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Title: Tithing

Creator(s): Pink, A.W. (1886-1952)

CCEL Subjects: All;

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TITHING

—BY—

Arthur W. Pink

This book is in the public domain.

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Part 1

There are few subjects on which the Lord’s own people are
more astray than on the subject of giving. They profess to
take the Bible as their own rule of faith and practice, and yet
in the matter of Christian finance, the vast majority have
utterly ignored its plain teachings and have tried every
substitute the carnal mind could devise; therefore it is no
wonder that the majority of Christian enterprises in the
world today are handicapped and crippled through the lack
of funds. Is our giving to be regulated by sentiment and
impulse, or by principle and conscience? That is only
another way of asking, Does God leave us to the spirit of
gratitude and generosity, or has He definitely specified His
own mind and particularized what portion of His gifts to us
are due to Him in return? Surely God has not left this
important matter without fully making known His will! The
Bible is given to be a lamp unto our feet and therefore He
cannot have left us in darkness regarding any obligation or
privilege in our dealings with Him or His with us.

Tithing in the Old Testament

At a very early date in the history of our race God made it

known that a definite proportion of the saint’s income
should be devoted to Him who is the Giver of all. There was
a period of twenty-five centuries from Adam until the time
that God gave the law to Israel at Sinai, but it is a great
mistake to suppose that the saints of God in those early
centuries were left without a definite revelation, without a
knowledge of God’s will regarding their obligations to Him,
and of the great blessings which resulted from a faithful
performance of their duties.

As we study carefully the book of Genesis we find clear

traces of a primitive revelation, an indication of God’s mind
to His people long before the system of legislation that was
given at Sinai (see Gen.

18:19); and that primal revelation seems to have centered

about three things: 1. The offering of sacrifices to God. 2.
The observance of the Sabbath. 3. The giving of tithes.

While it is perfectly true that today we are unable to take

the Bible and place our finger upon any positive enactment
or commandment from God that His people, in those early
days, should either offer sacrifices to Him or keep the
Sabbath or give the tithe (there is no definite “Thus saith
the Lord” recorded concerning any one of these three
things), nevertheless, from what is recorded we are
compelled to assume that there must have been such a
commandment given: compare Genesis 26:5.

The Offering of Sacrifices to God

Take first of all the presenting of sacrifices to God. Is it

thinkable that man would ever have presented blood to
Deity if he had never first received a command to so do? Do
you imagine it would ever have occurred to the human mind
itself to have brought a bleeding animal to the great
Creator? And yet we find in the very earliest times that Abel,
Noah, Abraham, presented bleeding offerings unto Jehovah
—clearly presupposing that God had already made it known
that such was His will for His creatures: that the Most High
required just such an offering: see Hebrews 11:4 and
compare Romans 10:17.

The Sabbath

Take again the Sabbath. There is little in the early pages

of Scripture to directly show us that God Himself appointed
one day in seven, and that He made it a law that all of His
creatures should so observe it; and yet there are clear
indications that such must have been the case, or otherwise
we cannot explain what follows. When God gave the ten
commandments to Israel at Sinai, in the fourth
commandment He did not tell Israel to keep the Sabbath;
He commanded them to remember the Sabbath day, which
clearly implies two things: that at an earlier date the mind
of God concerning the Sabbath had been revealed, but, that
their forefathers had forgotten: see Ezekiel 20:5-8, and
compare Exodus 16:27, 28.

The Tithe

The same is true in connection with the tithe. At this day

we are unable to go back to the earliest pages of Scripture
and put our finger upon a “Thus saith the Lord,” a definite
commandment where Jehovah specified His will and
demanded that His people should render a tenth of all their
increase unto Him; and yet as we take up the book of
Genesis we cannot account for what is there, unless we
presuppose a previous revelation of God’s mind and a
manifestation of His will upon the point.
 In Genesis 14:20 it is written, “And he gave him tithes of
all.”

Abraham gave tithes unto Melchizedek. We are not

informed why he did so. We are not told in previous
chapters that God had commanded him to do so, but the
fact that he did so clearly denotes that he was acting in
accordance with God’s will and that he was carrying out His
revealed mind.

