Since the days of your fathers have ye departed from my statutes, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?
God sums up Israel's whole record in one charge, then answers it with an invitation instead of a verdict. The people reply with a question that shows they cannot see what they have done.
One writer treats the opening line as the verdict on Israel's whole history:
Starting with the seventh verse, the state of the people is dealt with again. And what an indictment is brought against them! "From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them." This, in one sentence, is the summary of the history of Israel under law. Their fathers had said, standing at the foot of Sinai, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do" (Ex. 19); but before the tablets of the covenant had even reached the camp they had broken their promise, and had abandoned the LORD.
Verse 7 follows God's declaration that He does not change. That order matters:
The remnant are not only charged with their low condition, but warned about the judgment it brings. God, however, is not only a God of judgment; He is also a God of mercy. So it is always His way to grant grace for repentance before the judgment falls. Again, all God's dealings, whether in judgment or mercy, rest on the unchanging nature of who He is. For this reason we have the formal declaration of God's unchanging character before the call to repentance. "For I the LORD do not change," we read, "therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (verse 6). God does not change in holiness, and therefore He must chasten His people when they sin. Neither does God change in His purposes of grace and blessing, and therefore His people are not consumed.
God gives more than a command. He also shows what returning will bring:
God has sounded the note of warning. Next, in keeping with His unchanging principles of acting, He calls His people to repentance. "Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts" (verse 7). The Lord also encourages them to return by showing the blessings that will follow repentance. (1) They themselves would be enriched. The windows of heaven would be opened, and blessing beyond their capacity to hold would be poured out on them. (2) They would become a witness to the Lord before the world, "Then all nations will call you blessed" (verses 7-12).
Commentators differ on when this is fulfilled. One reads the promised abundance as still ahead:
Such will be the case in the millennium: they will prove the Lord in this way. They will humble themselves; they will trust Him; and all nations shall call them blessed. "For you shall be a delightsome land" — which they have never been since this was written.
Their answer is a question, not repentance. The same move runs through the whole book:
If God reminds them of His love, they say, "How have You loved us?" (Mal. 1:2). If He rebukes them for despising His name, they say, "How have we despised it?" (Mal. 1:6). If He reproaches them for offering polluted bread, they say, "How have we polluted You?" (Mal. 1:7). If they are accused of having wearied the Lord, they say, "How have we wearied Him?" (Mal. 2:17). If God charges them with robbery, they say, "How have we robbed You?" (Mal. 3:8). If He says, "Your words have been hard against Me," they say, "How have we spoken against You?" (Mal. 3:13). If He begs them to return to Him, they say, "How shall we return?" (Mal. 3:7).
One writer reads the reply as more than confusion — and notes that God answers it anyway:
Let Israel then return to the LORD, and the LORD would return to them. But the pride of Israel is stirred by this, and they say, "How shall we return?" Their sins regarding the offerings and the ordinances are then shown. But grace displays itself again in view of the people's return from their practical alienation from God. They had only to return and prove the goodness of God.
One writer turns the same call on his readers:
"Return to Me, and I will return to you." What have we done with the testimony the Lord has entrusted to us? Is there much difference between our decline and that of Judah's fathers? … Alas, just like those who had returned from Babylon, so we have sought to make ourselves comfortable in the world. What are we to do now? Return to Him! The way is open. Is it then entirely impossible to judge ourselves and to take up again what we should never have let go?
Facing the failure is necessary, but it is not the power that restores:
In addition to calling to repentance the Lord also shows the way. It is good to face our low condition, to confess it before the Lord; but being occupied with our own evil will not by itself lead to recovery. It is not the badness of man but the goodness of God that leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4).
- Unchanged — the call rests on verse 6. God does not change in holiness, so He must chasten. He does not change in grace, so His people are not consumed.
- Charged — "from the days of your fathers" sums up Israel's whole story under law. It broke at Sinai, before the tablets reached the camp.
- Invited — mercy runs ahead of judgment. God had withdrawn, but His heart was still toward them, so He offers grace for repentance before the blow falls.
- Deaf — "How shall we return?" is the last of seven such answers in Malachi. It marks people who cannot see their own condition.
- Open — the way back is not closed, and it is God's goodness, not our badness, that draws the heart along it.
Will a man rob God? But ye rob me. And ye say, Wherein do we rob thee? [In] tithes and heave-offerings.
God called this people to return, and they answered with a question of their own. Now He names what they had taken, and two hard questions follow: how can a creature rob God at all, and why did the robbers not know they had done it?
The tithes were not an abstract sum. They were the living support of the priests and Levites, the men set apart to serve at God's house. The law had fixed their portion long before.
