BIG IDEA:
GOD REBUKES THE SELF RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FOR ROBBING HIM OF HIS DUE TITHES AND OFFERINGS
I. (:7-9) PERSISTENCE IN ROBBING GOD INVOKES GOD’S JUDGMENT
A. Repentance Remains the Only Cure for Transgression
1. History of Transgression
“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them.”
2. Offer of Restoration
“’Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
B. Self Righteous Questions
1. Where have we gone wrong?
“But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”
2. How have we robbed God?
“But you say, ‘How have we robbed Thee?’”
C. Curse for Robbing God
1. Absurdity of Robbing God
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!”
2. Accounting of What is Owed
“In tithes and offerings.”
3. National Scope of the Penalty Matched to National Scope of the Crime
“You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!”
II. (:10-12) PERVASIVE OBEDIENCE IN GIVING GOD HIS DUE WILL BRING ABUNDANT BLESSING AND PROVE GOD’S GRACIOUSNESS
A. (:10a) Challenge of Obedience
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house,”
B. (:10b) Corresponding Test of God’s Faithfulness and Abundant Graciousness
“’and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’”
C. (:11) Promise of Prosperity
1. Protection Against External Enemies
“Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground”
2. Assurance of Internal Health
“’nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
D. (:12) Reputation of Having Been God-Favored
“’And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,’ says the Lord of hosts.”