The Tithe in Genesis 28:19-22

We will begin at verse 19 to get the context: “And he

called the name of that place Bethel.” You remember the
circumstances. This was the night when Jacob was fleeing
from Esau, a fugitive from home, starting out to Laban’s;
and that night while he was asleep he had the vision.

“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me,

and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me
bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to
my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:
and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s
house: and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give
the tenth unto Thee.” Here again we have the tithe. Jacob
vowed that in return for the Lord’s temporal blessings upon
him, he would render a tenth in return unto the Lord. We are
not told why he selected that percentage; we are not told
why he should give a tenth; but the fact that he did
determine so to do, intimates there had previously been a
revelation of God’s mind to His creatures, and particularly to
His people, that one-tenth of their income should be
devoted to the Giver of all.
The Tithe in the Mosaic Law

When we come to the Mosaic law, we find that the tithe

was definitely and clearly incorporated into it. “And all the
tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the
fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord. And if
a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add
thereto a fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the
herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the
rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord” (Lev.

27:30-32). Notice the twice-repeated expression

concerning the tithe, that it was “holy unto the Lord.” That
is to say, God reserves to Himself, as His exclusive right, as
His own, one-tenth of that which He has given to us. It is
“holy” unto the Lord.

This anticipates a point which may have been exercising

some minds.

When we say that one-tenth of our gross income belongs

to the Lord doubtless some are inclined to say that all of our
income belongs to Him; that everything we have has been
given us by God; that nothing is our own in the full sense of
the word, it is all His. This is perfectly true in one sense, but
not so in another. In one sense it is true that all of our time
belongs to God, that it is not ours, and we shall yet have to
give an account of every idle moment; but in another real
sense it is also true that God has set apart one-seventh of
our time as being holy unto Him. That is to say, it has been
set apart for a sacred use; it is not ours to do with as we
please. The Sabbath is not a day for doing our own pleasure,
it is a day that has been appointed and singled out by God
as being peculiarly His—holy unto Him—one-seventh of our
time spent in His service. And here in Leviticus 27:30-32 we
are told that the tithe is holy unto the Lord. That is to say,
one-tenth is not our own personal property at all: it does not
belong to us in the slightest; we have no say-so about it
whatsoever it is set apart unto a holy use: it is the Lord’s
and His alone.

Support of the Priestly Family in the Old Testament “And the

Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thus speak unto the Levites,
and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel
the tithes which I have given you from them for your
inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for
the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe” (Num. 18:25, 26).
From this we learn that the support of the priestly family in
the Old Testament was not left to the whims of the people,
or as to how they “felt led” to give. God did not leave it for
them to determine. The support of the priestly family was
definitely specified. The priestly family was to derive their
support out of one-tenth of all that the other tribes received
from their annual increase, and the priests themselves were
required to take one-tenth of all out of their portion and
present it to the Lord. There were no exceptions to the rule.

Those who have read through the historical books of

Scripture know full well how miserably Israel failed to obey
this law after they had settled down in the land, how that
almost every fundamental precept and statute of the
legislation that Jehovah gave to Moses was disregarded by
them. But what is very significant is this, that in each great
revival of godliness that Jehovah sent unto Israel, tithing is
one of the things that is mentioned as being renewed and
restored among them.

First of all let us turn to 2 Chronicles 30. This chapter

records a great revival that took place in the days of
Hezekiah. There had been a time of fearful declension in the
reigns of the preceding kings, but in the days of Hezekiah
God graciously gave a blessed revival, and in verse 1 we
read: “And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote
letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should
come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the
Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.” Things had gotten
into such an awful state that they had not even kept the
Passover for several centuries! But when God works a
revival one of its most prominent features is to cause His
people to return to the written Word. Let us note this
carefully. A heaven-sent revival consists not so much in
happy feelings and spasmodic enthusiasm and fleshly
displays, nor great crowds of people in attendance—those
are not the marks of a heaven-sent revival—but when God
renews His work of grace in His churches, one of the first
things that He does is to cause His people to return to the
written Word from which they have departed in their ways
and in their practices. This was what happened in the days
of Hezekiah. We read that he wrote letters to Ephraim and
Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at
Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.
Think of them needing “letters”!! Now read on to chapter
31, verses 4, 5 and 6, and you will find the tithes
mentioned. “Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt
in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and Levites,
that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. And
as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of
Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of corn, wine, and
oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the
tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. And
concerning the children of Israel and Judah, they also
brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy
things which were consecrated unto the Lord their God, and
laid them by heaps”
 (vv. 4-6). Following which, God markedly blest them.

