Malachi 3:9-10 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! This is the infamous verse that is always used when trying to get people to tithe. It’s not necessarily a bad thing because this verse holds a great promise. But if you read the verse before it (vs.10), it puts a little bit of a different spin on it. Malachi is talking to the nation of Israel, collectively and individually. I think that in this case, the majority of people had been cheating God by not tithing (they were supposed to bring a tithe of animals or whatever it was that they raised or produced). And so they were under a curse. It makes me wonder if God still follows that kind of pattern today – can you imagine the curse that America would be under? Our former pastor used to say that less than 10% of the members of the church actually tithe 10%! If that few Christians tithe, imagine how many other people who don’t believe in God or the Bible don’t tithe (obviously)… Even if the verse just applied to Christians (because we should know better, having read the Bible and probably having heard this verse a million times), 90% or more still don’t tithe back to God what is due to Him…. thereby creating a situation where, if God works the same with us as He did with Israel, our nation would be under a curse because we are cheating God… Scary thought. On a positive note, my family’s been testing God on this one. We haven’t really seen the windows of heaven opened up, but God has consistently been faithful to provide for our needs each week. Sure, I’d like to take it literally, that we’d be provided for in such a way as to have more than just our needs met. But, then I’m reminded that the blessing of heaven is not necessarily monetary. God doesn’t say He’ll throw money at us. He says He’ll bless us. And in that regard, I am blessed in so many ways – my family, my job, my car, my church. So maybe it’s a matter off perspective. I’d love to have enough money in the bank that I wasn’t afraid of overdrafting my account every time I paid a bill, but just because I don’t see that happening doesn’t mean that we’ll stop tithing. God has been faithful in the past, and whether the blessing is financial or physical or spiritual He is faithful today, and I believe He’ll be faithful in the future. So there’s my 10 cents on this often-preached on verse.