Mining the Minors: Malachi (7)

God’s fifth complaint through the prophet Malachi in the late fifth century BC completes his critique of the nation. Israel has questioned him five times to date and the Lord has answered all their queries, sincere or otherwise. He will answer three more today. Malachi will make several further comments, both encouraging and challenging, but YHWH has fully laid out his case by verse 15 of chapter 3.

Following these final comments comes four hundred years in which Heaven was effectively silent. Old Testament revelation ended with Malachi. First time Bible readers moving chronologically may find themselves wondering, “Did Israel respond?”

I suppose the answer to that is, “The Israel that mattered responded.” We will see the seeds of a faithful nation-within-a-nation shortly.

2/ Five Complaints (continued)

Malachi 3:6-15 — Pilfering Tithes

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’ ”

The Immutable God

“I the Lord do not change.” The immutability of God is a tremendous theme of scripture traceable from cover to cover. There is little evidence Balaam learned the lesson he was teaching Balak when he famously said, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.” Nevertheless, he spoke the truth. As Samuel said to Saul, “The Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” Or, as God himself says through Isaiah, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” Ezekiel say something similar: “I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass.” And James comments that with the Father of lights there is “no variation or shadow due to change”. Perhaps the most oft-quoted verse about the immutability of members of the Godhead comes from Hebrews: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

So then, we find this truth hammered home in the Law, the Prophets, in Old Testament history and in the teaching of the New Testament. We find it in the mouths of pagan prophets and Hebrew theologians. It is one of the most well established character traits of our God.

What This Means and What It Doesn’t

Still, we ought to consider what the words “I do not change” actually mean. Covenant theologians often use them to attempt to prove theological niceties they do not remotely address. These verses are not saying God always used the same tactics or strategy with every people group across time, or that he treats every human being exactly the same way. For example, the Flood was a one-off, never to be repeated, as the rainbow testifies. When we say God does not change, we are not talking about endless repetition of technique. God tailors his actions to the character and circumstances of those he is dealing with.

But whether God manifests himself in the world as merciful or ruthlessly just, in water, fire, or delayed judgment, all his dealings reflect an essential character that never changes. What he purposes will always come to pass. He will not suddenly have a better idea or a change of heart. What he promises will always be delivered because in his foreknowledge he has anticipated every future failure of the objects of his grace long prior to making the promise. You cannot surprise a God who knows your thoughts not only before you act on them but before they actually pop into your mind.

In the context of Malachi, the immutability of God is a tremendous reassurance to the earthly people of God. Israel has turned aside from God’s statutes. Covenant theologians tell us this has abrogated God’s promises and rendered void the word of the Old Testament prophets. They say all God’s promises to Abraham find their fulfillment spiritually in the Church. This ignores several obvious objections including that the Church, despite far greater privileges, knowledge, and heavenly help, has arguably “turned aside” as repeatedly and egregiously as Israel, not to mention the fact that when God declares “I do not change”, he does it in the very context in which he complains about Israel having turned aside. Covenant theologians would have Israel “consumed”: brought to an end, which is literally what the Hebrew word means. Through Malachi, God says, “You are not consumed.”

Bruised and battered, perhaps. Consumed, never.

Return to Me

“Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” YHWH’s response to Israel’s failure is not the abrogation of his promises to Abraham, Moses or David, but rather an appeal for the repentance of its people. To that end, like the Israelites who came to John the Baptist to repent hundreds of years later, these Israelites have a practical question: “How shall we return?” This need not be an insincere question or a passive-aggressive insinuation that return is impossible or beyond them. I think what they are asking here is “In what respect do we need to change our ways?” Like John, the Lord gives clear direction, in this case, “Stop robbing me.”

This too requires further clarification. In fact, offering the lame and the sick to God was also a form of robbery, but there were further manifestations of Judah’s greed and insincerity with respect to religious matters. The Lord has to spell it out for them: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse.”

Where we spend our money is the most prominent indication of our spiritual values. The heart goes where the treasure is, and the treasure invariably goes where the heart is. In Israel, a diminished tithe meant the priests were impoverished, and would shortly find something else to do with their time.

Treasures and Hearts

Today, diminished church giving may mean a lot of things, including that church leadership has lost touch with spiritual goals and/or the goals of the congregation it presumes to lead. It’s possible today to find other outlets through which we can give to God without supporting our local church. However, when giving to God through all avenues diminishes or stops, that’s a sure sign that people simply value themselves more than the things of God, and that they take their professed faith very unseriously.

So-called Christians who don’t practice giving today, or who give sporadically, may not be sufficiently spiritually attuned to even notice a difference in their enjoyment or life, or to consider the possibility that present circumstances might be different if they made it a priority to honor the Lord with their wealth. After all, Christian giving is not formally tied to financial and material blessing in the way the tithe was in Judaism; it’s a voluntary exercise rather than a legal obligation. In Judaism, blessing came from God in direct proportion to the generosity with which a man gave to God. If we doubted that, the promise is repeated here: “Put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” It’s a direct connection between obedience and financial recompense for which all the Joel Osteens in the world cannot make a legitimate biblical present-day case, though I have little personal doubt that there is still great practical benefit to regularly giving to the Lord even in the Church Age, as I describe in this post.

A Failure of Faith

Verses 13-15 get at the real motive behind the decline of tithing in post-exilic Judah: it was failure of faith. Perhaps few were making formal public declarations that they no longer believed there was any value in serving God or keeping his commandments, but their slipshod, indifferent religious practices demonstrated they had no real expectation of blessing if they did as they had been commanded, and there was likely a whole lot of whispering and complaining going on to justify the decreased giving to one another.

Minor issues often signal major spiritual problems. In this case, a shaved “tenth” signaled a comprehensive misunderstanding of God’s character. May we not be so blind!