The same thing is true again in the tenth chapter of

Nehemiah. It will be remembered that Nehemiah brings us
to a later period in the history of Israel. Nehemiah records
the return of a small remnant of the people after the nation
had been carried away into captivity, after the seventy
years in Babylon was over. Then God raised up Cyrus to
make a decree permitting those who desired to go back to
their own land. In this chapter we find that in the revival of
his day, the tithe is also mentioned: “And we cast the lots
among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood
offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the
houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to
burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in
the law: And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the
firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house
of the Lord: Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle,
as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and
of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the
priests that minister in the house of our God: And that we
should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings,
and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto
the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and
the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same
Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage”
(Neh. 10:34-37).

Now turn to the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi

brings us to a point still later, and shows us how the
remnant that had returned in the days of Nehemiah had
also degenerated and deteriorated and had departed from
the word of the law of the Lord; and, among other things.
 note the charges that God brings against Israel in Malachi
3:7, 8.

“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? Will a man rob God? Yet ye
have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee?
In tithes and offerings.” How solemn to notice that in the
last chapter but one of the Old Testament, we are there
taught that those who withheld the “tithe” from Jehovah are
charged with having robbed God! Solemn indeed!

The Tithe in the New testament

Only God has the right to say how much of our income
shall be set aside and set apart unto Him. And He has so
said clearly, repeatedly, in the Old Testament Scriptures,
and there is nothing in the New Testament that introduces
any change or that sets aside the teaching of the Old
Testament on this important subject.

Christ Himself has placed His approval and set His

imprimatur upon the tithe. “Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done,
and not to leave the other undone” (Matt. 23:23). In that
verse Christ is rebuking the scribes and Pharisees because
of their hypocrisy. They had been very strict and punctilious
in tithing the herbs, but on the other hand they had
neglected the weightier matters such as judgment, or
justice, and mercy. But while Christ acknowledged that the
observance of justice and mercy is more important than
tithing—it is a “weightier matter”—while, He says, these
they ought to have done, nevertheless He says, these other
ye ought not to have left undone. He does not set aside the
tithe. He places justice and mercy as being more weighty,
but He places His authority upon the practice of tithing by
saying, “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
other undone.” It is well for us if we by the grace of God
have not omitted justice and mercy and faith: it is well if by
the grace of God those things have found a place in our
midst: but the tithing ought not to have been left undone,
and Christ Himself says so.

The second passage to be noted is 1 Corinthians 9:13, 14:

“Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things
live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the
altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord
ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of
the Gospel.” The emphatic words there are, “Even so” in the
beginning of the fourteenth verse. The word “tithe” is not
found in these two verses but it is most clearly implied. In
verse 13 the Holy Spirit reminds the New Testament saints
that under the Mosaic economy God had made provision for
the maintenance of those who ministered in the temple.
Now then, He says, in this New Testament dispensation
“Even so” (v. 14)—the same means and the same method
are to be used in the support and maintaining of the
preachers of the Gospel as were used in supporting the
temple and its services of old. “Even so.” It was the tithe
that supported God’s servants in the Old Testament
dispensation: “even so” God has ordained, and appointed
that His servants in the New Testament dispensation shall
be so provided for.
 Referring next to 1 Corinthians 16:1 and 2: here again we
find the word “tithe” does not actually occur, and yet once
more it is plainly implied: the principle of it is there surely
enough. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I
have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by
him in store, as God hath prospered him.” Now what does
“laying by” imply? Certainly it signifies a definite
predetermined act, rather than a spontaneous impulse, or
just acting on the spur of the moment. Let us look at this
again. “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you
lay by him in store.” (v. 2). Why are we told that?

Why is it put that way’? Why use such an expression as

“lay by in store”? Clearly that language points us back to
Malachi 3:10. “Bring ye all the tithes into the _______”
Where? The “storehouse”! That is where the tithes were to
be brought. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.”
Now what does God say here in Corinthians? “Upon the first
day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store.”
There is a clear reference here to the terms of Malachi 3, but
that is not all.

