Robbing Yourself

Robbing Yourself
by Dr. John H. Roller

One of my favorite “internet legends” tells of a man who hijacked a car and forced the driver (at gunpoint) to drive to various ATM’s in the city so he could withdraw money from his own bank accounts. (I tried checking this story out on www.snopes.com, but I couldn’t find it). The point was – how stupid would the guy have to be to think he was gaining anything by literally robbing himself? Yet something at least as stupid is practiced every week by millions of professing Christians all over the world. Like the would-be thief (who was eventually caught because the bank had his account number), these Christians are robbing themselves, and most don’t even realize it.

The prophet Malachi raised an interesting question: “Will a man rob God?” (Malachi 3:8, World English Bible, www.ebible.org). Is such a thing even possible? Surprisingly, God’s answer was, “Yet you rob me!” Malachi’s hearers, as stunned as we are by this exchange, asked, “How have we robbed you?” – to which the prophet (speaking for God) replied, “In tithes and offerings.”

Malachi’s hearers were Israelites; they lived under a law God had given them 1,000 years earlier, which required them to give one-tenth of all the income they received from farming and animal husbandry (their two main industries) to those whom God appointed to serve as “ministers” among them (see Leviticus 27:30, 32). By refusing to do this, they brought down a curse on themselves (see Deuteronomy 27:26, which is quoted in Galatians 3:10). The prophet was merely pointing this fact out to them when he stated, “You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation” (Malachi 3:9).

How we praise God that we, as Christians, are free from the obligations of that oppressive law (see Romans 6:14-15)! The apostle Peter described the law as “a yoke . . . which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15:10). Anyone who has ever tried to “please God” by obeying laws has discovered how difficult it is to achieve that kind of perfection. By freeing us from the law, Christ has also freed us from the curse (see Galatians 3:13). Now we can sing, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”

But is freedom enough? Now that we are freed from the curse, wouldn’t it be great if we could actually receive the opposite – a BLESSING? Preaching in the Temple, after God had miraculously healed a man who had been lame all his life, Peter told his hearers, “The promises of God through his prophets are for you, and you share in the covenant which God made with your ancestors. As he said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants I will bless all the people on earth’” (Acts 3:25, TEV).

“The promises of God . . . are for you . . .!” Would it be wrong for us, as Christians, to look through the writings of the Old Testament prophets, searching, not for laws to obey, but for promises God made – with a view to claiming those promises as fulfilled in our lives, provided we meet the conditions for them? I don’t think so. There certainly are some conditions. A few of God’s promises are unconditional (speaking of future events He predicts will happen no matter what we do to try to stop them), but MOST of God’s promises are conditional (speaking of things He will do for us IF we meet the specified conditions).

That is precisely what Malachi offers next, right after his condemnation of the Israelites’ rebellion: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for” (Malachi 3:10). This has nothing to do with any “law” – it’s all about CONDITIONS for receiving God’s BLESSING. If you pay your tithes in full, God will bless you beyond your ability to receive it. This is a PROMISE, and God can be counted on to keep it.

The first mention of tithing in the Bible comes over 600 years before the law (recorded in Leviticus 27:30, 32) was given. Genesis 14:16-20 tells how Abraham, returning from his victory over a coalition of enemies, “brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative, Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. The king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him, and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Abram gave him a tenth of all.”

There being no previous mention of any law requiring that Abraham do this, I can only conclude that he did it VOLUNTARILY – as a free expression of his gratitude to God for helping him win the battle and recover the goods and people. From then on, we read of blessing after blessing that God showered on his faithful servant.

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, promised God (how’s that for a switch?) that if God would bless him, he would give God one-tenth of everything God gave him (Genesis 28:22). The next few chapters tell how God worked to increase Jacob’s net worth from one walking stick to a large family and a vast herd of sheep – a pretty good “return” for only 20 years’ labor!

I believe God is committed to similarly blessing ANYONE who activates the premise of his promise by faithfully giving the first 10% of every paycheck to God by supporting the work of His “kingdom” on earth – the Church of Jesus Christ. Several points in that statement probably need to be elaborated a little.

1. Giving any amount of money you happen to feel like giving at the time is NOT “tithing.” TITHING is giving 10% of all the income you receive. That’s because the word “tithe” is merely an old-fashioned way to spell the word nowadays spelled “tenth.”

2. Giving 5%, or 8%, or 9.99% of all the income you receive is not “tithing” either, and for the same reason.

3. The most practical way to ensure that your giving really is 10% of your income is to give it FIRST, before you do anything else. I speak from personal experience here: if you receive a paycheck, cash it and start paying your bills, you will run out of money before you get around to tithing. That’s why the law commanded the Israelites to tithe their “FIRST fruits.” Part of the “blessing” consists in the fact that the 90% you have left will “go” further than the 100% you started with. That’s a miracle, and it happens to tithers so often they get used to it.

4. The Temple was destroyed in AD 70, so it’s no longer possible to bring tithes to that “storehouse” (Malachi 3:10). But the New Testament teaches that the Body of Christ – the Church – is the modern-day equivalent of the Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). I believe God is most honored when tithes are brought to His Church, not given to “whatever” and “whoever” you, the tither, might like to give them to. This brings me to the question, what if you don’t belong to a church? The short answer is, you’d be better off if you did. If you think there’s a valid reason why you can’t, please write and tell me about it. (There certainly are such reasons; it’s just that Christians to whom the valid reasons apply are relatively rare.) For most Christians, the place where they regularly attend worship services is the place where they should be putting their tithes. If there’s a good reason why you can’t do that, I’d like to discuss it with you and see if I can suggest a solution to your problem.

How will God’s promised blessing be manifested in your life? The only way to find out for sure is to try it. Don’t worry about what you’ve done (or haven’t done) in the past – remember, this is not about “purchasing” God’s favor or obtaining forgiveness for having “sinned” by not obeying His law! It’s about beginning, today, to experience a new level of blessing in your life by activating one of His promises. Next time you get a paycheck, take the first 10% of it and set that money aside to be put in the offering the next time you go to church. (THEN pay your bills!) Do that every week (or however often you get paid) for at least a year, and then write to me and tell me how your life has changed as a result. I’ll be SPEECHLESS if your story doesn’t include considerable improvement in your financial situation.

If you decide NOT to tithe, you aren’t robbing me. You aren’t even robbing God, because that’s not really possible. You’re only robbing yourself.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com