I posted this article as a devotional over on our church devotional blog, but I think it works as an article here too, so I’m reposting it here.
Something that has become popular in churches over the past few years is “The Tithe Challenge.” It is something that on a small scale, we have done at Lafayette Community Church at various points. It goes like this: The congregation is challenged to begin returning to God a full 10% of their income with the commitment from the church that if they do not experience the blessing of God in their lives, they can request a refund and the church will fully refund what they had given.
It’s an interesting concept, and refunds are rarely requested when churches do it, but it’s also based on a flawed premise that God will bless you financially if you tithe.
It’s based on this verse:
(10) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
— Malachi 3:10 NIV
To my knowledge, this is the only place in the Bible where we are challenged to test God on something. That’s the reason churches have done the tithe challenge. The churches are challenging the people to go ahead and test God, and the church is making a commitment to pick up the slack if God doesn’t come through.
Do you see a problem with that?
Should churches really set a precedent that says, “If God doesn’t come through in your life, we will”?
The whole point of the challenge is based on a flawed understanding of the verse in question. First, the assumption is that we give people the right to determine if God is taking care of them or not, and secondly, we assume that the blessing mentioned in Malachi is somehow individualized to the specific family that takes up the challenge. Both are wrong.
Let me show you the context (it’s kinda long):
(1) “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
(2) But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. (3) He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, (4) and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
(5) “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.
(6) “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. (7) Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
(8) “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. (9) You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. (10) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. (11) I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. (12) “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
(13) “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the LORD.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
(14) “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? (15) But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”
(16) Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.
(17) “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. (18) And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
(4:1) “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. (2) But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. (3) Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty.
(4) “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.— Malachi 3:1-4:4 NIV
I quoted the entire section because there are some important things going on in this passage that you need to know about:
- The whole passage is talking about the future day of judgment that is coming on the world and will be preceded by the coming of God’s chosen messenger.
- God is telling them that even though the people have turned away from him, he has shown and will show them grace. He only asks they return to him.
- God identifies two ways the people have left him.
- The people have not been bringing their tithes.
- The people have lost faith in God because they have not seen his blessings.
- God identifies two ways he will graciously solve the problem:
- If the people return to him with the tithes, he will bless their land.
- If the people get discouraged, they can trust in a future day when all things will be made right.
So you can see that the tithe is actually only half of the story. What is fascinating to me about this passage in the context of the “Tithe Challenge” is that the tithe challenge specifically encourages people to enter a place where they can lose faith because they didn’t see God’s blessing, and that’s directly spoken against in this passage!
That’s why it’s essential we understand from the heart what is really going on in Malachi 3 and how it relates to us today.
Malachi 3 Promises Communal Blessings
The first and most important point to realize about the Malachi 3 promises is that the promises are not individual promises at all. God’s frustration with the people is that they have collectively not brought the tithes. He isn’t calling out one or two individuals for their failure, but then the promise that God offers the people is also not individually focused. No, the promise is that the floodgates of blessing will come in the form of healthy farms for the entire land.
When we take the Malachi 3 passage as a promise of individual blessing, then God becomes a voodoo God who is forced to bless me because I properly calculated and gave 10% of my income!
However, the promise that God was actually giving was this: If you as a people collectively honor me first the way I asked you to, then the whole land will experience blessing together.
Malachi 3 is about Future Restoration
The second point to realize is that this promise is focused on a future day when God will restore everything. In point of fact, God is recognizing that there will be times when it seems like faithfulness to God isn’t bringing any benefits. God knows that he will not always come through the way we want or expect him to. God knows that we will serve him and be disappointed at how he “pays us back.” However, he asks for our faithfulness anyway because there is still coming a day when everything will become clear and all will be made right.
The Better Tithe Challenge
So I don’t think the tithe challenge is a wise thing to do the way it’s normally done, but I do think a version of the tithe challenge is quite wise indeed. My version of the tithe challenge goes like this:
Go ahead and take the risk of faithfulness to return the first 10% of your income to God by giving to the church and then believe that God will come through for you either by divine miracle or by practical aid from your brothers and sisters in the church, and when all is said and done, in the final day, you will see clearly what it was all about.
Lord, thank you for giving me a challenge to be faithful to you in the context of community and for promising your blessings not just to me but to the entire community, if not now and in the way I expect, at least fully in the age to come.
Leave a Reply