Look at it again. “Let every one of you lay by him in store,

as God hath prospered him.” That signifies a definite
proportion of the income. Not “let every one of you lay by
him in store, as he feels led”; it does not say that, nor does
it say “let every one of you lay by him in store as he feels
moved by the Spirit”; no indeed, it says nothing of the kind.
It says, “Let every one … lay by him as God hath prospered
him”: in a proportionate way, according to a percentage
basis. Now consider! If my income today is double what it
was a year ago and I am not giving any more to the Lord’s
cause than I gave then, then I am not giving “as the Lord
hath prospered”: I am not giving proportionately. But now
the question arises, What proportion? What is the proportion
that is according to the will of God? “As He hath prospered
him.” Can one man bring one proportion and another man
bring another proportion, and yet both of them obey this
precept? Must not all bring the same proportion in order to
meet the requirements of this passage? Turn for a moment
to 2 Corinthians 8:14: “But by an equality, that now at this
time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that
their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that
there may be equality.” Please note that this verse occurs in
the middle of a chapter devoted to the subject of giving,
and what is to be observed is, that at the beginning of verse
14 and at the end of it we have repeated the word
“equality,” which means that God’s people are all to give
the same proportion of their means and the only proportion
that God has specified anywhere in His Word is that of the
tenth, or “tithe.”

There is one other passage to be looked at, namely

Hebrews 7:5 and 6: “And verily they that are of the sons of
Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a
commandment to take tithes of the people according to the
law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the
loins of Abraham: But he, whose descent is not counted
from them, received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him
that had the promises.” (Notice the order: “received tithes
of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises”). And
without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.” In
the seventh chapter of Hebrews the Holy Spirit through the
apostle Paul is showing the superiority of Christ’s priesthood
over the order of the priesthood of the Levites, and one of
the proofs of which He establishes the transcendency of the
Melchizedek order of the priesthood of Christ was that
Abraham, the father of the chosen people, acknowledged
the greatness of Melchizedek by rendering tithes to him.
 The reference in Hebrews 7 is to what is recorded in
Genesis 14, where we have two typical characters brought
before us—Melchizedek, a type of Christ in three ways: first,
in his person, combining the kingly and the priestly offices;
second, a type of Christ in his names, combining
righteousness and peace, for “Melchizedek” itself means
“peace”; and third, a type of Christ in that he pronounced
blessing on Abraham and brought forth bread and wine, the
memorials of his death.

But not only was Melchizedek there a type of Christ, but

Abraham was also a typical character, a representative
character, seen there as the father of the faithful; and we
find he acknowledged the priesthood of Melchizedek by
giving him a tenth of the spoils which the Lord had enabled
him to secure in vanquishing those kings, and as that is
referred to in Hebrews, where the priesthood of Christ and
our blessings from our relations to it and our obligation to it
are set forth, the fact that Abraham paid tithes to
Melchizedek as mentioned there, indicates that as Abraham
is the father of the faithful, so he left an example for us, his
children, to follow—in rendering tithes unto Him of whom
Melchizedek was the type. And the beautiful thing in
connection with the Scripture is that the last time the tithe
is mentioned in the Bible (here in Heb. 7) it links the tithe
directly with Christ Himself. All intermediaries are removed.
In the Old Testament the tithes were brought to the priests,
then carried into the storehouse, but in the final reference in
Scripture, the tithe is linked directly with Christ, showing us
that our obligations in the matter are concerned directly
with the great Head of the Church.

In the above we have only introduced the Scriptures that

present God’s mind on this matter. In the following section
we will deal with the subject in an expository and in an
argumentative way.

One evil ever leads to another. God’s appointed method

for the financing of the work which He has been pleased to
place in our hands, is that of tithing—the strict setting aside
one-tenth of all we receive, to be devoted to His cause.
Where the Lord’s people faithfully do this, there is never any
shortage or going into debt. Where tithing is ignored there is
almost always a deficit, and then the ungodly are asked to
help or worldly methods are employed to raise money. If we
sow the wind, we must not be surprised if we reap the
whirlwind.

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Part 2

“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” (Mal. 3:10).

Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is

undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is
an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been
neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been
appropriated. Both are correct. Possibly there are some who
soothe themselves by saying, Well, other Christians do not
tithe. And maybe there are others who say, But if tithing be
obligatory in this present dispensation why are the
preachers silent upon the subject? My friends, they are
silent on a good many subjects today: that does not prove
anything.

In the previous section of this article the attempt was

made to show three things: first, that tithing existed among
the people of God long before the law was given at Sinai
and that in the brief record we have of that early history we
learn that Abraham, the father of the faithful, gave tithes
unto Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, and that
Jacob, when he had that revelation from the Lord on his way
out to Padan-aram, promised to give a tenth unto God.
Second, we saw that when the law was given the tithe was
definitely and clearly incorporated in it, but, like almost
everything else in that law, Israel neglected it, until, in the
days of Malachi, we find Jehovah expressly telling His people
that they had robbed Him. In the third place, we found that
in the New Testament itself we have both hints and plain
teaching that God requires His people to tithe even now, for
tithing is not a part of the ceremonial law, it is a part of the
moral law. It is not something that has a dispensational
limitation, but is something that is binding on God’s people
in all ages.

Now let us go a step farther. Tithing is even more

obligatory on the saints of the New Testament than it was
upon God’s people in Old Testament days—not equally
binding, but more binding, and that for two reasons: first, on
the principle of “unto whomsoever much is given, of him
shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). The obligations of
God’s saints today are much greater than the obligations of
the saints in Old Testament times, because our privileges
and our blessings are greater.

As grace is more potent than law, as love is more

constraining than fear, as the Holy Spirit is more powerful
than the flesh, so our obligations to tithe are greater, for we
have a deeper incentive to do that which is pleasing to God.
Listen! The Christian should tithe for the very same reason
he keeps all the other commandments of God, and for the
same reason he keeps the laws of his country—not because
he must do so, but because he desires to do so. As a law
abiding citizen in the kingdom of God, he desires to
maintain the government of God and to do that which is
pleasing in His sight.

Again, in proportion as the priesthood of Christ is superior

to the priesthood of Aaron, so are our obligations to render
tithes to Him.
 The Aaronic priesthood was recognized and owned by
Israel through their payment of the tithe to them. In the
seventh chapter of Hebrews the Holy Spirit has argued the
superiority of the priesthood of Christ, which is after the
order of Melchizedek, on the fact, or on the basis of the fact
rather, that Melchizedek himself received tithes from
Abraham. That is the very argument the Holy Spirit uses
there to establish the superiority of the Melchizedec order of
Christ’s priesthood. He appeals to the fact as recorded in
Genesis 14, that Melchizedek, who was the type of Christ,
received tithes from Abraham, and argues from that that
inasmuch as Levi was in the loins of Abraham, therefore the
Melchizedek priesthood of Christ is greater than that of
Aaron because Abraham himself paid tithes to Melchizedek,
who is a type of Christ. Therefore, in proportion to the
greater blessings and privileges that we enjoy, we are under
deeper obligations to God; and in proportion as Christ’s
priesthood is superior to that of the Levites, so is our
obligation the greater to render tithes unto the Lord today,
than that under which His people lived in Old Testament
times.

Why God has Appointed Tithing

In the next place we wish to suggest a few reasons why

God has appointed tithing. In the first place, as a constant
recognition of the Creator’s rights. As our Maker He desires
that we should honor Him with one-tenth of our income. In
other words, the tenth is the recognition of His temporal
mercies and the owning that He is the Giver of them. It is
the acknowledgment that temporal blessings come from
Him and are held in trust for Him.

Tithing an Antidote Against Covetousness

 Again. We believe that God has appointed tithing as the
solution of all financial covetousness, for by nature we are
full of covetousness. That is why in the ten commandments
God incorporates “Thou shalt not covet.”

That is why Christ said to His disciples, “Beware of

covetousness.” And tithing has been appointed by God to
deliver us from the spirit of greed, to counteract our innate
selfishness; therefore, it has been designed for our blessing
for, like all of His commandments, none of them is grievous,
but appointed for our own good.

Tithing the Solution of Every Financial Problem Again. I

believe that God has appointed tithing as the solution of
every financial problem that can arise in connection with His
work.