The Jews had taken for their own use the tithes and offerings that were the Lord's by right. The portions of the priests and Levites, prescribed by the law (Num. 18:8-24), were not forthcoming. It was a grave omission on the part of the Jews; more, they were defrauding God deliberately. The priests and Levites were the direct sufferers, but the Lord counted it an offence against Himself. Whatever they themselves may have thought of their ways, this was God's view.
So the money never reached the priests, yet the theft is charged to God's account. One writer traces exactly why the two are the same thing.
The tithes and offerings were God's, though they were the portion of the priests. By cheating the priests of what was justly theirs, they robbed God, and lost the blessing.
Israel's stock reply — "How have we robbed you?" — was not an honest question. The rules were on record and easy to check.
They could not escape the truth of such a charge. Through Moses the Lord had laid down the most detailed directions about tithes and offerings, so they could not help knowing whether they had kept them... They knew exactly what was required of them, and they had no excuse for their disobedience. They might have told themselves it did not matter, but their thoughts were not the thoughts of God.
This "how?" is not a one-off. The same reply meets God all through this book, and the pattern says more about the people than any single sin.
They were morally insensible and spiritually blind. They were satisfied with a correct position and with outward religious observance. So they felt nothing of their low condition, and were blind to all that the Lord was for them. If God reminds them of His love, they say, "How have You loved us?"... If God charges them with robbery, they say, "How have we robbed You?"... If He begs them to return to Him, they say, "How shall we return?"
Their giving had not shrunk because times were hard. The opposite was true.
The Jews had become absorbed in building up their own assets and were neglecting the things of God. They had not had it so good for a long time!... This sudden wealth led them to rob God, by denying Him what was His right out of their possessions. The truth was that the Levites who did the work of God depended on support from the rest of the people. The house of God and all its needs also depended on the offerings of the people. So also in our day. And as then, when the giving of tithes and offerings shrank, the Lord's servants felt it and His work slowed.
Their blank reply was not all pretence. A debt to God is the kind of wrong our conscience barely registers.
The human conscience can easily grasp the full amount of a human claim, and can easily take note of any interference with it. How often may we have wronged God in His holy things without ever recording it on the conscience — indeed, without being able to detect it. It is not so when man's rights are in question... A man could not "in ignorance" tell a lie, swear falsely, commit an act of violence, deceive his neighbour, or find something lost and deny it.
The missing offerings were the symptom. God had lost something deeper, and that is what He asks back.
But, strange to say, while God was deeply conscious of it, they were not in the least. He had lost their hearts and their offerings. By robbing Him of what was due to Him, they had forfeited His blessing that makes rich, and to which He adds no sorrow... God appeals to the heart, and pleads to possess it as One who has a right to it.
Dennett puts the question in a form anyone can test.
We are not under law, but under grace, and so we have no such rules about what we are to give to the Lord. But may there not be some very valuable instruction for us in these solemn words? Is it not true that all we are and have belongs to Him who has redeemed us by His precious blood?... Let us not be afraid even of figures, asking ourselves, if we need to, "How much of our income have we given for the Lord's use?"
- Robbed. Withholding the tithe starved the priests and Levites, but God counted it an offence against Himself.
- Blind. "How have we robbed you?" is the same reflex that met His love and His call to return. The question exposes people satisfied with correct religious form.
- Prospering. The giving dried up in good times, not hard ones. New assets absorbed the people, and God's work slowed for lack of support.
- Undetected. Conscience notices a debt to a neighbour at once, and a debt to God hardly at all. That is why God had to name this sin.
- Wanted. Behind the missing produce, God had lost their hearts — and it is the heart, as One with a right to it, that He pleads for.
Ye are cursed with a curse; and me ye rob, [even] this whole nation.
Here God charges a whole nation with theft against Himself, and tells them they are under a curse. Two questions follow: how can anyone rob God, and why does the curse fall on the whole nation?
The charge sounds impossible at first hearing. The answer lies in who the tithes and offerings actually belonged to.
Doesn't it sound like an extraordinary thing to say — robbing God? It certainly does. Yet it was true. The Jews had taken for their own use the tithes and offerings that belonged to the Lord by right. The portions the law set aside for the priests and Levites (Num. 18:8-24) never came in. It was a serious failure on the part of the Jews. Worse, they were cheating God on purpose. The priests and Levites were the ones who suffered directly, but the Lord counted it an offence against Himself.
Israel could argue about how serious the matter was, but not about what God had asked.
They could not escape the truth of such a charge. Through Moses the Lord had laid down the most detailed directions about tithes and offerings, and they could not help knowing whether they had obeyed them... So they knew exactly what God asked of them, and they had no excuse for their disobedience. They might have told themselves it was a matter of no importance, but their thoughts were not the thoughts of God.
