Malachi Part One Deep Dive

TESTING THE LORD | NATHAN ROSS

“ 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.”

If you’ve been in church long enough you will have heard this scripture aplenty. It is usually used in the context of teaching on the tithes and offerings, which typically follows the lines of “if you give your tithe (10% of your finances) to God then He will return the favour by blessing you financially. And we can test Him in this, He even asks of it!” The aim of this deep dive though is to challenge this preconceived teaching. To do so with an  exploration of this passage in the light of the context, literary and historical, along with the covenantal relationships as found in the Old Testament. 

The first issue at hand is this “testing of the Lord.” You might have heard how this is the only time in scripture where God asks us to test Him so it therefore must be of great importance. Although when we look a bit closer at the context there is a bit more to it than first meets the eye. To start with, this conversation between God and the Israelites, as spoken through the prophet Malachi, needs to be viewed within the whole context of a covenant. In the history of the ancient near-east a covenant was a common form of international relations. It was a relationship that had sections of blessing and curses applying to both parties whether the covenant was kept or broken. So at first glance this ‘testing' appears as if the focus is on God and if He would follow through with His promises. Although in context it is actually a continuation of the challenge God is putting before the Israelites. 3:6 says “For I the Lord do not change.” And God has proven this, whereas it is the Israelites who have continually fallen short of their covenantal relationship. It is suggested through the word “bring the full tithe” that the Israelites weren’t completely avoiding their obligation, but only responding half-heartedly. So when God says “put me to the test” it was a bit of a stab to the Israelites. Kind of like a “I’ve fulfilled my side of the covenant, will you do the same.”

Now the next concern is this “pouring down of a blessing.” Unfortunately it is all too common for the word ‘blessing’ to have become synonymous with ‘financial prosperity.’ And it is actually quite a major error and poor biblical interpretation to overlay every occurrence of ‘blessing’ with the meaning of financial prosperity. For good biblical interpretation we need to have a look into the context and let it speak for itself. (If you want to look into this more find a good discussion on the difference between exegesis and eisegesis). When we look into the historical context of the book of Malachi we find that the people of God are facing a major drought and all the repercussions that follow. Malachi explains that this is due to the “robbing of God” by not bringing in the full tithe. So this “pouring down of blessing” is, in fact, a literal rain coming on the land. Verse 11 continues in this by speaking of literal fruits, soils, and vines. 

There is more evidence for this point of view when we jump back and consider the covenantal relationship between God and the Israelites. Leviticus 26 speaks of the blessing in that are provided in a covenantal relationship when there is obedience. “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” So when the Israelites bring the full tithe to God then the covenantal relationship is restored and the agreed upon blessings may continue - that is there will be rain which leads to blessings among the nation. 

So just as Paul tells the church at Galatia - “if you are in Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” So this means just as the Israelites were in covenant with God we are now in the same relationship. So when we truly investigate what it means to be in a covenantal relationship with God we get such a deeper understanding of Malachi 3. When we explore the main covenantal passages as found in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 we find that a covenant relationship is about obeying all of God’s commands, and not about levering an action of God for financial prosperity. As David Baker puts it so well, “a record of God’s acting in a certain way, or even requiring that something be done, does not necessarily make that action or requirement a universal principle.” 

This is not said to either deny or confirm whether God wants us to be financially prosperous or not, but it is to be said that any discussion cannot find its basis within the book of Malachi. That is just not a sound understanding based on its context. But this is to say that Malachi 3 is about obedience. It is about a covenant relationship in which the people of God are called to fulfil their side of the relationship. It is not, nor will it ever be about a kind of financial principal or transaction where we are promised that if we give financially it will be given back to us with financial blessing. Nor should this be our focus. God calls us into a covenant and that calling is to obey all His commands and to be His people. So ending on the words of David Baker,  “act as a child of God and you will be treated as one.”

Nathan Ross has a Bachelor of Theology and works at C3 College. As one of our key New Testament writers, Nathan teaches the book of Ephesians and Romans at C3 College and is a self-confessed history nerd. 

recommended

An Introduction to the Old Testament

Malachi part One

Jude part One