While the children of Israel practiced tithing there was no

difficulty in maintaining the system of worship that God had
appointed. And if God’s people today practiced tithing, there
would be an end of all financial straits that are crippling so
many Christian enterprises. No church could possibly be
embarrassed financially where its members tithed. And I
believe that that is the solution of rural church work in thinly
populated districts. Wherever you have ten male Christians
you have sufficient to support a permanent worker in their
midst, for no worker should desire any greater remuneration
than the average income of those supporting him.
Therefore, if you have ten male Christians giving one-tenth
of their income, no matter what it may be, you have
sufficient to maintain and sustain a regular worker in their
midst.
 That is God’s solution to the missionary problem.
Wherever you have ten average male Chinese you have a
situation where they ought to be independent and no longer
leaning upon the help of God’s people at home. It is a
scandal and a shame to see churches in India and in China
today that have been in existence fifty years still looking to
God’s people in Australia and England and America for their
financial support. And why is it? Because the teachings of
the Word of God have been neglected. It is because they
have never been taught the foundation of Christian finance.
No wonder the missionary world is calling out today that
they are crippled for lack of funds! They need to be taught
scriptural finance. That is why God appointed tithing. It is
the solution of all financial problems in connection with His
work.

Where tithing is practiced there will never be any going

into debt.

Tithing as a test of Our Faith

Now then in the fourth place, God has appointed tithing as

a test of our faith, and for the nourishing and developing of
our faith—especially of the young Christians. Here is a
young man who has just started housekeeping. He
professes to trust God with the enormous matter of his
eternal future. He professes to have confidently left his
immortal interests in the hands of God. Well now, dare he
trust God with one-tenth of his income for a year? My
friends, tithing develops in young Christians the spirit of
trusting the Lord in their temporal affairs.

Two Objections Anticipated

 Before coming to the next point let us just anticipate two
objections.

When the subject of tithing is brought before the Lord’s

people, there are usually a few who are ready to say, Well, I
think it is a man’s duty to provide for his own household, for
his own family. Yes, so do I. Scripture says so. There is
nothing wrong in that. I go further. I believe it is perfectly
proper for a young Christian man to desire and to seek after
an increasing income with which to properly support his
growing family, but if he is not a tither he has no guarantee
from God that his present income will even be maintained,
let alone enlarged.

But the tither has that guarantee from God, as we shall

yet see, unless our eyes are shut.

And then perhaps there are some who say, I cannot afford
to tithe, for I have made some investments which have
turned out very badly. Yes, and you are likely to meet with
some worse ones if you continue to rob God!

My friends, you need Divine guidance in the matter of

investing, and God won’t give that guidance while you are
walking contrary to His revealed will in the matter of church
finance. I am fully persuaded that in the vast majority of
cases, if not all (this may sound harsh: God’s Word is
piercing and condemning and rebuking and humbling) that
where you have children of God in middle life or in old age,
who are in financial straits, it is because they robbed God in
their earlier years. Be not deceived: God is not mocked! If
they did not handle to His glory and use according to His
Word the money He did give them, then they must not be
surprised if He withholds from them now: see Jeremiah 5:25!
There is a cause for every effect. There is an explanation to
all things right here in the Word of God, too.

“Proving God”

Now let us come at closer grips with the text itself. There
are three things I wish you to notice carefully. “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” (Mal. 3:10). My friends, that is a startling expression.
It is a remarkable expression. God says, “Prove Me.” Those
words mean this: Place the Almighty on trial (and it would
be sin, it would be positively wicked, for any creature to do
so unless he was definitely commanded so to do). “Prove Me
now herewith”—with the tithe. In other words, our text tells
us to put God to the proof, to test Him out and see what He
will do. We are bidden to give Him one-tenth of our income
and then to see whether He will let us be the loser or not.
“Prove Me now herewith.” I tell you, my friends, my soul is
overwhelmed by the amazing condescension of the Most
High to place Himself in such a position. God allows Himself
to be placed on trial by us, and tithing is a process of proof.
Tithing is a means whereby we can demonstrate in the
material realm the existence of God and the fact of His
governor-ship over all temporal affairs. If you have any
shadow of doubt in your mind and heart as to whether or
not God exists, or as to whether or not He controls all
temporal affairs, you can have that doubt removed by an
absolute demonstration of the actuality of God’s existence
and of His control over temporal affairs. How? By regularly,
faithfully, systematically giving Him one-tenth of your gross
income, and then seeing whether He will let you be the loser
or not: proving whether He does honor those who honor
Him: proving whether He will allow Himself to be any man’s
debtor. He says, “Prove Me, prove Me, put Me to the test.”
You trembling, fearful saints, never mind if your income is
only $1 a day, and you have to scheme and scratch and
strain to make both ends meet. Take one-tenth away and
devote it to the Lord, and then see if He will remain your
debtor. “Prove Me now herewith,” He says. Try Me out and
see whether I am worthy of your confidence; put Me to the
test and see whether I will disappoint your faith. As we said
above, God has appointed tithing as a test of faith, for the
development of faith; and if the young Christian would only
start by proving God in the material realm, testing Him out
in His own appointed way, what a confirmation it would be!
How it would enable him to trust God in temporal things—
which is one of the hardest things that the average Christian
finds to do.

