There’s no question that televangelists have made it difficult for people to listen to the Bible’s teachings about money. They’ve invented the concept of, so-called, ‘seed money.’ ‘Give God $10 and expect God to give you $1,000,’ they say. They flash their expensive cars and jewelry and declare that ‘Poverty is from the devil and God wants all Christians to be prosperous.’ In reality, they’re running a Christian pyramid scheme and getting rich on people who don’t know better. But where do they get their ideas and how should we understand the passages they wrongly cite? The place in Scripture they most often turn to is Malachi 3:6-12. Let’s consider that passage and try to separate the fact from the fiction.
Malachi was a Jewish prophet who ministered in Israel after the exile. Although the temple had been rebuilt, the spiritual condition of the nation was in disarray. In Malachi 3:7, God says to them, “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.” They had inherited patterns of sin from their families and their culture. It had become the air that they breathed. They thought that adding some religion to their lives would change things, but it hadn’t. A holy temple on its own couldn’t undo the consequences of unholy living. In the book, God addresses a number of areas of systemic corruption. Regarding finances, three lessons stand out.
1. True repentance includes financial repentance
The people in Malachi’s day did what we often do. We’re more likely to buy new exercise equipment and yoga pants than we are to actually start exercising. The people had built a temple to welcome God’s presence into their midst, but they hadn’t taken practical steps to welcome Him into their hearts.
Malachi 3:7-8 says this, “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.”
In verse 7, you see the repetition of the word ‘return, return, return’ and then in verse 8, it’s ‘rob, rob, rob.’ The people didn’t see any connection between repentance and a genuine reckoning with God’s authority over their finances. In God’s mind, they were robbing Him of the place He deserved in their finances. True repentance includes financial repentance. Billy Graham agreed. He once said, “If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.”
2. Finances are the one area where God invites His people to test Him
When Malachi ministered to the people, times were tough financially for most of them. They had lost everything in the exile and starting over in a new country with neighbours who are hostile to your presence isn’t easy for anyone. Giving God 10% of their income and special offerings above and beyond that seemed impossible. But God wanted them to trust Him with their finances and so He asked them to test Him in this area of their lives. In verse 10, He says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts.” It’s unusual because God usually says not to test Him. But here, He wants them to test His faithfulness. That begs the question, though, what kind of test He’s inviting. Are we to test God’s ability to make us rich?
3. God promises to meet our needs not give us Cadillacs
The rest of the verse clarifies the kind of test God is proposing. It says, “put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” When we order our finances according to God’s priorities, He does promise to “open the windows of heaven” for us, but the idea isn’t that gold is going to fall from the sky. He promises “blessing” but it’s to meet our need not to feed our greed. In fact, it’s often not until we start to trust God with our finances that we’re able to discern the difference between the two and begin to experience gratefulness for God’s provision and contentment in having our needs met.
Has twisted teaching on money kept you from giving God authority over your finances? Have you repented of your sin in general without repenting of your attitude toward money in particular? If the idea of tithing feels overwhelming, why not test God’s faithfulness to meet your needs? God won’t have any part in a plan that involves our greed, but He does love to provide for His children when they trust Him.
In awe of Him,
Paul
