart of a family. We will go from being orphans to be sons and daughters and people will take notice.
We will not longer be dubious, but we will be remembered as those who feared the Lord and meditated on His name, and we shall be His! Then there will be a demarcation between the righteous and the wicked, between family members and those who are yet to know they have a Father in heaven.
Don’t quit, the day is fast approaching, all that we have labored for will be revealed and rewarded, if it has not been already, for the greatest reward is the realization that we have a Father and we are apart of a family.
Holy tithing in Malachi, as used by Moses and Jesus, was always only food from inside Israel. While money is very common even in Genesis,, money is never a tithe. Holy tithes of food were only commanded to Old Covenant Israel and never to Gentiles. I challenge anybody to debate me on this subject.. Russell Earl Kelly PHD
Dr. Kelly.
You are absolutely correct in your theological statement, there is no mention of tithing in the NT church, because they understood that God did not want 10%, He wanted 100% of who they were. We are called to hold nothing back, not our money, not our food, not our life, nothing, it all belongs to the Lord. We are only managers of this thing we called life, He alone is the owner and He can take whatever He wants whenever He wants. However, love is not demanding or commanding, it is inviting and the invitation to give it all away was there then and it is here now. Thank you for pointing this out to us and for leading the way in giving it all away.
Lisa