Testing God With Your Wallet
Introduction: The Last Bastion of Self-Rule
There are certain topics that, when raised in the church, cause a peculiar sort of shuffling in the pews. We can talk about high-minded doctrines like predestination or the intricacies of eschatology, and men will nod along thoughtfully. We can speak of prayer and evangelism, and receive a hearty amen. But when the sermon turns to the subject of money, a different atmosphere descends. Wallets seem to get heavier, pockets get tighter, and a defensive glaze comes over the eyes. This is because for many modern Christians, money is the last bastion of their personal sovereignty. It is the one area where they, not Christ, remain king.
The prophet Malachi comes to a people in a similar condition. The temple had been rebuilt, but the spiritual fire had gone out. They were going through the motions of religion, offering blemished sacrifices, and sighing that serving God was a wearisome burden. Their worship was formal, but their hearts were far from God. And God, like a divine auditor, comes to inspect the books. He knows that the flow of a man's treasure reveals the true direction of his heart. And so He confronts them not with a charge of doctrinal error, but with a charge of embezzlement. He accuses them of robbing Him.
This passage is not a fundraising appeal. It is a covenantal lawsuit. It is God diagnosing the heart-sickness of His people by looking at their bank statements. The issue is not that God needs their money. The Creator of the cattle on a thousand hills is not short on cash. The issue is that their refusal to give revealed a fundamental breakdown in their relationship with Him. They had ceased to trust Him as their provider, honor Him as their Lord, and worship Him as the source of all goodness. And as we will see, this ancient diagnosis is as relevant to the church in the twenty-first century as it was to post-exilic Judah.
The Text
"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 Yahweh of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'
"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and contributions.
You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and empty out for you a blessing until it is beyond enough.
Then I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not corrupt the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field fail to bear," says Yahweh of hosts.
"So all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land," says Yahweh of hosts.
(Malachi 3:7-12 LSB)
The Audacity of the Embezzler (vv. 7-8)
The exchange begins with God's gracious, standing offer of covenant renewal.
"'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 Yahweh of hosts. 'But you say, "How shall we return?"'" (Malachi 3:7)
God's call is simple: "Return." This is the constant refrain of the prophets. It is a call to repentance, to come back to the terms of the covenant. But the people's response is one of cynical, feigned ignorance. "How shall we return?" This is not the question of a sincere heart seeking direction. This is the defiant question of someone who refuses to admit they have ever left. It is a self-righteous shrug. They are essentially saying, "What do you mean, return? We never went anywhere. We're here at the temple, aren't we? We're bringing the sacrifices, aren't we?" They are blind to their own apostasy.
So God gets specific. He lays down a charge so shocking it ought to have shattered their complacency.
"'Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, "How have we robbed You?"' In tithes and contributions." (Malachi 3:8)
The question "Will a man rob God?" is rhetorical. The very idea is absurd, impudent, and insane. Who in their right mind would attempt to steal from the omniscient, omnipotent Creator of the universe? It is the height of folly. And yet, God says, "That is precisely what you are doing." And again, they respond with the same insolent question, demanding specifics: "How have we robbed You?" They are challenging God to produce the evidence.
And God does. He presents the invoice: "In tithes and contributions." The tithe was the required ten percent of all their increase, the firstfruits, which belonged to God and was used to support the priesthood and the work of the temple. The contributions, or offerings, were the freewill gifts given over and above the tithe. They were withholding both. This was not a simple oversight. It was systemic, calculated theft from the Almighty. They were treating God's portion as their own, consuming it for their own purposes, and in so doing, they were declaring that they, not God, were the ultimate owners of their possessions.
The Inescapable Curse (v. 9)
Their theft had direct, observable consequences in the real world.
"You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!" (Malachi 3:9 LSB)
This curse was not an arbitrary punishment. It was the built-in, covenantal consequence of their sin. In Deuteronomy 28, God had laid out the terms of the covenant very clearly. Obedience brings blessing: rain in its season, fruitful crops, victory over enemies. Disobedience brings curses: drought, blight, locusts, and economic ruin. By withholding the tithe, they were cutting themselves off from the very source of blessing. They were trying to secure their own prosperity by hoarding what belonged to God, and in the process, they were guaranteeing their own poverty.
