Malachi 3:7

The Bible says in Malachi 3:7, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?” We need to take this verse and understand it from the standpoint of the children of Israel and the covenant under which they lived, and compare it to New Testament Christianity and the covenant under which we live. Of course, the Israelites were living under the Covenant of the Law. The word “ordinances” means “statutes.” It refers to the individual laws and commands that God gave through Moses. The same Hebrew word is translated “statutes” in Deuteronomy 4:5 where Moses wrote, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.” The words “statutes” and “ordinances”, “commandments” and “judgments” in the Old Testament refer to the law that was given to Moses, and thus refer to the covenant of the law under which the Israelites agreed to live. They failed to keep the law, and so God gave us the Covenant of grace that is found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God said to the children of Israel in Malachi 3:7, “ye are gone away from mine ordinances.” This is in keeping with the theme of the book of Malachi. The book of Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, and thus it emphasizes the fact that in spite of how much God loved them, the children of Israel failed miserably to keep the ordinances, and the statutes, and the requirements of the Old Testament law. As Christians, we are not under law but under grace. When we fall away, we fall out of the way of faith in Christ. A person becomes a Christian by putting their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace through faith. A new Christian starts a new life of faith in Jesus. Every day and every moment of the day each Christian should trust in Jesus and should live by faith in the Christ who died for him or her. In the age of grace in which we live, we fall out of the way when we stop trusting in Jesus each moment of each day. When the Israelites failed, they failed at the principle of law. When we fail, we fail at the principle of grace. In both situations, whether under law or under grace, the problem has to do with the individual going away from God. He never goes away from us: we go away from Him.

The solution to the problem of going away from God, or being out of fellowship with Christ is found in Malachi 3:7, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.” Jesus is always ready to receive you back into fellowship with Him. The question is: are you ready to return? Jesus quoted from Isaiah chapter 42 and said in Matthew 12:20, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.” It also says in Second Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” No one is ever turned away because of the greatness of their failures. This need to return to the Lord has the same meaning as repentance. The word “repentance” refers to a change of mind. A person is heading in one direction away from God, and they turn to Jesus and start going with God again. A Christian who has learned to walk in fellowship with Jesus every day has learned to live a life of repentance: always turning from his or her sins and turning to Jesus.

In Malachi 3:8 we get to a specific “ordinance” where the Israelites had been severely failing. It says in Malachi 3:8-10, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 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, 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.” For one thing this passage makes clear from the context that tithing was a part of the law. In the book of Malachi we are looking at the ways in which the Israelites failed to keep the law. The book of Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. The purpose of the book of Malachi is to show how much the Israelites failed to fulfill their part of the old covenant of the law. One of the ways in which they failed to keep the law was in tithing. Tithing was one of the outward observances of the keeping of the law. Other outward observances were the keeping of the Sabbath day (Saturday) as a day of rest, the keeping of other feast days, and the temple sacrifices as performed by the priests.

Under the old covenant God’s commandments regarding giving had to do with “tithes and offerings.” Notice carefully that it was tithes and offerings. Ten percent was not enough. It had to be ten percent plus extra offerings. In the New Testament, under the new covenant, instead of believers being told to give ten percent plus offerings, believers are told in Second Corinthians 9:6-8, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” The New Testament principle for Christians is no longer the rigid ten percent of the tithe. The principle in the New Testament is based upon the concept that the Lord guides each believer individually, including how much they give. This concept is more in keeping with the difference between law and grace. The law gives a hard and fast rule that you must obey. Grace has to do with Christ working in you the specific will that He has for your life. It says in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” It says in Galatians 5:18, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Under the principle of grace, it was the Spirit of God who led you to Christ. Now the same Spirit wants to lead you in all details of your life. This is a much different principle than the principle of law. As it says in Galatians 3:3, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

Someone might say, “It is better to be under the new covenant instead of the old covenant because now I do not have to give ten percent.” Not so fast. In reality the old covenant’s requirement of ten percent plus offerings is much easier to meet than the new requirement under the new covenant. If not ten percent, then what does Jesus want from you? He wants everything. After all, what He truly wants is your heart, and if He has your heart, then He has everything. Jesus gave the new requirement concerning giving in His teachings: 100 percent. The Bible says in Mark 12:41-44, “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” The New Testament standard for giving is not ten percent, but is one hundred percent. We see the principle again in Acts 4:36-37, “And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.” Barnabas did not bring ten percent of the money, he brought one hundred percent and gave it to the apostles. Notice carefully what is said in Acts 5:1-5, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.” Ananias and Sapphira did not want to give one hundred percent so they lied about it. They did not have to lie, but they wanted to boast about how much they had given. One of the problems with tithing and with letting others know how much you give is that it can lead to boasting; and there is no boasting in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus mentioned this problem in Luke 18:11-12, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” This self-righteous Pharisee was using his tithing as a means of boasting. The same thing happens today among those who tithe and boast about it.

The amount that you give should be between you and the Lord only. That is one of the reasons that it says in Second Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” What takes place in your heart is between you and Jesus. Some churches make a mistake in keeping track of how much everyone gives. The individual should keep track of his or her own giving. The truth to remember is that when Christians are judged by the Lord, we will be judged not by the old covenant standard of ten percent but by the new covenant standard of one hundred percent. The only way that you can give one hundred percent all the time is for all of your resources truly to be surrendered to the Lord Jesus. He knows that you must pay your mortgage and buy your groceries, etc; and so the real question is: have you surrendered one hundred percent to the Lord and are you truly led by the Spirit in all that you do including the amount that you give? As Ananias and Saphira prove, you can lie to man, but you cannot lie to God who sees your heart.

God said to the Israelites in Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” If those who lived under the old covenant robbed God when they failed to give ten percent, at what point do believers who live under the new covenant become robbers of God? Believers in Jesus become thieves whenever they do not give one hundred percent to the Lord. He shed His precious blood for you. He died for you. He gave all that He had for you, and He did it willingly. You do owe Him everything. Do you give Him one hundred percent? Under the old covenant, it is actually much easier to say, “I gave my ten percent, now everything is fine.” But under the new covenant the standard is much higher: one hundred percent.

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