The curse fell under God's government of His people. It followed a plain cause: His portion had gone somewhere else.
They had to be told that they had held back "tithes and offerings", so that what should have gone to God had been spent on themselves. This is what brought a curse on them under God's government... Their practice was to give first place to their own things, and then give God whatever was left over.
The nation was not poor when it stopped giving. It was doing well — and that was the problem.
The Jews had become absorbed in building up their own assets and were neglecting the things of God. They had not had it so good for a long time!... This sudden prosperity was what led them to rob God. They denied Him His right to their possessions. The truth was that the Levites who did the work of God depended upon support from the rest of the people... And as then, when the giving of tithes and offerings dropped, the Lord's servants felt it and His work was held back.
The lost blessing came from one specific wrong, and one commentator looks ahead to the day it is put right.
The tithes and offerings were God's, though the portion of the priests. Defrauding the priests of their just due, they robbed God, and lost the blessing. When they are at last restored to their country, with the law written on their hearts, they will bring all the appointed offerings. The priests will then be provided for, and they will cause the blessing to rest in their houses.
One commentator reads the promised abundance as still future for Israel, pointing to the words about being a land of delight:
They will humble themselves; they will trust Him; and all nations shall call them blessed. "For you shall be a delightsome land" — which they have never been since this was written.
Commentators differ here. One says this verse has no claim on believers at all.
It is strange that even people who know the truth well... fall back on this verse and claim that it still binds believers and should be practised among them... True Christian giving must come not by law but through grace, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The same is true of everything else in the life and service of a true believer. Nowhere in the New Testament is there anything said about tithing.
Another agrees that law is not the rule, yet still turns the verse back on the reader.
We are not under law but under grace, so we have no set rules about what we are to give to the Lord. But may there not be some very valuable instruction for us in these solemn words?... Let us not be afraid even of figures, asking ourselves, if need be, "How much have we given of our income for the Lord's use?"... would not many of us have to own that the Lord might also have a controversy with us?
- Robbery. Keeping back what God has assigned to His servants is not thrift. He counts it theft against Himself, though the priests and Levites felt the loss.
- No excuse. The law spelled out what God asked, so no one could plead confusion.
- Whole nation. The neglect ran through the whole nation, so the curse did too. It fell under God's government of His people.
- Cause. Sudden prosperity, not hardship, dried up their giving. They put their own things first and gave God what was left.
- Cure. Give God back His portion, and the blessing returns. Commentators differ on whether the tithe binds believers today.
Bring the whole tithe into the treasure-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I open not to you the windows of the heavens, and pour you out a blessing, till there be no place for it.
Malachi's last chapters find the people back in their land but careless with God. His charge against them is blunt. They have robbed Him in tithes and offerings. Then comes an invitation to put God to the test, with a promise of blessing so large there is no room for it.
The people could not dispute the charge behind this invitation. God had spelled out the rules about tithes in detail long before.
They could not escape the truth of such a charge. Through Moses the Lord had given the most detailed directions about tithes and offerings. They knew exactly what God asked of them, and they had no excuse for their disobedience. They might have told themselves it did not matter. But their thoughts were not God's thoughts. He tells them, "You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you."
God could have started with their hearts. He starts with their money.
In taking up the question of money and tithes, the Lord takes them on the lowest possible ground.
The command names a purpose, and the purpose points to people.
Their part was to "bring the full tithe into the storehouse." God's part was to "open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." Why should they do this? "That there may be food in My house." God did not need this food for Himself. It was for the priests and the Levites — those who did His service.
God invites them to put Him to the test. But notice what He asks them to test Him with — an action, not a prayer.
The Lord stoops to say, "Put me to the test in this, and I for My part will pour out abundant blessing on you." Notice, He does not say, "PRAY, and I will open the windows of heaven." He says, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse." It would be good to read and explain this passage at prayer meetings sometimes. It could remind us what really blocks blessing. Prayer is always good. But prayer while we hold back from God, with no honest look at ourselves, is useless.
The picture of heaven's windows opening appears earlier in the Bible. The two scenes could hardly be further apart.
In Genesis 7:11 we read, "the windows of the heavens were opened." There heaven poured out its wrath on a world of violence and corruption. In Malachi 3:10 we read of God's desire and promise to "open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." One flood was judgment, called for by the holy character of God. The other is a flood of blessing, expressing the love of God's heart.
Commentators handle the promise on two levels. First, it belongs to Israel. Under that arrangement, blessing followed obedience. The full answer is still ahead.
