A Newly Radical Old Challenge

A few weeks ago, someone mentioned she was hoping for more teaching in these pages rather than an online journal. Okay, when she says she wants more teaching, maybe it is not such a bad idea. (Guess who "she" might be.) We do have to do one thing before we start this.

WARNING: If you pastor a church you probably do not want to read any further.

God made just one challenge in the Bible to test Him. It is recorded in the last book of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke God's word to us. "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. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." (Malachi 3:9-10) If you have not heard a message, or at least an admonition, from this verse, you probably just have not been around churches or other religious organizations very long. Hold on! You probably have never heard what you are about to read. Due to limited space, there is not a lot of detail here. We are working on recording the full message.

First, take a look at the italicized words in the verses quoted above. The quotation, as is our custom, is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. The translators of the NKJV did something that is very helpful to us in understanding what God is really trying to tell us here. They took their lead from the translators of the original King James Version in that wherever they added words to the text to make it more understandable in English, they italicized the words.

When we read verse 10 from about the middle of the verse, we see only, "...pour out for you blessing that not enough...") God has already given us an if, then. That is the sign of His covenant with us. In this case it is the covenant that shows how God will meet our needs. If we will bring our tithes into the storehouse, then He will open the windows of heaven and pour out for us blessing. God is not wishy washy on this. If we, then He. But wait, you get more.

Most teachings on this subject are limited to verses 9 and 10 quoted above. That is not the end of the thought. For whatever reason, most people preaching or teaching on the subject of bringing tithes, stop before they get to verse 11 and as a result never get to the really good part. Having the windows of heaven open above us is a great thing. God pouring down blessings through those open windows ratchets that up at least a notch. However, to understand the whole of what He is saying here we have read at least the opening words of verse 11. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." It would not be a complete promise from God if He opened those windows and poured out those blessings only to have the devourer eat them. In God's economy, you can have your blessings and enjoy them too!

We are running out of room here so we have to hurry. I have no idea at this point how the following quotation relates to this post, but I heard it yesterday and I know it does. Without further comment, here it is. "People have been making choices between a lie and a lie." (Shari Norvell, 1/28/11)

There are just two more things we need to cover. The first one is really a reminder. In order for you to have open windows above you, blessings pouring down on you, and the devourer rebuked out of your life, you must tithe. The second thing will get me into trouble with pastors everywhere. Hopefully, they heeded the warning and stopped reading awhile ago. You need to know this.

The storehouse is not what you have been told it is. Here is one example to verify that statement. If you have ever heard a sermon on these verses, tithing, and/or the storehouse, you have most likely heard the storehouse is the local church. That is where your tithe should be taken. The word "storehouse" appears in the Bible eight times. The most telling occurrence is in Nehemiah 13:13 which talks about the men who were entrusted with the tithes the people brought. The final words of the verse are, "...and their task was to distribute to their brethren." We obviously cannot speak for everyone, but if memory serves, there have been fewer than a half dozen times in a half century of church attendance that anyone has distributed to us out of the storehouse.

Should you need an apology for what I am about to do, you have it. But I am done for now. Selah (And get back to me if you like.)