Try Him on This!
ICS Daily Devotions
Malachi 3:10-11 (NKJV) Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try 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 such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
Many of us will pray for a good price when selling our property, but how many of us will honour the Lord and pay tithe at the altar when it has been sold at a good price? This is why it is important to pay tithe on our salary. If we cannot give tithe on a smaller amount, how much more difficult it is to give tithe on profits from a property sale or our business? Many of us will also ask God for favour in our jobs and businesses. As God honours His part, are we honouring Him with what is due to Him and His storehouse?
Because the people in the Book of Malachi withheld their tithe, God had to challenge them to try Him on His faithfulness. God doesn’t want His house—whether His temple or the church—to be in lack! Our unwillingness can cause God to withhold His hand. Therefore, everything that we do has to be done through a close walk and relationship with God.
Abraham loved God and declared His trust in God, whereas Lot loved the world and what he saw—the plains of Sodom. While Lot trusted in what he saw, Abraham trusted in God whom he knew. When someone like Lot who doesn’t know God gets closer to Sodom, it is their first step toward compromising with the world. Eventually, Lot’s entire family was living in Sodom when the invaders came and took everything.
Abraham, who knew God, led 318 men with him to attack the invaders and recovered everything. On the way back, Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek because he treated him as superior to him. Melchizedek is a type of Christ with no beginning and no end. Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek for the priesthood. Therefore, we can conclude that tithing is still applicable in the New Testament because it was practised before the Mosaic Law. In fact, God made tithing a part of the Mosaic Law to be a form of worship and also to provide for the livelihood of the Levites.
Obedience is better than sacrifices. We can be giving sacrificially or generously to good causes, but what God requires is obedience to do what He asked in the Scriptures. When we tithe, we are being obedient. The tithe is paid to the storehouse—the church of the living God where the Word is preached and taught.
We should cultivate a lifestyle of giving, and worship the Lord with our tithe and freewill offerings because it is the Lord’s money. We should be led to give towards whatever He wants us to give freely and joyfully. As we do that, we will experience God’s faithfulness in providing for us. We will always receive back what we have given to Him because it is a spiritual law.
Sermon Series: Freewill Offering