These promises follow a principle that runs through the whole Old Testament: blessing on the condition of obedience. That was in fact the very essence of the arrangement given through Moses. Keeping the land, freedom from disease, every kind of earthly blessing — all of it depended on their walking by the rules and laws God had given them.
Kelly reads the closing words of the passage the same way. He points out that Israel will be "a land of delight," which they have never been since this was written. The nations will call Israel blessed when the people humble themselves and trust Him.
Second, the principle underneath the tithe reaches beyond Israel. It is about who owns what we hold.
The tithe was the owning of the sovereign rights of God over all their possessions. … Let us remember that even now there is an application of this, which is not confined to Israel.
That application is not a fixed percentage.
We are not under law, but under grace, and so we have no such prescriptions about what we are to give to the Lord. But may there not be some very valuable instruction for us in these solemn words? Is it not true that everything we are and have belongs to Him who has redeemed us through His precious blood?
No one ever loses by giving to the Lord! How important it is to see this. God largely gives to His own in the proportion in which they give to Him. Note, it is not the actual amount that is taken into account, but the proportion which He notes.
- Robbery — Withholding the tithe was not a small oversight. God calls it robbery. The people had clear instructions, so they had no excuse.
- Provision — The tithe fed God's house — the priests and Levites who served Him. God did not need the food Himself.
- Test — God invites His people to test Him, but the test is bringing, not asking. Prayer offered while we withhold does not open heaven.
- Flood — The same windows once poured judgment on a violent world. Here God opens them to pour out blessing from His heart.
- Proportion — Under grace there is no fixed rule. All we have already belongs to our Redeemer. God measures the share, not the sum, and no one loses by giving to Him.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts.
God ties a promise to the call of the previous verse. If the people bring in what they have held back, He will stop whatever eats their harvest. Three questions follow. What did the promise depend on? When is it kept? And how far can a Christian claim it today?
The promise does not stand alone. It follows a rule that runs through the whole Old Testament. What Israel received depended on how Israel walked.
God promises still more blessing, if only they are faithful in bringing the tithes… These promises rest on the principle that holds good everywhere in the Old Testament: blessing on the condition of obedience. This was in fact the very essence of the system given through Moses. (See, for example, Deuteronomy 28.) Their continued possession of the land, their freedom from disease, and earthly blessing of every shape and form all depended on one thing. They had to walk according to the statutes and ordinances they had received. So it is here. Let the people return to obedience to the law, and they would receive blessing without limit, and their land would become fruitful again.
The test God set them was practical. He did not tell them to ask for open heavens. He told them to bring in what was already His, so that those who served in His house had food.
Notice first that the Lord wants the tithes brought so that there may be food in His house. That is, He wants those whose work was the service of the sanctuary to be cared for and supported… Note that it is not, "PRAY, and I will open the windows of heaven," but, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse." It would be good to read and explain this passage sometimes at prayer meetings. It could remind us of the real hindrances to blessing. To pray is always good. But to pray while we are withholding from God, and without judging ourselves about it, is useless.
Repentance brings two blessings here: what the people receive, and what the world sees in them.
The Lord encourages them to return by showing the blessings that will follow repentance. (1) They themselves would be enriched. The windows of heaven would open, and blessing beyond their capacity to hold would pour down on them. (2) They would become a witness to the Lord before the world — "all nations will call you blessed" (verses 7-12).
Two writers point out that this state has never yet arrived. The guarded crop, the vine that keeps its fruit, the land the nations call blessed — these wait for the reign of Christ on earth.
That will be so in the millennium: they will put the Lord to the test in this way. They will humble themselves; they will trust Him; and all nations will call them blessed. "For you will be a land of delight" — which they have never been since this was written.
Another writer links the rebuke of the devourer to the day God restores Israel.
The day will come when His earthly people will minister to the needs of the Lord's house, so that there will be an abundant supply for sacrifices. That will be in the future day of their restoration, when the devourer will be rebuked (verse 11).
Here the commentators differ. Some warn against carrying the verse straight into Christian practice. Tithing belonged to the law. Christian giving does not.
It is strange that even those who have a good knowledge of the truth… should fall back on this verse. They claim that it is binding and should be practised among believers… True Christian giving must be done not by law but through grace, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The same is true of everything else in the life and service of a true believer. Nowhere in the New Testament is there anything said about tithing.
Others draw a principle from it for believers today. The blessing they point to is spiritual, not a crop.
When the Lord's people withhold their material possessions from Him, God will withhold spiritual blessings from them. When they give to Him in abundance for His work and His servants, God opens the very windows of heaven over them. He pours out His blessings on them. No one ever loses by giving to the Lord! God largely gives to His own in the proportion in which they give to Him. Note, it is not the actual amount that He takes into account, but the proportion.
