Does Malachi 3:10 still apply today?

Thanks to those who send in questions each week. Keep them coming. This week, we are going to do
something a little different. We’re going to respond to a question that was asked during the sermon. This past Sunday, we kicked off our summer series titled, This is My Story, where ministry leaders from around our church will be sharing how God has worked in their lives and relating it to how we see God working throughout the pages of Scripture. This past week, we heard from Fritz, who serves as one of our elders, and during his testimony, he brought up Malachi 3:10, which says,

“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and thereby put Me to the test,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

Fritz then posed the question, “Since that is a passage from the Old Testament, does it still apply to us today?”

And here’s my response. Like so many questions similar to this one, the response is yes, but not how you might think, or at least not how it’s often presented. See, this verse is often used inappropriately or inaccurately. This verse is used to be saying: If you tithe to the church, then God will bless you richly. Then that answer is no, that does not apply to us because that did not apply to the original hearers of the passage either.

Unfortunately, this passage has often been taken out of context to support what we would call the prosperity gospel. The prosperity goes something like this, if you give money, you will be blessed. Picture the TV evangelist that says, if you send us a check right now, God will heal your illness, or God will surely give you that new job, or if you give enough money and believe hard enough, you will win the lottery.

That goes against what Scripture teaches about tithing, and that goes against this passage, and it goes against the teaching of the true gospel, which says you cannot earn favor from God. Grace is free, and Christ has already paid your debt of sin.

So what does this passage mean? And for that, let’s zoom out a little bit, more than just verse 10. Right before that, in verse 7, it says,

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Then verse 10 says:

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse…

This word from the Lord is in response to people of Israel turning their back on God. And evidently, They didn’t think they were. And God says, you are robbing me. Tim Keller points out that the word used here in verse 10 for storehouse could also be translated, and he says should be translated as the treasury of the temple. It was where they stored the treasures of the temple. But before we get into the blessings part of verse 10, let’s look ahead just a little bit again to gain context of what this whole passage is talking about. Verse 13 and 14 say this:

“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

Again, they’ve turned their back on God, and they’re grumbling about serving the Lord, essentially saying, what’s in it for me? And then it all comes together in verses 16 through 18 and
says:

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

God will make up His treasured possession. And what’s his treasured possession? It’s his people. “I will spare them,” he says. He’s talking about people. His treasured possession are his people. This is not a passage about a spiritual transaction, money for blessing. It’s a passage about treasure and what it is that we treasure.

Now, there may have been a few hundred years between the writing of Malachi and Jesus. But in my Bible, Jesus enters the story just a page later. And less than 10 pages later in Matthew
chapter six. (And if you’re reading through your Bible regularly, like we should be, this should
really jump out at us because we have just read these words in Malachi about God making up his
treasured possession.) And here in Matthew six, it says–you’ll recognize this passage–six, starting in verse 19. It says:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now, there’s a lot that can be learned in Scripture about tithing and the proper handling of money. And Malachi chapter 3 is an important part of the discipline of giving to the church. But the bigger picture of this passage is this: Where is your heart when it comes to giving and serving the Lord? Are we giving sacrificially and generously? Or are we asking, what’s in it for me while grumbling?

I like how Tim Keller said it when he preached on this passage. He said, when you see him dying because you were the treasure of his heart, then and only then will he become the treasure of yours. When you see that he made you the treasure of his heart, that will make him the treasure of your heart. And suddenly money won’t be significant. It will just become money. Because he is the significance. And suddenly money will not become security. It will just become money. He will be the security and you’ll be free. You’ll finally be free.

Paul says–and again, I’m still quoting Tim Keller here–Paul says, don’t sit down with a
calculator if you want to become a giver. Sit down with the cross.

So does Malachi 3:10 apply to our lives today? Yes. But it’s not about the transaction of what can I get from God as a blessing if I give to the storehouse or temple treasury. It’s about right attitude of giving back to God from what He has already blessed us with. First and foremost, the blessing of being called His treasure.

Well, I hope that helps and leads to more discussion. Again, thanks for sending in your questions, or in this case, thanks Fritz for posing the question in the middle of your testimony.