S. ARE SOME MINISTRIES ROBBING GOD?

ARE SOME MINISTRIES ROBBING GOD?

Dear Don, I have a question about Malachi 3:1-18 references to tithing.

Before this, in Malachi 2:1-17, at the beginning of the previous chapter, it says “And now, O priests, this commandment is for you.” and then it proceeds to say much about how the priests were conducting themselves. It seems that the next two or maybe three chapters are all about their misdeeds and wrong attitudes. When we get to Malachi 3:1-18 it speaks of not bringing all the tithes into the storehouse. Now, if I remember correctly, the people brought the tithes to the priests, and they brought them into the storehouse. If the priests did not do what was right, and did not bring it in, and not put meat in the storehouse to be used for the purposes God intended, then they took what the people gave to God, and stole it from Him. They were the ones robbing God. Not the people themselves.

Rather than calling a man who did not give a robber, it seems more logical that “robbing God” refers to stealing what had been given to God, dedicated to God. In Deuteronomy there is a prescription for the tithe that divides giving into three one year periods. One year it was set outside for the poor, one year given to the priests, and one year it was taken to the temple to throw a party for the purpose of praising God (try teaching that in church). So it doesn’t seem that not bringing the tithe into the storehouse could really refer to anyone but someone to whom the tithe was given for the purposes God outlined, but which purposes were not carried out. And this is why there would be a curse on the nation as stated in Malachi. An individual lack of bringing a tithe would not curse a nation, but the priests lack of bringing it in for proper use could do that. That is the context of Malachi 3:1-18, the whole nation was cursed, but you know that someone in that nation gave tithes. And, sadly, that same is in operation today. How many leaders of churches are using the funds given to them in ways that God has not designed, nor planned, nor told them to do? Its really true that men rob God, but it may not be quite the way we think. C.S. Clovis, NM