Should you or should you not tithe? I am sure you have mused to yourself a couple of times, wondering whether perhaps you are missing the point by tithing or disobedient by not so doing.
Today in my Interpreting the Old Testament class we looked at Malachi 3:6-12. It is that common and perhaps controversial passage about tithing you might have encountered at some point in your salvation walk.
We were supposed to translate it from Hebrew and discuss its grammatical clues and cultural context. But as with every passage of the Bible, its simplicity, profundity, and meaning amaze us when the text is read in its context.
Shall Man Rob God?
Malachi is a book of disputations. God accuses Israel of unfaithfulness and ingratitude, as Israel with smug and disguised disobedience accuses God of lying.
For example, God declares how He has loved them more than Esau (1:4). But instead of loving Him back, Israel sarcastically asks ‘in what way have you loved us?’ (1:2).
The Hebrew phrase translated as the question ‘in what way’ appears 29 times in the Old Testament. Six of those times are in Malachi alone (1:2, 6, 7; 2:14; 3:7, 8)! Israel keeps disputing God’s kindness and favour and thus robbing Him of His honour (1:6).
Israel is a robber who keeps taking from God and never giving thanks in return. This is why, even though Malachi begins by addressing Israel in 1:1, in our passage he calls them ‘sons of Jacob’ in 3:6. This exchange of Israel for Jacob is significant, for as Jacob was a conman, so are his sons.
Thus, God stalwartly asks in verse 8, ‘shall a man rob God?’
Now, there are two things to note in this question.
The first is that the word translated as ‘man’ is ‘Adam’ rather than the commonly used word ‘ish.’ In using Adam, God takes us back to Genesis, to the reality of man’s mortality and creatureliness.
The word Adam is used to heighten Israel’s crime as if to express shock at how a mere creature dares to rob God, his Creator!
The second point made by the use of Adam instead of Ish is the relationship Adam (man) in verse 8 has with Adamah (ground, land) in verse 11.
And this is crucial because Israel’s disobedience incurred a curse on the land, which will be lifted by their obedience. As the curse concerned the ground, so will the promised blessing in Malachi 3:10, as we will see.
With A Curse You are Cursed
Part of God’s covenant with Israel was blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (Deut. 28).
Remember that Malachi is written about 100 years after exiled Israel has returned from captivity. Israel was in exile because, as per the terms of their treaty with God, their disobedience incurred a curse.
But even after returning from exile, their corruption reigned, from priest (2:1-9) to the common man. Thus, God invoked a curse upon them all (2:2).
Many of the curses against Israel had to do with the productivity of the land and livestock (Deut. 28:15-68). Agriculture was crucial for the thriving of Israel, given that they were by covenant a people of the land.
Indeed, we already see complaints in Nehemiah that the land, which was already mortgaged to buy seed, was not yielding much fruit as famine ravaged the land (Neh. 5:3).
This is the old curse that Adam, by his disobedience, brought on the ground, Adamah (Gen. 3:17-19). In Genesis 3, the ground, Adamah, was cursed because of man, Adam. In Malachi 3, the ground Adamah is ravaged with pests and crop diseases because man, Adam, is robbing God (Mal 3:10).
In Genesis 3, Adam indirectly blames God for his misfortune (Gen. 3:12). In Malachi, Israel continually blames God for withholding blessings, when, in her eyes, she has obeyed Him.
So, they refuse to bring forth the tithes of what the land produced, even offering stolen, lame, and sick animals to God, tributes they never dared bring to their enslaving Persian governors (1:8, 13). In their mind, they have kept their end of the bargain, it is God who is at fault for not blessing them already!
Therefore, God declares to them: ‘with a curse, you are (continually) cursed!’ (Mal. 3:9).
Famine in the House of God
One purpose for tithing under the Mosaic Covenant was tied to the fact that those who served in the temple, the Levites, were not allocated land. They did not receive inheritance like other tribes of Israel (Num. 18:20). Therefore, they could not grow their crops and own livestock to sustain their families.
If crops and farm products are not brought to the storehouse, the Levites will starve.
The idea was that when Israel is obedient to God, the land will produce more crops and healthy livestock. It is crucial to note that tithing in the Old Testament is almost exclusively tied to crops and animals (Lev. 27:30-32, Num. 18:21-28, Deut. 12:17, 14:23, 28, 2 Chron. 31:5-6).
Every Jewish family was to bring forth a tithe of the increase to the Levites for their consumption (Num. 18:21).
But Israel’s disobedience brought calamity upon their material prosperity, as insects and pests flew in the land, devouring crops and animals in the land that was supposed to flow with milk and honey (Mal. 3:10).
Tithing in Malachi should thus be seen in view of Israel as a farming covenantal community centred around their Land, Law, and Temple.
In this context, blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience have an inseparable agricultural and cultic component to them. Israel is ‘a people’ identified by their prosperity in the land which God gave them, with this prosperity reflected in their law-governed temple worship.
But here we are in Malachi, with famine in the house of God!
Open the Windows of Heaven
With the ground, Adamah, cursed because of man, Adam, God’s promised blessing to Israel’s obedience too is tied to the land.
In the whole Old Testament, the phrase ‘windows of heaven’ is used only five times. Twice in Genesis, it is used to speak of God pouring out the abundance of rain on the land (Gen. 7:11, 8:2).
The other two times are in 2 Kings 7 when Elisha tells the officer of the king of Israel that God shall in a day’s time supernaturally and abundantly provide crop produce to drastically reduce the cost of food. Here the officer scoffs at such a possibility even ‘if the Lord would make windows in heaven’ (v2, 19).
The officer is unconvinced that overnight rain could immediately produce enough food for Israel’s starving population.
The other one time we see ‘open heavens’ is in Malachi 3:10.
In all these usages, the term ‘open the windows of heaven’ speaks of God pouring out rain from heaven to cause fruitful produce in the land. It does not refer to God raining down a stash of cash or giving anyone a job promotion.
God promised rain to Israel as a covenantal blessing if they should obey (Deut. 11:11, 14).
The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. Deut. 28:12.
The opposite phrase ‘shut up the heavens’ is a threat and curse of withholding rain should Israel disobey (Deut. 11:17). The result of this is the destruction of Israel, for the nation survives on what the land produces. Concerning this we read:
The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. Deut. 28:24
In the Old Testament covenantal context, therefore, ‘open heaven’ refers to the abundance of rain, and ‘closed heaven’ refers to drought.
Israel, by tithing their produce, can trust that God will open the windows of heaven to provide an increase for their crops (Malachi 3:11).
Rain upon the barren land is the promised blessing for tithing in Malachi. The devourer to be rebuked refers to the crop and animal diseases that destroy Israel’s livelihood.
Conclusion
My intent in this article was not to say whether or not you should tithe but to place Malachi 3:10 in its broader textual, historical, and cultural context. In my next article, I will try to trace the other aspects of tithing in the Old Testament.