From Background Notes [BN] for January 14th/15th written by Pastor Bob Brown:
Thus, God begins the Malachi passage with the reminder of His faithfulness, and that His reliability guarantees Israel’s very existence. However, the faithfulness of God had not been consistently met by the faith of Israel who had refused to maintain the practice of the tithe. The net effect was that they “robbed God.”
Thus, God begins the Malachi passage with the reminder of His faithfulness, and that His reliability guarantees Israel’s very existence. However, the faithfulness of God had not been consistently met by the faith of Israel who had refused to maintain the practice of the tithe. The net effect was that they “robbed God.”
The text refers to both “tithes and offerings.” We will consider the significance of offerings momentarily. God’s point here is that withholding the tithe placed “the whole land under a curse.” That means that crops were not fruitful and herds did not multiply, or if they did, they were not healthy. What Israel had done was to set aside the sign of God’s ownership of all things by not giving God the tenth. As a result, whatever increase they did within their economy was meager and scarce.[BN,4]
Join us this week in Worship at ChicagoFirstChurch of the Nazarene –
* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm
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