Does Our Giving Matter? – Malachi 3:6-12

Does Our Giving Matter?

God spoke this passage to his people Israel, and he says some hard things: you are robbing me. Who among us would say, I want to rob God? To understand who God’s people are, we have to go back to the gospel. Adam and Eve ate the fruit they were told not to eat, sin was made known, and their perfect unity with God was broken. That sin passes down from generation to generation. We do not have to teach our children to lie or be mean to their siblings. Then in Genesis 3:15 God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. That is Jesus, who died for our sins and rose in three days. How do we become God’s people? We believe on him, not mere mental assent, but trusting that Jesus truly is God, who lived sinlessly and died for the sins of the world. It is by grace. That changes how we come to a passage on giving.

God Does Not Change

The week before, we saw two disputes in Malachi, one about how men treated their wives and one in which people accused God of being unjust. God ended by saying he will judge, and in verse 5 he says that includes his people. Then verse 6 begins our passage: “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” If it were up to your behavior, he would have ended you. But he is merciful. Verse 7: from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes. The Old Testament has more bad kings than good, and even the good ones failed him. But the good ones did what the rest of verse 7 says: “Return to me, and I will return to you.” There is hope in repentance. They asked, how shall we return? God says, will man rob God? You are robbing me. How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. The tithe was not only ten percent. There were several tithes and freewill offerings, perhaps 20 to 30 percent of their resources each year, mostly crops and cattle.

Why We Struggle to Give

When God moves our hearts to help someone, or we read a New Testament passage on giving, why do we not do it? At the end of the day, we trust how we spend our money more than we trust God. We view our houses, cars, and bank accounts as ours. But we are stewards. He gives us things for the short time we live, and we cannot take them with us. In the parable of the talents, the master gave servants money to use for his benefit. So when we say, I can’t afford to do that, we are saying the money is mine and God doesn’t understand what I need. We think keeping more brings security. God says the opposite. It is like being at a well and running off with the water, then wondering why you are thirsty again. Verse 9 says you are cursed with a curse. It is not a mystical curse. It means you cut yourself off from the provider.

Why does God care so much about giving? Matthew 6:21 says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. My son talks weekly about buying a bass boat because he likes fishing. We invest in what we care about. If your heart is excited about what God is doing in the church and in missions, you are excited to give. “Let’s be honest it’s probably almost all of us struggle in giving in some ways.”

Test Me

Verse 10 tells them how to repent: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” Those who worked in the temple had no land and depended on the faithfulness of God’s people. Repentance here is simple: confess it to God, and start giving as he has asked. Then he says, and thereby put me to the test. We do not test authorities. But God is saying that if we reconnect to the source, he will pass. Like a parent who says, give this to the other child and I’ll make it up to you, the child says, why? because they do not trust you. Trusting God in giving is like jumping into his arms instead of holding ourselves up with our own legs. And “you never fail,” because he is infinitely good and powerful.

A man fell off a cliff and caught a root, and he yelled, is anyone up there? God said, let go of the root. The man paused and said, is anyone else up there?

Why can we trust him? Verse 6 begins, “For I the Lord.” In all capitals, that is Yahweh, the name given to Moses, the I AM. He is not limited by time or space. And he is good.

The Blessing

Verse 10 says he will open the windows of heaven and pour down a blessing until there is no more need. Verse 11 says he will rebuke the devourer, such as locusts, so crops do not fail. Verse 12: “All nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight.” The people who trust him are happy and not worried about the next bill or losing a job. Budgets are tools, but we trust God, not our Excel documents. He stamps his name on it: says the Lord of hosts.