ARE YOU ROBBING GOD? In desperate situations, we have the tendency to do desperate things. As a matter of fact, many have gone as far as robbing God. You say: “How is that?”

We are living in very challenging and stressful times in which possession, money, and wealth matter to all. However, if not careful, the pursuit of wealth will pull us away from what really matters, which is our relationship with God and one another. 

Satan uses the things of this world to tempt and lure us to him. However, the Word of God provides us with the guidance needed to avoid his trap. (Split)

In the Bible, God has provided us with practical guidance on how to live above the stresses of life, and we are given instructions on how to manage the resources He has given us.

In this series, from a biblical perspective, we will look at how to manage effectively the resources God has given us while prioritizing what really matters.

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Asking For God’s Guidance

Heavenly Father, sometimes we find it difficult to be faithful, especially under difficult and trying circumstances. Help us to trust you and remain faithful regardless of our situation. In Jesus the Name Amen

We want to be faithful to God, but how do we learn to trust God and His promises when we are experiencing hardship? As a matter of fact, under hardship, if we have not learned to trust God under these circumstances, we might even rob God. How do we rob God?

Another contractual agreement between God and his people briefly covered in the previous day’s lesson had to do with honoring God with the first fruit of all our increase. What is the first fruit of our increase? The Bible defines it as Tithes.

There’s a close spiritual connection between the practice of returning tithe and our relationship with God. A Tithe is 10% of all the earnings or profit we get. If you gained or earned $100.00 dollars, you would give back to God $10.00 out of the hundred.  A business would tithe based on its net profit. As a manager of God’s family business, we are expected to return to Him 10% of whatever we earn.

The Israelites were successful and had plenty when they practiced faithfully returning tithes. But they had hard times when they kept the tithe for personal use or used it as they desired or saw fit.

They seem to have fallen into a cycle of obedience and prosperity, followed by disobedience and hardship.

 During one of those periods of disobedience and hardship, God, through the prophet Malachi made a bilateral or two-party agreement with them. This agreement is found in the book of Malachi. Specifically, Malachi 3:7–11. What was the agreement between Him and His people?

7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.

9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.

10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; (Malachi 3:7–11)

God promises his people that if they “Return to Him, and He will return to them,” (Malachi 3:7).

When the people ask God what shall we return, He tells them: “You have robbed me.” What was their response? “In what way have we robbed you?” God’s response then is “in tithes and offerings.”

You see, the reason they were being cursed was that they were robbing God by not returning a faithful tithe and offering. In fact, they were being cursed with a curse. They were receiving a double curse.

However, God in his loving mercy offered them a solution to their curse problem. He offers them a bilateral contract. He tells them to put him to the test. “try me!”

He says in Malachi 3:10:

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

The point here is, for those who are faithful in returning to God tithes and offerings they will eventually not have enough room to store the blessing God will give them. When we do not have room to store what we have received, we have a surplus. We have more than we need.

What can we do with the more than we need? We use it to help others and support God’s work on this earth.

Why should we be willing to return to God 10% of what he has given us?

And why should we, as we gain the surplus, that he has promised be willing to help others and advance the cause of God?

“He who gave His only-begotten Son to die for us has made a covenant with us. He gives you His blessings, and in return He requires you to bring Him your tithes and offerings. No one will ever dare to say that there was no way in which he could understand in regard to this matter. God’s plan regarding tithes and offerings is definitely stated in the third chapter of Malachi. God calls upon His human agents to be true to the contract He has made with them.”—Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship, p. 75. 

So, God expects us to return a faithful tithe and offering. When we fail to do this it says we are cursed with a curse.

One of the positive examples of returning tithes and the cycles of obedience for the Israelites is found in the time of King Hezekiah of Judah. He was a good manager. During the days of King Hezekiah, the people turned back to God. Under Hezekiah’s leadership, God’s people obeyed Him and started to keep their agreement with him.

They started to bring their tithes and offerings to the temple’s storehouse. The people brought so much that their gifts were piled high in the temple according to 2 Chronicles 31:5.

5 As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. (2 Chronicles 31:5)

Indeed, God poured out blessings that they did not have enough room to receive it. They had an abundance of everything!

Our giving shows our relationship with God. God wants us to willingly and cheerfully return back to him what he has given us.

How is your relationship with God, if you have discovered that you are robbing God, prove him and start returning a faithful tithe and offering to his storehouse which is his church. When you obtain surplus, instead of building bigger storage give it to those who need it and be willing to give extra to support the cause of God.

We are called to seek first the Kingdom of God. How do we do this? Find out more on Day 6: Putting God’s Kingdom First

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