Read Malachi Again
by Ronald W Robey
(written February 17, 2019)
Does your church teach you that, as a member of the congregation, God requires you to tithe to the House of God? Does your Pastor use Malachi 3;8-10 to show you that you are a thief if you don’t give ten percent of your monetary income to the House of God?
What would you say if I told you your pastor has been teaching that passage in Malachi wrong? What if I told you that God does not require you to give a tenth of your monetary income to the House of God?
Would you be willing, with a mind to see, read, and know the truth, to open your Bible and compare what I am about to show you concerning the command given in Malachi?
First, let us look at Malachi 3:7…
Malachi 3:7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
In Malachi 3:7, God is calling for a return to His ordinances. Are you aware that God’s ordinances say that
a) God’s tithe is to be agricultural, not monetary?
Leviticus 27:30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of
the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto
the LORD.
Leviticus 27:31 And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.
Leviticus 27:32 And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock,
even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto
the LORD.
Leviticus 27:33 He shall not search whether it be good or
bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both
it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.
b) the congregation is forbidden to tithe to the House of God?
Numbers 18:21 And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the
tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve,
even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Numbers
18:22 Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the
tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.
This means that, contrary to what has been preached concerning tithes for many years is wrong. Malachi is not saying to tithe money. Nor is he telling the congregation to tithe to the House of God.
The ordinances say that the congregation is to give the tithe to the bloodline descendants of Levi, and that the bloodline descendant of Levi is to take a tithe of the tithe to the House of God.
Nehemiah 10:29 They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;
Nehemiah 10:37
And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our
offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil,
unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the
tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have
the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.
Nehemiah 10:38 And the
priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take
tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the
house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.
That’s right…only a tithe of the congregation’s tithe (1%) was to go to the House of God…and it was only the Ministerial Staff (the bloodline descendants of Levi) that were required to tithe to the House of God.
Malachi would not have told people to return to the ordinances in verse 7 and then turned around and told them to transgress the ordinances in verse 10.
Malachi was not speaking to the congregation! They were not allowed to tithe to the House of God by Law. Pastors have been preaching Malachi wrong for many years, and because the congregation doesn’t study properly, they never realize that they are not required by God to tithe money. Nor does God require them to tithe to the House of God.
So, if Malachi was not speaking to the congregation, who was he speaking to?
The answer can be found in the previous two chapters of the Book. From the very first verse, we discover that Malachi was sent to give a message to Israel.
Malachi 1:1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
As we read a little further down in the chapter, we find that Malachi was sent specifically to the Priests of Israel. They had robbed God by removing tithes and offerings from the storehouse and replacing them with unacceptable and unclean offerings.
Malachi 1:6 A son
honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father,
where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the
LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say,
Wherein have we despised thy name?
Malachi 1:7 Ye offer polluted
bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In
that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
In the second chapter, Malachi tells the Priests that he has a command for them.
Malachi 2:1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
However, if you read the entire second chapter you will discover there is no command given to the Priests. The command is not given until chapter 3. That’s right…”Return unto Me”.
Again, God was calling for the Priests to return to His ordinances and to bring the tithes they had stolen back into the storehouse where they belonged.
If you still want to obey Malachi 3:10, you can’t…for two reasons.
1. The House of God that God said His tithe was to be taken to was destroyed in AD 70.
2. The Law said a Priest from the Aaronic bloodline must be present at the time the congregation gives their tithe. There is no Aaronic Priesthood today. That ended when the House of God was destroyed in AD 70 and the Priests and Levites scattered.
So, now you probably want to know…”How do we keep our place of meeting in operation if not by tithes?” The answer is simple…Voluntary, free-will contributions made by the members. No need to lie to them about a monetary tithe that God never authorized, nor commanded in His word. Teach them to love God and to have a love for the things of God. If they love God, they will give toward meeting needs.
They may even give more, since they will be giving out of love rather than out of guilt.