“The Windows of Heaven” Opened

Now coming again to the text. Notice the expression,

“Prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not
open you the windows of heaven.” What does He mean by
that? “And see if I will not open the windows of heaven.”
What does He mean? Now Scripture always interprets
Scripture. If you will go back to the seventh chapter of
Genesis, verses 11 and 12, you will find that identical
expression used there, and it explains the force of it here in
Malachi 3. Read Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of
Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the
month, the same day were all the fountains of the great
deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty
nights.” Now the same expression that is used in Genesis 7
in connection with the Deluge is used here in Malachi 3 in
connection with the return, the response, the blessings that
God has promised to those that honor Him with their
substance, by devoting a tithe to His service. In other words,
that expression “open the windows of heaven” signifies an
abundant outpouring. Now listen! That does not mean an
abundant spiritual blessing. It does not mean that at all, for
spiritual blessings cannot be purchased. You ask, Can
temporal? In one sense, yes. Certainly they can in the sense
that God has promised that we shall reap what we have
sown; in the sense that He has promised to honor those who
honor Him; in the sense that He promised a bountiful return
to a bountiful giver.

Certainly! Just in the same way that He has promised

length of days to those who honor their parents when they
are children. That is a blessing that is purchased! Now then,
listen! When God has promised to open the windows of
heaven and pour out a blessing, it is not a spiritual one, it is
a temporal one. He promises an increase in your income. Of
course He does. Do you suppose Almighty God would be
your debtor? Do you suppose the Most High would allow you
to be the loser because you are faithful to His Word and
obedient to His will and give Him a tenth of your income?
Why, of course not. And we say again, the great reason why
so many of God’s people are poor is because they have
been unfaithful with the money that God gave them. They
robbed GOD! No wonder they have suffered adversities and
misfortunes. No wonder! Some of us need to re-read our
Bibles on the subject of the principles and conditions of
temporal prosperity. Some need to learn that the God of the
New Testament is the God of the Old Testament and that He
changes not. God changes not. God does not vary the
principles of His government. The God who gave bountiful
crops to a people in the Old Testament times who honored
Him and kept His Word, is the same God who is on the
throne today, and the same God gives bountiful crops and
prosperity in business to them who honor Him. But those
who meet with financial adversities and financial
misfortunes—there is a reason for it; of course there is. The
world calls it “bad luck”: they know no better, but we ought
to!

“Enough and More Than Enough”

It is very obvious the translators did not know what to do

with this text, if you will notice the words they have put in
italics. Look at it as it reads (the last part of Mal. 3:10): “I
will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a
blessing, that (now leave out the words in italics) not
enough.” The words in italics are not in the original.

They have been supplied by the translators and they had

to supply more words in the last clause than were actually
there, which shows they did not know what to do with it. The
Hebrew as nearly as I can get it in the original means,
“there shall be enough and more than enough.” That does
not vary very much from the rendering of the translators. In
other words it means, “The liberal soul shall be made fat.”
Turn for a moment to 2 Chronicles 31 and notice now the
tenth verse: “And Azariah the chief priest of the house of
Zadok answered him, and said, Since the people began to
bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had
enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the Lord hath
blessed His people; and that which is left is this great store.”
Now if you read the preceding verses you will find it was
when the tithe was restored in that revival in the days of
Hezekiah; and here we are told that since the people
brought their offerings (their tithes) into the Lord’s house
there was not only enough, but there was more than
enough; there was a great store left over! It is ever thus
when we faithfully honor God with our substance! John
Bunyan wrote: “There was a man,

Some called him mad;

The more he gave,

The more he had.”