- Robbery — They held back the support of those who served in His house. That is what stopped the blessing.
- Bring — God's cure is something to do, not something to ask for. Praying while we withhold leaves the real hindrance in place.
- Rebuke — God Himself stops the devourer for them. Guarding the harvest is His side of the promise, not theirs.
- Reach — The blessing does not end with full barns. It ends with the nations calling them blessed.
- Delight — That state has never yet existed. It waits for Israel's restoration, when the land becomes what God calls it here.
And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.
God has just charged His people with robbing Him in tithes and offerings, and He ends the dispute with a picture instead of a threat. When does that promised day arrive, and what part does obedience play in it?
The promise closes an appeal. God calls His people back, then tells them what follows if they return.
God has sounded the note of warning. Next He calls His people to repentance, in line with His unchanging principles of acting. "Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts" (verse 7). The Lord then encourages them to return by unfolding the blessings that will follow repentance. (1) They themselves would be enriched. God would open the windows of heaven and pour out on them blessing beyond their capacity to hold. (2) They would become a witness to the Lord before the world, "all nations will call you blessed" (verses 7-12).
This promise follows the terms God gave Israel through Moses. One commentator points back to Deuteronomy.
These promises rest on the principle found everywhere in the Old Testament: blessing on the condition of obedience. That was in fact the very essence of the Mosaic economy. (See, for example, Deut. 28.) God made all of it depend on their walking according to the statutes and ordinances they had received: keeping the land, freedom from disease, earthly blessing of every shape and form. So in this scripture. Let the people only return to obedience to the law, and they would receive blessing without limit. Their land would become fruitful again. God's favour would rest on them so clearly that all the surrounding nations would call them blessed.
The same writer marks the limits of these promises, and shows how the Christian's case differs.
Remember, though, that all these promises are temporal. They relate to time and not to eternity. It is different with Christians. They are saved by pure unconditional grace. But being saved, their blessing and their enjoyment of spiritual blessing depend on their walk, on obedience to the Word.
No stretch of Israel's history since Malachi has matched this description. Commentators place its fulfilment in the age when Christ reigns.
At that time, when the millennium has come, all nations will call them blessed, and they will be a land of delight (Isa. 62:4). This has never happened since Malachi wrote it.
Another writer gives the reason for the delay.
The delightful state of things promised in verses 11 and 12 will only arrive in the age to come, when Christ returns. Only then will God be fully acknowledged and His claims fully met. Palestine will at last be a "land of delight" when Christ is on the throne.
The promise covers the ground, not only the people. The land lies waste now, but God still calls it His own.
Through the failure of Israel, the land, we know, is now lying waste. It is anything but a centre; the Gentiles trample it underfoot. Though it has long been like a wilderness, and the shadow of death, it will not always be so. The Lord of that once beautiful land is now absent. He has gone to the "far country," but He will return and take possession of His own. (Luke 19.) "The land is mine," says the Lord. According to His original intention, it will become in due time the centre of all nations — the glory of all lands — the praise of all peoples.
Being called blessed is not the end of the line. The nations who say it share in the same blessing.
The millennium brings in universal blessing, but through Israel as the channel (Ps. 47; Deut. 32:43). All nations recognise Israel's special place (Zech. 8:20-23; Ps. 68:29). Ambassadors from every land attend at Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-19). Each nation keeps its own ruler, but all own the supremacy of Christ (Ps. 72:10-11; Rev. 21:24).
The blessing of verse 12 hangs on the challenge of verse 10. One writer points to what God asked them to bring.
The Lord graciously says, "Prove me now with this, and I on my part will bestow abundant blessing on you." It is not, notice, "PRAY, and I will open the windows of heaven," but, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse." It would be good to read and explain this passage at prayer meetings sometimes. It could remind us of the real hindrances to blessing. To pray is always good. But to pray while we withhold from God, and without judging ourselves over it, is useless.
Another writer draws out the measure God uses when He responds.
God largely gives to His own in the proportion in which they give to Him. Note, it is not the actual amount that is taken into account, but the proportion He notes.
- Return — the promise closes God's call, "Return to Me, and I will return to you." Blessing is His argument for repentance, not a prize apart from it.
- Bring — God's test was practical: bring the tithes, not just pray. Praying while we withhold blocks the answer.
- Pour — God opens heaven's windows on a people who return, and pours out blessing beyond their capacity to hold.
- Delight — the wasted land is still God's own. It will become the centre of all nations when Christ reigns.
- Overflow — being called blessed is not the finish. Through a restored Israel the blessing reaches every nation.