What does it mean to rob God (Malachi 3:8)?

You have, no doubt, been struck with that emphatic passage in the last book of the Old Testament prophets in which Jehovah expostulates with His people. He says, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me" (Mal. 3:8). Does it not seem to you an extraordinary expression — robbing God? And it certainly is so; yet it nevertheless was the truth. The Jews had appropriated to their own use the tithes and offerings that were Jehovah'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 wilfully. 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, such was God's view.

It is to awake His people, if possible, that the Lord proceeds to bring a specific proof of their departure from Him. He would fain open their eyes, and compel them to see; and thus He says, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me" Then comes the usual rejoinder of this misguided and deceived people, "Wherein have we robbed thee?" The answer is clear and distinct, "In tithes and offerings." (vv. 7, 8.) It was impossible for them to evade the truth of such a charge; for the Lord through Moses had laid down the most minute directions concerning tithes and offerings, and they could not but know whether they had complied with them. (See Lev. 23; Num. 15, 28; Deut. 14:22-29, 26, etc.) They knew precisely, therefore, what was required of them, and they had no excuse for their disobedience. They might indeed have argued within themselves that it was a matter of no consequence, but their thoughts were not the thoughts of God; for He tells them, "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." (v. 9.)

We are not under law, but under grace, and we therefore have no such prescriptions as to what we are to give to the Lord; but may there not be some most valuable instruction for us in these solemn words? Nay, is it not true that now all that we are and have belong to Him who has redeemed us through His precious blood? Much more, then, should we enter into' such a word as this, "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase," if we have understood at all the responsibilities of grace, the grace which has been displayed in our redemption through God's unspeakable gift. Or if any have failed to apprehend the bearing of this truth, let them read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the teaching of the apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 8, 9. And with these chapters before us, let us be candid with ourselves, and solemnly interrogate our hearts in the presence of God, to learn whether we have risen to the height of our privilege in this respect, in honouring the Lord with our substance, in devoting the first-fruits of our increase to His service. 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?" or, "What proportion have our gifts borne to what we have. received?" Ah! beloved, if we thus examined ourselves on this subject, would not many of us have to own that the Lord might also have a controversy with us, and truly say, "Ye have robbed God"? Or else how comes it to pass that almost in every place the saints have to be reminded, again and again, that there is not enough money in the Lord's treasury for even necessary uses, and that collections, private and public, are continually being made to conceal our shortcomings, and to provide means for the sustenance both of the Lord's poor and the Lord's work? All this only reveals the fact how feebly grace is operative in our hearts, and how unlike we are to the giving-God, by whose bounty it is that we have been set in the possession of such priceless blessings. And may we not ask also, whether our own barrenness, and whether the lack of blessing among the Lord's people — in their meetings for praise and edification — may not be traced to our own narrowness of heart, to our withholding from God of the substance, small or great, which He has entrusted to our stewardship? (See 2 Cor. 9:8-15.) For here the Lord expressly connects His blessing His people with their faithfulness to Himself in the matter of tithes. "Bring ye," he says, "all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (v. 10.)

But this scripture demands a still closer examination. Remark, first, that the Lord desires the tithes to be brought that there way be meat in His house; i.e., that those whose office it was to attend to the service of the sanctuary might be properly cared for and sustained. (See on this subject Neh. 10:32-39, Neh. 13:4-10.) For it was a grievous thing in the eyes of Jehovah that the Levites and priests should be neglected. Moreover the Lord. condescends to say, 'Prove me now herewith, and I on my part will bestow abundant blessing upon you.' it is not, it will be observed, "PRAY, and I will open the windows of heaven," but, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse." It would be well if this passage were sometimes read and explained at meetings for prayer, as it might be used to remind us of the real hindrances to blessing. To pray is always well, but to pray while we are withholding from God, and without self-judgment on this account, is useless. Our prayers may be enlightened and fervent, and may commend themselves to the children of God; but let us not forget that He is the heart-knowing God, and may therefore be keeping back the answers to our petitions because we are not practically responding to the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. 8:9.)

When the nation shall be restored, never more to be exiled from the land of their fathers, this grant made in the wilderness shall be again acknowledged; and in God's holy mountain, the mountain of the height of Israel, there will He require their offerings (t'rumah), and the people shall bring them, that the priest may cause the blessing to rest in their houses. (Ezek. 20:40; 44:30.) The need of bringing the offerings Malachi 3:8 makes plain. The returned remnant had robbed God of tithes and offerings: so the announcement of the prophet follows, "Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." 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 finally restored to their country, the law being written on their hearts, they will bring all the appointed offerings, and the priests provided for will cause the blessing to rest in their houses.

