⁸ “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!”

“How do we rob you?” you ask.

“By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. (Malachi 3:8 CSB)

God needs nothing from us. But He knows that we need much from Him. He also knows that we need to both display an sign that we trust Him and we need to see how He fulfill’s His promises when we do.

When we do not trust Him with this tenth, how can we trust Him with the greater aspects of our lives?

So many want to make this about money, and it is not. It is about trust and dependence. It is about trusting in His promises and dependence upon His sovereignty. They get hung up on a church talking about giving, as if it were stealing from their pockets.

God does not need us to make financial ends meet for His work on earth. He does work through the cheerful giving of those dedicated to His service and His Word. But even without us, He could make anything happen.

In this part of scripture, God does not just condemn, He goes on to let the people know that if they would give He would open the floodgates of His blessings. Yet, this is no prosperity gospel, no. It is about teaching a people to do right by God and Him doing immeasurable things through those gifts.