A History of Robbery...

This week, we are looking at another detour that the Jewish people had taken that had got them off track when it came to their relationship with God and dishonored God. Yesterday, in Malachi 3:7-8, we discovered that the Jewish people had taken a detour when it came to keeping God’s command to bring tithes and offerings. Today, as we continue to look at this detour, we see God’s command concerning the tithe recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 14:22-29, we read the following:

"You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. "You shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. "If the distance is so great for you that you are not able to bring the tithe, since the place where the LORD your God chooses to set His name is too far away from you when the LORD your God blesses you, then you shall exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses. "You may spend the money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household. "Also you shall not neglect the Levite who is in your town, for he has no portion or inheritance among you. "At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. "The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

In addition to the tithes, the Jewish people were to provide voluntary offerings of worship that were set aside and used for the maintenance of the Temple and the Levites and priests who cared for the Temple, However, throughout their history, the Jewish people failed to follow God’s command to bring a portion of the resources that God owned and that God had provided them and offer them back to God as an act of worship. And as a result of their failure to give God the honor and reverence that He deserved as their provider; as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, the Jewish people were conquered by the Babylonians.

Yet, even after returning from captivity and rebuilding the Temple, the Jewish people still continued to take a detour by robbing God. In the book of Haggai, we discover the Jewish people were choosing to ignore the rebuilding of the Temple in order to focus on building bigger and larger homes for themselves. God responded by condemning the Jewish people for being more concerned about building their own kingdoms instead of God’s kingdom.

In Nehemiah 13:10, we read that the Jewish people continued to fail to bring the tithe and offerings to God. And as a result of the Jewish people’s failure to bring these tithes and offerings, the Levites and the priests abandoned their positions and responsibilities in order to provide for themselves and their families, which resulted in the Temple being abandoned and the Jewish sacrificial system grinding to a halt. God was not longer receiving the worship He deserved.

Malachi then reminds the Jewish people of the consequences of their continued detours: "You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!”. Now when the Bible uses the word curse, it is referring to a destructive power that is sent by God as an instrument of God’s right and just response to selfishness and rebellion. And as we have seen previously in this letter, the Jewish people were experiencing a curse in the form of a famine throughout the region. The Jewish nation was not receiving enough rain; entire crops were failing. Yet, despite the curse that they were under, the Jewish people continued to rob God.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi communicate God’s promise to the Jewish people if they changed the trajectory of their lives so as to get back on track when it came to their relationship with God...