Imagine a farmer who decides to save money by not planting any seed. He holds onto his seed corn, congratulating himself on his frugality, and then wonders why his fields are barren at harvest time. The barrenness is not a punishment; it is the natural result of his foolishness. So it was with Israel. Their land was unproductive because their hearts were unproductive. Their crops were being eaten by pests because their greed was eating their souls. And this was not an individual problem; it was a corporate, national sin. "The whole nation of you!" When God's people collectively decide to dishonor Him with their wealth, the entire community feels the effects.
The Divine Challenge (v. 10)
But God does not leave them under the curse. He provides the way out, and He frames it as an audacious challenge.
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and empty out for you a blessing until it is beyond enough." (Malachi 3:10 LSB)
The command is twofold. First, "Bring the whole tithe." Not a portion of it. Not what is convenient. Not what is left over after all other expenses are paid. The whole tithe. The first and the best. This is an act of faith, acknowledging that the ninety percent with God's blessing will go further than one hundred percent without it. Second, bring it "into the storehouse." In that context, this was the temple treasury, which supported the Levites who ministered before the Lord. The direct New Covenant equivalent is the local church. The tithe is for the support of the ministry of Word and Sacrament, the central work of God's kingdom on earth.
Then comes the most remarkable invitation in all of Scripture: "test Me now in this." We are generally warned not to put the Lord our God to the test. But here, God Himself invites it. He is so confident in His own faithfulness and generosity that He challenges His people to act on His promise and see if He does not make good on it. This is not a presumptuous test born of unbelief, but a faithful test born of obedience. God is saying, "Take me at my word. Obey me in this matter of finances, and just see what I will do."
And the promised result is extravagant. He will "open for you the windows of heaven." This is the language of the flood, but in reverse. Instead of a deluge of judgment, God promises a deluge of blessing. He will "empty out for you a blessing until it is beyond enough." The Hebrew literally means a blessing so great there is no more room for it. This is not the restrained language of a health-and-wealth gospel. This is the overflowing, super-abundant generosity of a covenant-keeping God who delights to bless His obedient children.
The Fruit of Faithfulness (vv. 11-12)
The blessing is described in specific, agricultural terms, directly reversing the curse they were experiencing.
"Then I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not corrupt the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field fail to bear... So all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land." (Malachi 3:11-12 LSB)
God's blessing is not just positive provision; it is also divine protection. "I will rebuke the devourer." The locusts, the mildew, the blight, all the things that were destroying their livelihood, God Himself would drive away. A significant part of God's blessing is the trouble we do not have, the disasters that do not strike, the expenses that do not arise. This is the hidden providence that sustains us.
The result is not just survival, but fruitfulness. Their vines will not fail. Their labor will be productive. And the ultimate purpose of this prosperity is not for their own comfort and luxury. The purpose is missional. "So all the nations will call you blessed." Their visible prosperity and the manifest favor of God upon them would be a powerful testimony to a watching pagan world. Their land would be "a delightful land," a beacon of God's goodness. When God's people are faithful, generous, and obedient, the community they build becomes attractive. It becomes a foretaste of the New Jerusalem, a city on a hill whose light cannot be hidden.
Conclusion: The Gospel Tithe
The principle laid out in Malachi is not a legalistic hoop to jump through. It is a fundamental principle of worship that predates the Mosaic law, seen in Abraham and Jacob, and is reaffirmed in the New Testament. The tithe is the baseline of Christian giving, the starting point. It is the regular, disciplined practice of acknowledging God's ownership over all that we have.
But for the Christian, this entire passage is refracted through the lens of the gospel. Who is the one who was truly robbed? God the Father was robbed of the glory, honor, and obedience due Him from His creatures. And who took the curse that we deserved for our cosmic embezzlement? The Lord Jesus Christ. He hung on the cross, bearing the full weight of the covenantal curse for thieves like us.
And who is the one who truly opened the windows of heaven? At Pentecost, God poured out the ultimate blessing, the Holy Spirit, because of the finished work of His Son. The blessing that is "beyond enough" is not primarily a bigger barn or a fatter portfolio. It is Christ Himself, and in Him, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, adoption, and eternal life. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Therefore, our tithing is not a reluctant payment of a divine tax. It is the joyful, grateful response of a people who have been redeemed from the curse and showered with an incalculable blessing. We do not give in order to be blessed. We give because we have already been immeasurably blessed in Jesus Christ. We bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, the local church, because we love the work of His kingdom and desire to see His house full. We test Him, not to see if we can get rich, but to prove, to ourselves and to a watching world, that He is a faithful God whose promises are true. Our giving is simply our faith made visible.