Mal 3:8-9 | KingComments | STEP | God answers their question in which they must return with a question in which the answer is included ( ). The answer is that it is of course impossible to rob God. Yet God asks that question, because He wants to draw their attention and make them think about it. In a certain sense they do rob God, and that is by withholding something from Him. With great emphasis He says: “Yet you are robbing Me!“ Again, the brutal reaction is to substantiate this accusation. God needs to prove how they have robbed Him. Immediately the answer comes. They rob Him “in tithes and offerings”. They disobey what He said about it in His Word. He often speaks about giving the tithes, of which there are also different kinds ( ; ; ). If the people do not give the tithes, the Levites and priests, who live on the tithes, cannot do their work either and have to look for other work for their income ( ). The offerings are also part of the priest’s food ( ; ; ). If the offerings are not brought, they lack food. When the Levites, due to lack of income, have to do other work, it is also at the expense of their service to God. God is thus deprived of their service. Failure to bring the tithes also affects the widows and orphans. God has decreed that they must receive of the tithes for their livelihood ( ). Whoever robs God, that is, whoever withholds Him what He is entitled to, causes a lot of evil. He who robs God does not receive a blessing either, but a curse ( ). The people are miserable. They sigh under the curse ( ). Here God indicates the cause of it. They rob Him and they continue to do so. And it is not just a single person who does that. No, “the whole nation of them” is guilty of it. But they refuse to understand that the curse that afflicts them is their own fault.

‏ Malachi 3:8-9

Robbing God

God answers their question in which they must return with a question in which the answer is included (Mal 3:8). The answer is that it is of course impossible to rob God. Yet God asks that question, because He wants to draw their attention and make them think about it. In a certain sense they do rob God, and that is by withholding something from Him. With great emphasis He says: “Yet you are robbing Me!“

Again, the brutal reaction is to substantiate this accusation. God needs to prove how they have robbed Him. Immediately the answer comes. They rob Him “in tithes and offerings”. They disobey what He said about it in His Word. He often speaks about giving the tithes, of which there are also different kinds (Lev 27:30-33; Num 18:26-28; Deu 12:18 ; Deu 14:28-29).

If the people do not give the tithes, the Levites and priests, who live on the tithes, cannot do their work either and have to look for other work for their income (Neh 13:10-13). The offerings are also part of the priest’s food (Exo 29:27-28; Lev 7:34 ; Lev 10:14-15; Num 5:9). If the offerings are not brought, they lack food.

When the Levites, due to lack of income, have to do other work, it is also at the expense of their service to God. God is thus deprived of their service. Failure to bring the tithes also affects the widows and orphans. God has decreed that they must receive of the tithes for their livelihood (Deu 26:12). Whoever robs God, that is, whoever withholds Him what He is entitled to, causes a lot of evil.

He who robs God does not receive a blessing either, but a curse (Mal 3:9). The people are miserable. They sigh under the curse (Mal 2:2). Here God indicates the cause of it. They rob Him and they continue to do so. And it is not just a single person who does that. No, “the whole nation of them” is guilty of it. But they refuse to understand that the curse that afflicts them is their own fault.