Tithing - Part 3 (The Devourer)
Bring ye the whole tithe 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 to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:10-11)
The usual Sunday request for tithes involves the Malachi 3:11 declaration that, on the condition that tithes are paid, God will rebuke the devourer. The opposite is also preached; if tithes are not paid, then the devourer is not rebuked and the New Testament believer will suffer all kinds of horror because of this particular disobedience. The problem with this exegesis of scripture is that it ignores the redemption realities of the New Testament.
From the fall of Adam until the time of Moses, sin and death reigned or exercised its dominion over man. (Romans 5:12). With Moses came the introduction of the Law, which not only provided man knowledge of sin and death, but also a covering against them as long as the Law was observed. Tithing was made part of the Law. Consequently, if Israel followed the Law as to tithing, God would rebuke the devourer, the agent of sin and death. God’s rebuke was necessary because Israel did not have any authority against the devourer outside of the confines of the Law.
Under the New Covenant, God does not rebuke the devourer because the believer is to exercise authority over the devil. When a person becomes born-again, he becomes a new creature in Christ and is deemed by God to be “complete in Christ.†As Jesus conquered Satan in His work of redemption and has undone his authority, it is the believer’s responsibility, and not God’s, to exercise authority over him. New Testament scripture bears this out:
“And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out
demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them …†Mark 16:17-18
“Like a roaring lion your adversary prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith …†I Peter 5:8b-9
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.†James 4:7
“Neither give place to the devil.†Ephesians 4:27
In each of these scriptures (four separate witnesses), the believer is the implied subject and he is to exercise the authority against the adversary that he has been granted in Christ. There is no New Testament scripture that indicates, in any way, that God rebukes the devil on behalf of the believer on the basis of the believer’s payment of the tithe.
This is an interesting take, Peter. It seems to me, however, it is incumbant upon a figurative reading of “devourer”. I think, literally, all that is required for the verse in question is to see it in terms of worm, locust, fungus, etc. If that’s the case, then tithing was a means of gaining God’s blessings over the elements, not undoing the schemes of the Devil. In this case, tithing would have the practical repercussions of Elijah’s prayer, i.e. God responded to appropriate spiritual exercise with natural blessings.
I must say, I haven’t really been exposed to teaching that posited the power to defeat the devil in the action of tithing. If so, I may well have approached this just as you have.
Hi Peter,
Your series of articles on tithing are just more confirmations of what I have come to believe.
I recently attended a well known Bible Teacher’s meeting (name withheld). If I understood what he was saying, it went like this; The first part of his presentation on “giving” was inline with your articles on tithing. He clearly stated that we are no longer under the OT curse, but then turned around and said that even though there’s no legalistic reason for us to pay our tithes, it is still stupid for us not to do so.
It always amazes me how otherwise very good preachers teach that the NT is the superior covenant in every area except when it comes to giving, then they shift gears. When it come to money, they use Old Covenant examples and laws to put the faithful in a position where they are left to choose between giving 10% or being cursed as God robbers. Also, many Preachers present OT First Fruit giving as an additional legalistic requirement to tithing. In the case of the teaching I most recently heard, tithing was not presented as a legal requirement, just a requirement if a person wants to be blessed.
IMHO, the main reason that Christians have such a legalistic attitude about giving is because, even if it is not a legalistic requirement, tithing is still taught as a requirement, which, when not dutifully discharged, will produced undesirable consequences. Giving for the sake of love is always taught secondarily to fulfilling the requirement to give. There seems to be no thought for the fact that if giving is a requirement, then it is a sacrifice, not a gift and thereby not an act of love.
Giving to the ministry needs to be fervently taught as an act of love.
The way I solve this is to give more than 10% and not consider any of it to be a tithe. Of course this robs me of being in agreement with many of the Preachers I like when it come to almost every other area of the Bible.
Regards,
David L. DeFrees