Malachi 3

Malachi 3 has one of those magical verses that is so often quoted when a church is looking for a little extra money.

Verses 8-10: “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse —your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it..."

I really think this text was aimed at the Levite's, the Jewish priests. I think God is telling them to take everything that has been offered and put it in the storehouse, God might say, "Do not take a portion of my offerings for yourself. Instead, just trust in me."

But most often today this text is used to encourage people to give 10% of their pay to the church. I've heard it preached two ways. Either the congregation is accused of robbing from God and shamed into it, or the congregation is promised wealth beyond their dreams if they give. Either way, let's address the text as if it were written for us.

Truth is, God does want you to give 10%. God wants you to do a lot of things, like love your enemy and keeping the Sabbath holy, but God is not going to love you less is if you can't do it, just like God is not going to love you less if you have to work on the weekend to meet a deadline.

A friend of mine, who is a pastor, was telling me that a member of his church came to him and said "Pastor, we have been giving 10% for many years, but my wife just lost her job. If we keep giving 10% we will lose our house... what should we do?" I think God would agree with his response... "Stop giving 10%." He had been giving 10% for years and he never got rich.

My wife and I give 10%, but we haven't always. After seminary I didn't have a full-time job for almost a year and we had my student loans to pay for. I was excited when we were recently able to break the 10%  barrier. For some reason, I always felt like when I became an official "tither" I would change, maybe feel more generous. I never thought I'd be rich, but I was looking for some kind of blessing... I mean, that is what the text says.

I got a blessing, but not what I was expecting. The blessing is this, I don't look at the money the same way. It's not something that rules my life nor is it something that keeps me up at night. The Romans used to say that money was like salt-water, the more you drink the thirstier you get. Seems true today, our appetites for money are insatiable.

Don't get me wrong, I could figure out a way to spend money if I had it... But I'm not thirsty.

Maybe there is no better blessing than contentment.