In verse 7 the prophet returns to his earlier theme, and lays against them the general charge of having departed from God and His Word, with the promise, if they returned to Him, He would return to them. The charge was most apparently true, yet they did not admit it, but rather called it in question. Again they resented and repudiated these words. So, in verse 8, the prophet brings against them a specific charge. They robbed God. by withholding that which was His due, according to the law.

Did they admit this? No. Once more they challenged the accusation. They had to be told that 'tithes and offerings' had been withheld. and so what should have been given to God had been spent on themselves. This it was that brought a curse upon them in the government of God. At the opening of Haggai's prophecy we saw how their ancestors were doing the same kind of thing, though perhaps on a smaller scale, when they stopped the building of the house of the Lord, and started the building of nice houses for themselves. In both cases the practice was to give the first place to their own things, and then any surplus to be given to God.

At the building of the temple, David could rejoice and say, ‘In the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee’ (1 Chr. 29:17). In 2 Chronicles 24, in the days of King Joash, when the house of the Lord had been broken up by the wicked Athaliah, they made a chest and set it at the gate and made a proclamation for the people to bring in the collection, and all the people rejoiced and brought. The chest was filled day after day and the building was repaired. In Hezekiah’s day we read: ‘the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits … and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly … and laid them by heaps. … And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord, and his people Israel’ (2 Chr. 31:5–8). Even as late as Nehemiah’s day, probably only about 25 years before Malachi, the people gave liberally in tithes and offerings, and the firstfruits of their ground and of the fruit of all their trees (Neh. 10:35). Yet in the time of Haggai, so soon after the revival in Ezra and shortly before Malachi wrote, we see the trend of what God so seriously chides them about in Malachi 3: ‘This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built’. But God said, ‘Is it time for you … to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? … Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; … and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes’ (Hag. 1:2–6).

The Jews had become engrossed in building up their own assets and thus were neglecting the things of God. They had not had it so good for a long time! Indeed, since the days when their fathers were carried into captivity in Babylon, they had never had it so good. And this sudden prosperity had become the cause of their robbing God by denying Him what was His right to their possessions. The truth was that the Levites who did the work of God were dependent upon support from the rest of the people, and the house of God and all its requirements also depended upon the offerings of the people. So also in our day. And as then, when the giving of tithes and offerings diminished, the servants of the Lord were affected and the work of the Lord was retarded. Much work for the Lord could be done if there were more liberal support.

Malachi 3:10 is one of the most inspiring and uplifting verses in the Word of God. It gives God’s promise of rich and abundant blessings upon His own of that day, blessings for which there would not be room enough to hold them. Surely everyone would respond to this. As we consider the spiritual poverty of our day, the trickle of blessings, the lack of fruitfulness in the gospel, the lack of response to ministry, and lack of growth and development in assembly life and practice, we must surely yearn for God’s promised blessings.

Their part was simply to ‘bring all the tithes into the storehouse’. God’s part was: ‘I will … open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it’. What was the reason for them to do this? ‘That there may be food in My house’. God did not require this food for Himself. It was for the priests and the Levites — those who did His service.

The last three verses concern the firstfruits and the tithes. The Levites were given unto Aaron, in the place of the firstborn, to be offered "before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord." (Num. 8:11) All the work of the house of God, except the strictly priestly duties, devolved upon them and provision was made for their support in the tithes imposed upon the people. Both the priests and the Levites were to be sustained by the offerings of the people — the character of which had all been duly prescribed. (See Num. 18) All this is now remembered, and the people, in their zeal for the restoration of the law, charge themselves with the observance of their responsibilities in this matter that the service of the house of their God might be duly established. The firstfruits for the priests, as well as the tithes for the Levites, were to be stored in the chambers of the house. (1 Chr. 9:26-33.)

In Malachi 3:8, God poses a penetrating question to His earthly people: ‘Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings.’ In verse 9 God says, ‘You have robbed Me, even this whole nation’. What a serious charge!

At the end of 'the year of tithing,' the offerer was to make a solemn declaration before the Lord that he had fully performed the commandment of the Lord, and had withheld for his own use nothing of the tithe. And on this ground he was to pray for the divine blessing on Israel. One of the charges brought against Israel at the end of the O.T. was that they had robbed God, because they had withholden the tithes and offerings; and therefore the whole nation was "cursed with a curse." But if they would bring the tithes into God's storehouse, and prove Him, there would be a blessing beyond their capacity to receive it. Mal. 3:8-12.

But see His complaint against the very people to whom He had thus given this covenant name—“Ye have robbed me.” Solemn charge indeed. They who would not steal from a neighbour may rob the living God. How? “In tithes and offerings” is it possible to withhold from God His due? Alas, much more than possible! How glibly we sing: “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small!” and the louder the tune the greater our—shall I say—hypocrisy, if the widow is neglected, the Levite left uncared for, and God’s claims ignored.