“Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me” (Malachi 3:8). That seems like a strong accusation: and it seems that it felt that way for the people of Jerusalem a century after the Exile, as they asked “How are we robbing you?” God replied, “In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me – the whole nation of you!” (3:8-9).

In our present era we tend to think of church offerings as a charitable donation that we might or might not make: our decisions about what we might donate have to wait until we see what we have left over after we have paid all the other bills that have piled up. It’s worth noting, though, that even when money is tight for us, we are still far better off than the people of Jerusalem were, in the decades after they had returned from Babylon. Like them, we don’t think of ourselves as “robbing God” if we fail to pay a tithe. But God sees it differently. We are cursed with a curse, the text says, because we are failing to tithe.

Fortunately, we do not need to remain stuck with this curse: God challenges us to discover a great blessing instead. “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing” (3:10).

It’s an interesting offer. Suppose we took God up on it? If we do, “all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts” (3:12). What do you think? Do you suppose we can trust God to fulfill this promise? Would we become a land of delight once again, if we got our priorities right about tithing?

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Grant us the freedom, O God, to love you freely and lavishly with our substance: to bring the full tithe into your house. It is our desire to set our confidence in you: to rob you no longer, but rather to offer you extravagant love, from the fullness of our hearts, forever.

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