Will a Man Rob God?

May 21

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation has robbed Me! Bring now the tithes into the storehouse so there may be meat in My house and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive. And, I will rebuke the devourer for your sake and he shall not be able to destroy the fruit of your ground nor shall your trees cast their fruit before the time of harvest.” Malachi 3:8-11.

God wants a tithe from you. He wants ten percent of your ‘first fruit.’ Simply put, He wants one tenth of all you gather into your coffers. He doesn’t want ten percent of what’s left after the government and the creditors take their cut of your earnings. He doesn’t want ten percent of what’s left when you’ve concluded your spending spree or taken your much-needed vacation. He wants His tenth off the top.

You might say that He’s being a bit over-demanding of what He receives from you but when you factor in the reality that it is He who has given you the ability to prosper you must conclude that everything you have is His--and He lets you keep 90 percent!

Deuteronomy 8:18 states very clearly, “It is God who gives you the ability to create wealth.” Ecclesiastes 6:2 goes on to say that some people who have wealth do not enjoy it, for the ability to do so comes also from God.

We can conclude from this that if we have wealth apart from having a relationship with the Lord, the increase that we enjoy will not be to our advantage. We all know people who have great holdings but seem abysmally miserable. They spend themselves seeking the pleasure that their wealth affords them, but they never realize any joy in their pursuits.

But we who know Christ, we who have “the joy of the Lord” as our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) realize that whatever we have in the way of good things in time is merely a sampling of the wonderful things He has prepared for us. As I Corinthians 2:9 states, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Knowing that there is an eternal wealth to be had when we give our lives to Jesus, should we not gladly lay the totality of our earthly treasure at His feet along with the totality of our lives? Should we not enthusiastically give not only our tithe but all that we have and all that we are in exchange for the riches of heaven forever?