Practical Suggestions

In closing I want to give you a few practical suggestions.

They are very important and they are very simple. In the
matter of tithing, Christian friends, be just as strict, and
careful and systematic as you are in business matters, in
fact, even more so, for it is not the world’s money and it is
not your own, but it is the Lord’s money which is involved.
Now do not trust to memory. There are some Christians who
say, Well, I have never bothered to keep any records, but I
am quite sure that if I had done so, I should find that I had
given at least a tenth to the Lord. Some of you might be
surprised to find—if you did keep a record and looked it up—
how much short of the tenth you had given!

In the first place I would suggest this. Form the habit of

taking out one-tenth from all the money that you receive
either as wages or gifts.

Subtract one-tenth and put it into a separate bag, or box,

or purse.
 That is what it means when it says in 1 Corinthians 16,
“laying by in store.” And that box or purse is the Lord’s, not
yours. It is holy unto Him. Form the habit of taking out a
tenth from all you receive, putting it into a separate
compartment belonging to the Lord.

In the second place, get a small book, a cheap notebook,

and on one page put down all your receipts (it will not take
some of you very long—one entry, I suppose, at the end of
the week) and on the other page put down the
disbursement of God’s “tithe.”

And then in the third place make it a matter of definite

prayer to God to guide you in the disbursement as to where
He would have you use the money that belongs to Him. It is
not yours; it is His; for remember you have not even begun
to give at all until you have first paid your tithe. Giving
comes in afterwards. The tithe is the Lord’s. That is His. That
is not yours to give at all; that belongs to the Creator. You
have not begun to give until you have done your tithing.

A Testimony

Now in the last place I just want to quote an extract

clipped from a religious magazine published in England. In
that magazine there has been going on for some time a
correspondence, a number of letters, and the subject has
been the unemployment in England among the Lord’s
people. Here is the testimony of one who has written to that
paper: “Twenty-five years ago, being influenced by reading
the life of George Muller, I was led to give a tenth of my
income to the Lord. I think I was earning 6Ł ($1.50) a week
at the time. The first few years I found it sometimes a
sacrifice. One shilling out of ten seemed a lot. But it became
such a habit with me to divide at once and put away the
Lord’s tenth that for years it has been no sacrifice. Now
what is the result?

This: I have proved the truth that Him that honoreth Me I

will honor.

All through the war, and since, I have experienced no

poverty. Though a shop assistant and now over forty (it is a
woman that is writing) I have been away ill only one week in
twenty-five years. What makes it even more wonderful is
that after twenty I became slightly deaf and this has
increased (and they do not want deaf assistants to wait on
people in a shop, do they?) and yet, praise the Lord, I am
still holding my situation. When I read of so many other sad
cases of unemployment I praise the Lord for His mercy to
me.”

One testimony like that is worth twenty arguments. And,

my friends, I want to bear my own witness that after twenty
years’ experience and observation I have proven the truth
of our text that God does open the windows of heaven and
that He does give more than enough in response to simple
obedience to Him.

“Prove Me now herewith.” That is God’s challenge to you.

God dares you to test Him out in the financial realm. You
profess to have faith in Him, to trust your soul into His
keeping; now He challenges you to see whether you have
faith enough to just trust Him with one-tenth of your income
for a year, for mind you, in the case of the children of Israel
it was a matter of waiting very nearly twelve months for any
returns.
 They were farmers. You test the Lord out for twelve
months. You wait a reasonable length of time, and then see
whether He lets you be the loser or not. “Prove Me now
herewith.” That is God’s challenge to your faith. O brethren
and sisters, do so and see if He will not open you the
windows of heaven, and pour you out such a blessing that
there shall be “enough and more than enough.”

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Indexes
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Index of Pages of the Print Edition

[1]i [2]1 [3]2 [4]3 [5]4 [6]5 [7]6 [8]7 [9]8 [10]9 [11]9

[12]10 [13]11 [14]12 [15]13

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References

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 Table of Contents
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