Lest We Forget! (Malachi)
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the June 29, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you
rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are
under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 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. 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.” Malachi 3:8-11, NIV
Whenever a
stewardship sermon is given at church, the one speaking is almost certain to
bring out this passage from faithful Malachi the prophet. Along with this
scripture we often hear examples of such blessings being given or of devourers
rebuked. Many of these stories are unattributed and are difficult to verify.
However some come with provenance. An example is the story of the miracle
groceries as told by Rev. Robert Costa of Detroit, Michigan:
In 1984, Mike and his family belonged
to an East Coast church. One Sunday evening, the sermon was on sacrificial
offerings, and a special offering was taken at the end of the sermon. The only
money in Mike’s wallet was a $50 bill, which was supposed to buy a week’s worth
of groceries for his wife, their five children, and himself. However, in a move
of faith, Mike put the $50 bill in the offering. Then, after the conclusion of
the service, the family went out to the parking lot to go home. Within minutes, they joyfully returned to the
sanctuary, and asked the pastor to come outside and see their miracle. Somewhat
skeptical, the pastor accompanied them outside to their 20-year-old station
wagon. Peering through the windows, he saw that the interior of the vehicle was
completely filled with bags of groceries. Happy for the family, he remarked
that someone had given them a huge blessing.
“You don’t understand, pastor,” Mike said. “Before service, I made sure
that all the windows were rolled up and the doors were locked. I have the only
key, so it must have been the Lord!” To which the pastor added, “Giving truly
is the only key to God’s provision!”
(Mike had no family living in the area, and no one from the congregation
ever claimed responsibility.)
While this
story and many others like it are heartwarming, they are also problematic. The
implication is, like in Malachi, if you give sacrificially to God, He will take
care of you. However, life also has many examples where this has not happened. How
do we explain the faithful Christian who in spite of that faithfulness dies a
painful death from cancer? How do we explain the faithful Christian parents who
pray regularly for their children and then see their children lost in some
tragic accident? Does this mean that although God promises to help, He is
impotent in some cases? Why would that be?
Even the
Bible has examples where the righteous also suffer in spite of their
righteousness. Perhaps the most vivid example is Job. Faithful in all his ways,
he nonetheless suffered greatly. While it is true that the book of Job tells us
he was well rewarded in the end, how does having more children make up for the
loss of those you had before? Anyone who has actually lost a child knows that
it does not. The memory of the loss will forever be a scar on their heart.
Stories like
“The Miracle of the Groceries” backed up by Malachi’s pronouncement tend to
diminish God into simply being a heavenly vending machine. You put money in; He
pours more out in blessings. But if we give based on the expectation of
blessings is our offering a gift or a transaction? What happens to our faith if
the transaction is not honored by the other party? For instance, what happens
the next time Mike gives $50 he cannot afford to give and the station wagon is
not filled with groceries?
Perhaps a
more typical example of our relationship to God is King David. Anointed as King
of Israel by the prophet Samuel, instead of reaping wealth and blessings as a
result of his faithfulness, he spent many years wandering in the wilderness in
fear for his life as King Saul sought to slay him. Later, even his own sons
sought to subvert his rule and seize the kingdom. Maybe the life of a saint is
not the life of uninterrupted blessings that Malachi appears to present.
If we give
to receive blessings are we honoring God with our gifts, or are we simply paying
homage to greed. Is there really that much difference between being obedient to
obtain a blessing, and being good so Santa will bring us presents? Is God Santa
Claus? Do all the obedient Christians get gifts while those who are not are
given lumps of coal? Although several Bible writers, particularly in the Old
Testament, portray God like this, Jesus felt the need to frequently correct the
distorted ideas about God that were popular.
While many believed
that you must obey or God is going to get you and do horrible things to you,
Jesus said that God was more interested in saving people than in judging and
condemning them for their evil deeds.[i]
In regards to blessing others based on their obedience, He revealed that
blessings are based on compassion, not works of obedience.[ii]
Today, as
Christians, we have built magnificent buildings and employ many thousands of
people to operate and maintain vast, worldwide infrastructures. Many
generations have contributed to raising these edifices and launching this army
of workers. However, one must ask at this juncture, how much of our giving is
furthering the work of proclaiming the gospel as opposed to simply maintaining
the status quo?
In the first
century, A.D. Christian church, the believers met in houses and held their
possessions in common for the benefit of all.[iii]
Even our Lord did not have a place to call His own where He could lay His head.[iv]
How much of a contrast that all is to church administrators living in large
houses with multiple garages, bedrooms and bathrooms. We might ask if it is wrong
to own such things, but perhaps we could ask a better question to help our
understanding. Would Jesus have refused to minister if He were not guaranteed a
house, a chariot, and a salary?
The picture
becomes even more acutely focused when we realize that some administrators of
Christian institutions are enjoying six-figure incomes. Some might say that
these are also paying much more tithe than someone who is on minimum wage and who
is making only a fifth as much, but if that money is only going to perpetuate a
system that produces such inequity, what is gained?
Sometimes it
seems more and more that we have well-to-do individuals coming to church in expensive
vehicles replete with all the latest entertainment and technology accessories
and costing several tens of thousands of dollars from homes worth a half
million dollars or more and then standing up front for the offering call and
telling the elderly ladies who have a hard time figuring out whether to pay for
medicine or food this month that they must give sacrificially so they can be
blessed. How can they possibly understand the struggling young couple who are
both working but do not have enough to clothe and feed their children well
because they only make minimum wage and most of that must pay for housing.
Since their minimum wage jobs provide no medical insurance and the fact that
they are both employed full time disqualifies them for state assistance, they
are only one illness away from disaster.
After
Pentecost, some believers, like Barnabas, sold their property to meet the needs
of the saints.[v] This
was not to pay for the upkeep of a huge public hall with a state-of-the-art
audio-visual system, but to provide for the needs of other believers. Today, we
have been known to do the opposite, accumulating houses and condominiums to build
a net worth that is only encumbering us with debt and possessions that need
ever more upkeep. As we do with our homes, we also do with our churches. Woe to
that church with a dwindling membership that must struggle with the overhead
cost of an overbuilt church plant.
If we are
unable to overcome this desire for more and bigger things, heeding the words of
Malachi regarding tithe and offerings will not save us. It will only condemn
us. For the more we pay in tithe and offerings the greater a witness it will be
to the wealth we had and our failure to care for the needy and poor among us.
No matter how many preachers may receive salaries from our tithe, it will never
be equal to the care we bestow on even one needy person.[vi]
This is the gold standard of the Kingdom of God.
