Malachi 3: 10 – 11
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts.
I promised you good news last Monday. Last week’s message was pretty hard and the whole topic is uncomfortable for some folks, BUT here is the good news, and don’t you know that the gospel is Good News? Everything God said is for our benefit.
So now this section of Malachi 3 is just as loud to me as last week’s passage. God comes right out and tells us why He has made this requirement. And that is not like God. He doesn’t usually tell us why He wants us to do a thing. We are supposed to just trust Him and do as He says. He tells us here that we are the ones that supply His house.
Then, no sooner does He gets these words out of His mouth than He starts making some BIG promises: 1) He will open the windows of heaven for you, 2) He will pour out a blessing on you so huge that you will not be able to contain it and, 3) He will rebuke the devourer for you. Now, any one of those is enough but all three is really above and beyond.
I want you to see and understand that the promises He makes are part of the same sentence as the dictate to bring the tithe into the church and the explanation of why He gave the directive in the first place. In other words, in the same breath He starts telling you about the benefit to you when you stock the storehouse of God. The reason these are all together is that provision for you is the reason He wants you to give in the first place. He is telling you something for your own good. He is so adamant about this that He invites you to test Him in this. Isn’t that remarkable? Wow! God wants you to put Him to the test. He wants to bless you, and He wants to protect your seed and your harvest. He is trying to show you how His kingdom operates. He is trying to get you to let Him into your finances so that He can be the cultivator and protector of your harvest.
You see, we are in covenant with God. When you take care of the finances of His house, you have just invited and given permission to Him to take care of the finances of your house. It really is that simple. That is what He is trying to get over to us. He is trying to get something to you, not something from you. He wants to stand in your garden and protect it from the devourer. You have sown seed when you give into God’s house, so you are due a harvest. He is going to watch over that crop until the harvest if full and ripe. That is what it means when he says your vines won’t cast their grapes or fruit. Fruit which has fallen off of the vine is no good. It needs to stay on the vine until it is ripe, receiving nutrients, and then it is picked at the height of maturity.
If we could really grasp this, I mean really get it down into our hearts and into our understanding, we would never hesitate to give to God. No, we would give with great joy and excitement. When you are a tither, you can make a demand on God’s resources. When hard economic times come, you know with confidence that your harvest is protected by God. You will increase while others decrease because your wealth is tied to God rather than to the economy. If something bad heads in your direction, you will have the boldness to stand strong in the promises of God. You won’t have to ask God about your finances. That is already handled. You will just stand firm with that shield of faith out in front of you declaring and decreeing the Word of God.
So tithing is good news. Tithing is good for you. It was designed to bless you and protect your finances. It is part of God’s kingdom resources. You need to be a tither today more than anytime in the past. I know it is tough when you first start, but start. Get involved in God’s economic system. Don’t let another day go by that you don’t tell God you want in. If you don’t have an income, find something, anything to sow into His kingdom. You can always give time. You can probably find something of value in your house that will really bless someone else. Just do whatever you need to do in order to become part of God’s economy. Get in on His system today.