Roadmap to Reconciliation

Second, we are all stewards of the Lord’s money. We should each think about how we are stewarding that money in our relationships with other kingdom-bound people. In this light, every one of us can be placed into one of two categories. Luke 18 and 19 describe two men who were diametrically opposed to one another in character. The first one is the rich young ruler:

A ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good but One—God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother.”

“I have kept all these from my youth,” he said.

When Jesus heard this, He told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

After he heard this, he became extremely sad, because he was very rich. (Luke 18:18-23)

In this story we see a man who has been entrusted with much but gave little. That is, we witness an example of a man who tried to serve two masters, with the result that he demonstrated his allegiance not to God, but to money.

It is not by accident that in the very next chapter we witness the transformation of Zacchaeus. Jesus, having seen Zacchaeus up in a tree, commands him, “Let’s go to your house to fellowship.” As Jesus is speaking to him, Zacchaeus becomes convicted about his greed and responds,

“Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!”

“Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:8-10)

What a great comparison of two sinners! One man repents; one man retreats. One man is saved; one man is separated. Something similar is taking place in the book of Malachi among the people of God. Malachi is not necessarily calling out those who have been faithfully giving, asking them to give more; Malachi is calling out those who gave nothing. He is calling out those who haphazardly gave. He is calling out those who are giving without worshiping.

God doesn’t need your money. He wants your heart. He wants you to understand that a closed hand is unable to receive a blessing. With a generous, open hand, you are opening yourself up to receive God’s blessings. With a rebellious, closed hand, you are hindering your ability to receive God’s blessings.

Notice how God finishes this section. God gives an amazing promise to His people that will be fulfilled if they obey His commandments. In fact, it is the only time in the Bible where God actually permits one to test Him in the area of finances. Look again at verse 10:

“Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.”

The temple’s storehouse was made up of numerous rooms that contained grain, oil, and various other supplies for the wellbeing of the priests. It was the requirement of God that the people give money and supplies for the preservation of the Levites. God, who knows intimately the hearts of men, anticipated His people saying, “We can’t give ten percent.” So God said, “Test Me.” They thought, “We can’t afford to give.” God corrects them, “No, you can’t afford not to give. Test Me.”

The word test can be used to refer to a number of potential acts. It can be used either positively or negatively to connote testing or challenging. It was used to describe God testing Israel in the desert (Ps 81:7), and elsewhere it is used to refer to men challenging other men (Gen 42:15). In this context it is difficult to determine whether the testing is positive or negative. Perhaps it is an allowance of a negative action to accomplish a positive goal: the glorification of God and the restoration of Israel. God says, in essence, “Go ahead and test Me. Be obedient to Me and I will open the floodgates of blessing upon you.”

The term floodgates is the same word used in Genesis 7:11 to describe when God opened the sky to release the floodwaters that covered the earth. Can you picture it? God will excessively pour out His blessings upon them for their faithfulness in giving.

But the Lord promises not only to provide for them, but also to protect them (Mal 3:11). The NIV alternatively renders this verse, “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops.” The word devourer in the HCSB could refer, as it does in Jeremiah 30:16, to the destruction of Israel at the hands of a foreign army. Further, it is used in Hosea to refer to the destructive nature of fire (“consume” in 8:14). So, regardless of whether the “devourer” is insects, fire, or an army, God appears to be saying, “No matter what happens to you, when you are financially faithful to Me, I will provide for you. I will protect you.”

Finally, God promises that He will make those who obey prosperous. God will give them a good reputation, as He promised Abraham in Genesis 12. If the people of Israel are willing to esteem God as the highest priority in their lives, God promises to make them a great nation. That is, if Israel exalts the name of the Lord, He will exalt their name among their neighbors. He will make their land “delightful.” This means that there will be no more need, no more rampant disease or wickedness among the people, no more war, and no more civil turmoil. There will be plenty to drink and plenty to eat. He promises to restore the land and her people, to give them a golden age, but only if they obey.

What can we learn from the actions (or inactions) of Israel and the promises of God in Malachi 3:6-12? First, as with much of Malachi, we learn that if we obey the mandates of God in humble and faithful service, we can expect reward. This does not mean that reward is immediate, or even that we will ever receive it on this side of heaven. But we are guaranteed to experience God’s blessing, either here or in the coming kingdom.

Second, we learn that what defines us is not what we have or what we think we have earned. Rather, it is what we do with the resources God has provided. No one will say when standing before the judgment throne of God, “If only I had had more money to spend on myself!” The one consumed with God’s glory will say, “If only I had invested more of my money in the kingdom!” Financial activity, just like all other actions, evidences whether you are a kingdom-bound or hell-bound individual. “You shall know them by their fruits.”

And finally, we see in this passage and in the rest of the Bible that God is always faithful to His covenant, even when the people are not. Israel would fail again, but in Christ we see the One who gave generously of Himself, even unto death, out of obedience to His Father. And in His sacrifice He also became the generous outpouring of heavenly blessing that God bestowed on all people.