Where Are The Blessings?
(Why Aren’t You Cursed?)
by Ronald W Robey
(written June 15, 2014)
Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
According to many pastors, the promise of Malachi 3:10 is for physical, emotional and, financial health for the family. They also claim it is for things like automotive protection, job security, and from any attacks attempted by the devil.
If the promise made by God in Malachi 3:10 is for all these things that many pastors claim, then Malachi 3:10 should open the eyes of all Christians. In that verse, God states that if the tithes are brought into the storehouse, He will open the windows of Heaven and pour out an abundant blessing.
Malachi 3:10, and its promise, must be addressed. God made a promise that He would pour out a blessing upon those who bring the tithes into the storehouse. He did not say He might pour out a blessing, He said He will pour out a blessing.
Is not God faithful to His promises? Over and over in Scripture we find that He cannot lie and that He is faithful in keeping His promises. This raises a serious question that the preacher who tells his congregation that they are to tithe their money needs to address…
…If God is faithful, (and we know He is) why are so many struggling to survive after tithing their hard-earned money?
Now, some preachers might claim, “If you were not mishandling the 90% you have left, you would have enough money to last til the end of the month!” True, but that does not answer the question. These pastors claim that God promised physical, emotional and, financial health for the family. They also claim it is for things like automotive protection, job security, and from any attacks attempted by the devil on the one who tithed. So, even if the 90% were spent wisely, there is still the promise of the blessing for tithing.
The promised blessing has absolutely nothing to do with the 90% that the one tithing has after giving 10% of his money to the Church… if indeed God required man to tithe his money, and if indeed the promised blessing from God is what many pastors claim it to be.
The fact that many do not receive the promised blessing after giving 10% of their paychecks to the Church proves that the physical, emotional and, financial health for the family….automotive protection, job security, and from any attacks attempted by the devil pastors claim God made in Malachi 3:10 were not made by God at all. If it were, God would be true to the promise He made and He would bless in abundance over and above what the tither already has, over and above the 90% the one tithing kept for his own needs.
People who tithed would not be getting sick, having family problems, losing jobs, having automotive problems, etc. at all.
Of course, there is also the inconsistency in the claim by some that we are under a curse because we don’t tithe while they themselves are blessed beyond measure because they do tithe. The truth is, if they are “blessed beyond measure” it is not because they tithe. That is easily proved with the two preceding verses in Malachi that says the whole nation is cursed because the tithe was not brought into the storehouse.
If the whole nation was cursed because some were not tithing, then it stands to reason that if Malachi 3:8-10 applied to the Church, then all would be cursed today because some are not tithing. We can only conclude that those that are allegedly “blessed beyond measure” are blessed, not because they tithe, but simply because…
…God wanted to bless them.
One might argue, “Oh, but you just said that if we tithed, God would bless in abundance and now you say He doesn’t bless in abundance for tithing? Well, He would bless in abundance for tithing if Malachi 3:10 applied to the Church. But it does not.
Malachi 3:7 states that tithing was an ordinance. It was an ordinance that was given to the children of Israel according to Leviticus 27:34. It was given to no other nation, tribe, or tongue. Tithing was an ordinance, but not for us.
Further, according to God’s tithe ordinance, the congregation is not to take their tithes to the House of God. They are to give their tithes to bloodline descendants of the biblical patriarch Levi. The Levite, in turn, is to take a tithe of the tithe to the House of God. The tithe of the tithe represents the entire crop.
If only God’s people could grasp the truths about the tithe, they would not be submitting themselves to the monetary tithe requirement doctirne…a doctrine that is not of God, but of man.
June 14, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Interesting. I am a Genevan Baptist minister. I receive no compensation for my service to my Lord. I see your point in much of this, except your comments about it ‘not meaning money’.
Most people do not have ‘crops’ to share with their pastor so they give what will help them in getting food, money.
I don’t know of many pastors that preach the ‘threat’ like you say, but I don’t know’em all.
Insight is good, looking into the ‘main thought’ of tithing.
As to not giving to support the ministers, I have a different Bible than most, so mine says different on the subject.
Galatians 6:6 in my Bible says: “Let him that is taught in the word, make him that hath taught him, partaker of all his goods.” [1560 Geneva Bible]
If you use the KJV you will see a noticeable difference.
As for ‘giving for a threat’ I know of nobody that gives ‘for a gift back’.
They give willingly and do not have to be threatened.
Those that have an attitude against supporting their pastor or the ministry of the Church, don’t usually give enough to make a difference anyway.
Be at peace friend.
LikeLike
June 15, 2014 at 5:27 am
For the record, I am not against giving to support the Church. I understand that the Church has bills.
What I am against, and it has been preached in every Church I have ever attended, is pastors standing behind the sacred desk and telling their congregations that God requires them to tithe their money. That command is nowhere written in the Word of God… not even in the Geneva Bible.
God gives us instruction on our giving in 2 Corinthians 8 and 2 Corinthians 9. We are to give as we choose in our hearts to give. Not in such a manner that other men are eased and we ourselves are burdened. There is no command for us to titheour money in the Bible.
LikeLike
June 15, 2014 at 11:23 am
I do notice Hebrews 7:8, says that men here ‘receive tithes’, so there was a ‘tradition’ of taking care of the men of God back then.
Yet, I do see what you are saying about the ‘blackmail’ going on.
I believe men ought to support the man of God, in his daily needs.
But scaring people does nothing the lift up the people though.
10% never hurt anyone, that being the definition of the word ‘tithe’,so as people of the One God Jesus Christ, in obedience to Galatians 6:6, will take care of the minister who opens up the word of God to them, even calling it the wrong term, will ‘tithe’ to help him.
I am not as opposed to what you teach as you may think, and I believe there are others out there that do the same.
LikeLike
June 16, 2014 at 8:37 pm
The “men here” that the author was speaking of in Hebrews 7:8 are the “sons of Levi” in verse 5.
The command to tithe was part of the Law. The Psalms tell us that the Law was given to Jacob and Gentile nations did not know the Law. Acts 15 & Acts 21 tells us that the Law was not to be required to keep the Law. The only people that Hebrews 7:8 can be refferring to are those who were under the Law… the Israelites.
LikeLike