Page 89 - The Minor Prophets - Student textbook

Malachi 3:6-7, “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever
since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty.”

Malachi 3: 8-10 “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed
you?' In your tithes and contributions. 9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the
whole nation of you. 10Bring 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.”

"Does the teaching on tithing in Malachi 3:8-10 apply to us today?"

Malachi 3:8-10 is often used to teach the need for Christians to tithe to local
churches today. Does this teaching apply to Christians today?

First, the context of this passage concerns the Israelites not bringing their
offerings to the temple. Because of their disobedience, God had judged
them with a small harvest. The Lord challenged them to bring the “full tithe” of grain sacrifices
(Leviticus 6:14-23) and see that He would bless them with an abundance of future crops. The
“storehouse,” mentioned in verse 10, is a place to store grain in the temple in Jerusalem, not the local
church.

Second, this passage teaches that the Jews were to give a tithe as part of the temple worship, but it
does not teach that Christians are to give to churches. Malachi was written more than 400 years before
the start of the first church in Jerusalem. Applying its command of temple giving to the local church
takes these verses out of their original context.

Are New Testament Christians commanded to tithe or not? To be clear, a tithe is literally a “tenth,” or
10 percent. Abraham gave a tenth of all he had to the priest of Salem in Genesis 14:20. Later, the
Mosaic Law included commands to give a tenth for tabernacle worship. Tithing is mentioned 18 times
in the Law, as the people were to share their produce and livestock to support the Levites, the
caretakers of the tabernacle. This same system of tithing would later be applied to the temple (2
Chronicles 31:5).

While the word, “tithe” literally means a “tenth”, the Mosaic Law called for two tithes to be given each
year, one to the local priests, and one to be sent to Jerusalem. A third tithe was mandated every third
year for the care of widows and orphans. So the actual Mosaic Law called for 23.3% of produce and
livestock to be “tithed” to the Lord annually.

Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day, saying, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and
rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without
neglecting the others” (Luke 11:42). These Pharisees obeyed the Law of Moses in that they tithed
scrupulously, yet did not truly love God. They were challenged to do both. Also you might note that
the Mosaic Law never commanded to tithe mint, rue and herbs. The Pharisees added to the law by
making up their own rules of righteousness.

The Law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:17). When the church began to grow beyond the
Jewish people and reach Gentiles, leaders struggled with whether or not to command these new

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