One Final, Unusual Prophecy
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There is one last prophecy that needs to be examined. It is God’s personal challenge to you on a specific matter wherein He says that you can prove Him. It is the remarkable prophecy concerning the biblical principle of tithing found at the end of the Old Testament.
The prophet Malachi asks, “Will a man rob God?” (Mal. 3:8). Be careful that you do not say that this is an Old Testament scripture with no effect today.
Did you realize that the New Testament Church is built directly on top of the prophets? I never heard this in Sunday school or in the church of my youth. Ephesians 2:19-20 says, “you are…fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” There it is—the true Church—God’s Church!—stands directly on a foundation that includes the prophets! What is written in the prophets is instruction to God’s New Testament Church!
We can now read a powerful series of verses. The first two set the stage for a verbal exchange between God and His people. Notice: “For I am the Lord, I change not…Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from Mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:6-7). The exchange then shifts to a rhetorical question from the people to God: “But you said, Wherein shall we return?” Now God answers with His own question: “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me.” The context returns to another rhetorical question from the people: “But you say, Wherein have we robbed You?” God’s answer is: “in tithes and offerings” (Mal 3:7-8)! When people do not pay God His tithes—and do not give Him His offerings—He considers them to be robbing Him. Robbing is thievery—stealing! Not only is it stealing, but it is stealing from God! Few things could be more serious!
Stealing from God brings consequences. In the next verse, God continues, “You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.” This statement is directed to all the modern-day nations that descended from the twelve tribes that comprised ancient Israel. Generally, these nations are the democratic nations of Western Europe, and the primarily English-speaking nations of the world—the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
These nations are under a growing curse directly in part for their sin of stealing God’s tithes. Remember that Abraham and Isaac were not Israelites, yet were required to pay tithes. Therefore, all nations suffer from the curse of not obeying God’s financial laws.
This world is based on the “get” way rather than the “give” way, which is God’s way! People constantly strive to “get” more for themselves. This violates the Tenth Commandment, which forbids coveting. Notice what God says of His people, and of all nations, in a prophecy directed to those alive at the end of the age: “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely” (Jer. 6:13).
Two chapters later, there is an almost identical statement, except that God also warns of the horrific punishment He will bring because of this worldwide attitude.
The subject of Malachi is God’s coming punishment on the entire world during the Day of the Lord—called the Day of God’s Wrath. This theme is found in nearly all of the Minor Prophets—the last twelve, short books of the Old Testament. See Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-14; 3:1-21; Amos 5:18-20; and Zephaniah 1:7-18, among other places. Malachi continues the theme of the Day of the Lord and actually pictures tithing as the key to a repentant attitude.
Consider!
How could God punish the nations of the world for robbery, if the tithing law is not in effect today? This would make no sense and would make God terribly unjust if He did this.
The context of Malachi continues with an offer from God. It is directed both at the modern peoples of Israel and to any single individual who chooses to take God at His word. Notice: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, says 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).
This is a promise! Pay Almighty God His tithes and He will bless you beyond what you have room to receive! Will you believe this?
The patriarch Jacob believed God and this is what he expected, once he began to pay His tithes. Jacob was prepared to tithe—if God would provide for, bless and guide him. His life became a testimony to the fact that God keeps His Word, if men obey Him. (Read our free booklet End All Your Financial Worries, to learn more about tithing.)
Paying God’s tithes works! As shown, there is a cause and effect relationship that the tithepayer has come to understand. I have seen demonstrated, as have a great many others, the powerful proof of tithing. It is a law as surely as is the law of gravity. It “keeps” those that keep it and “breaks” those that break it. Granted, this is not acceptable proof to the avowed skeptic, who is not willing to “prove” God—and who would never part with what he thinks is his money. Since he has no interest in obeying God on any other point, the skeptic is certainly not about to give ten percent of his income to enter into a test he has no interest in proving correct!
Will you prove God on this point? Are you willing to see if paying God’s tithes “pays off”? This extraordinary proof of prophecy is one that you can understand by looking at conditions in the world around you and one where you can run your own test in order to come to your own conclusion.
Summation
You have seen many different proofs of the Bible. This section has conclusively established its divine authority, and this just primarily from prophecies that have been fulfilled exactly as foretold. Individually and collectively, they represent the greatest single proof—actually, many separate proofs within the one overall enormous proof of prophecy—that the One who purports to have inspired the Bible actually did so.
But then there is the question of how—through whom—God recorded, compiled and preserved His Word…