Sunday, March 02, 2025

Doesn't Malachi 3:10 heavily imply that every time I tithe, I am essentially buying future blessings?

 

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Doesn't Malachi 3:10 heavily imply that every time I tithe, I am essentially buying future blessings?

Malachi 3:10 is a well-known verse from the Bible, and here it is:

  • "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.”

So doesn't that heavily imply that every time I tithe, I am essentially buying future blessings?

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[–]CalvinistxKingSrtx 2 points  

How much have you studied the theology of eschatology?

Or unpacked the systemic theology of ‘blessings’?

[–]Tower_Watch 3 points  

Please don't buy into the prosperity doctrine.

[–]MamoyoSpecial 2 points  

I am curious to know this as well.

[–]Christianalilland 1 point  

If you were under the Sinai covenant, yes. However you aren’t under that covenant.

[–]PresbyterianChucksweager 2 points  

First, you aren't buying blessings, God is saying He will bless His people If they tithe.

This blessing is corporative, so this doesn't mean every christian who tithe Will be financially blessed. The promise is extended to the church.

And yes, lots of versicles God associate tithing fidelity with blessings to His people. But there's others that anounce the obligation of tithing.

[–][deleted] 1 point  

Tithing was for when we had priests inside a tabernacle. Tithing was done to support the people and the priests. Who were the people? It was a specific group of people called the Levites. Why did they tithe? They owned zero land or means to provide food or shelter for themselves. The tithing specifically was given to the poor, widows, and orphans. The reason is very simple, and this does not happen even in the slightest way. Tithing does not exist on earth right now and has not for a really long time.

If anyone tells you that tithing exists, then they are twisting scripture to support their want to take money from people. We can not buy blessings even to the slightest degree. If they do claim tithing, then why not also do everything else God commanded with tithing? They only want to follow what benefits them.

Leviticus 27:30-34 "A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it. Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord. No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed. These are the commands the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites."

Numbers 18:20-26 "The Lord said to Aaron, 'You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. From now on, the Israelites must not go near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. It is the Levites who are to do the work at the tent of meeting and bear the responsibility for any offenses they commit. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord. That is why I said concerning them: ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’”

Malachi 3:8-10 "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."

What you quote is exactly what I am talking about. People are taking money from people and yet not giving it to those in need, but keeping it for themselves. God is rebuking Israel in that passage, and He is not approving of their way. He is saying give to the widows, orphans, and all Levites who work or that they will be cursed as said by His law for tithing.

Acts 8:18-20 "When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, 'Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.' But Peter answered, 'May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!'"

God is sarcastic sometimes if people do not know.

Amos 4:4-5 "Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings—boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do," declares the Sovereign Lord."

[–]Christian No IsmsTeaVinylGod 1 point  

God was talking directly to Malachi. He was not talking to you.

[–]Roman Catholicstripes361 1 point  

The mistake that a lot of people make is to view this on an individualistic level, because we live in a hyper-individualistic, atomized, and self-centered society (if you live in the US at least.)

The original readers of this verse would have understood this on a community level: If we, the Faithful, are collectively faithful to God, He will collectively be faithful to us.

My Church (the Catholic Church) has a related concept called the Treasury of Merit. I won’t get too bogged down in that concept but the important thing to note is the belief that graces stored up by one holy and faithful individual is usually going to be applied to benefit someone else, not that person. The faith of martyrs and the heroically virtuous benefit the community of faith, rather than giving them worldly riches or success themselves.

Regardless of whether you and/or your specific denomination/School of Theology would even subscribe to the Catholic “Treasury of Merit” notion, that is the sort of relationship being suggested here. Not that the tithes of an individual will buy worldly wealth, power, and fame for that individual; but rather, that faithfulness from the community of the faithful will entail blessings given back to the community of the faithful, as a collective.

 

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