HIS WORD REVEALED: A Deep Dive into the Word of God

What the Bible Really Says About Tithing: Malachi 3, Abraham, and the Devourer

• Season 1 • Episode 10

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Is tithing still required? This episode walks through the biblical foundation of the tithe — from Abraham's offering to Melchizedek long before the law, to Malachi 3:10 and its promise to "rebuke the devourer," to the way Jesus and the New Testament treat giving. A study for Christians who want to know whether the tithe is a Jewish ceremony, a New Testament principle, or something deeper than both.

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Produced using AI-generated narration. All Scripture study and theological content is human-authored.

M

Imagine waking up tomorrow, right? And uh your entire city has just been leveled by a category five hurricane.

V

Oh, wow. Just absolute devastation.

M

Exactly. I mean, infrastructure is completely gone, the power grids are destroyed.

V

Yeah, total chaos.

M

Right. And the government immediately steps in, you know, deploying the National Guard, FEMA, emergency medical services, all these supply drops, just to keep the region from descending into absolute anarchy.

V

Because that's their job, right? To maintain order and protect citizens.

M

Exactly. Now, in the middle of this catastrophic recovery, you and your neighbors, who, by the way, are somehow still receiving a paycheck, you get together and decide something kind of crazy.

V

Uh-oh. What do they decide?

M

You say, you know what? Instead of paying our federal income tax this year, let's just uh hold on to that money and donate it directly to the local hurricane relief fund ourselves. Oh, I see where this is going. Right. You figure, hey, we know best where it should go, so we'll just bypass the government. So what happens next?

V

Well, functionally, I mean you'd be entirely outside the bounds of the law. Right. You can't just opt out of your citizenship duties just because, you know, you prefer a different method of distribution.

M

Yeah. That's not how it works.

V

Not at all. The federal government would look at that and say, look, your charitable intentions are great, but they don't negate your legal obligation to the state.

M

Exactly. Because if every citizen did that, the government would literally cease to function.

V

Trevor Burrus It would completely collapse.

M

Trevor Burrus Right. The sovereignty of the nation, it relies entirely on the revenue of its citizens to maintain its order and its protection.

V

Yeah, that infrastructure doesn't pay for itself.

M

No, it doesn't. And we're starting there today because we're looking at this deeply challenging, just incredibly fascinating source document titled Tithing Rebuking the Devourer.

V

It is such a compelling framework.

M

It really is. And it uses this exact analogy, you know, the hurricane and the tax, to ask you, the listener, a fundamentally uncomfortable question.

V

It definitely steps on some toes.

M

Oh, big time. It asks, are you treating the kingdom of heaven like a legitimate government or just like a favored charity?

V

Wow. I mean, it is a phenomenal question.

M

It really reframes everything, doesn't it?

V

It does. It forces us to completely reevaluate the baseline of how we view our resources.

M

Yeah.

V

And uh just to set the stage, today we are having an in-depth conversation between believers. Right.

M

This isn't a Dave Ramsey course.

V

Exactly. This isn't a financial seminar about, you know, spreadsheets and debt snowball methods. We are unpacking the biblical theology of giving, looking at it as an unbroken spiritual thread.

M

An unbroken thread that weaves through like Old Testament law, ancient geopolitical conflicts of desert kings, the physical construction of the Ark of the Covenant.

V

Yeah, all of that.

M

And it comes straight into your modern walk of faith.

V

Which is really the crux of the whole deep dive today.

M

Right. Our mission today is to figure out the actual mechanics of this. Like, is tithing just a transaction?

V

Or is it an outdated legalism?

M

Exactly. Or is it uh a spiritual principle that dictates our actual standing in a kingdom?

V

That's the big question.

M

Specifically, is it still relevant under the new covenant when you, as a listener, are staring down the barrel of a personal financial crisis?

V

Which so many people are right now.

M

Okay, let's unpack this. Because if we are going to talk about tithing, we really cannot avoid the elephant in the room.

V

The one that makes everyone nervous.

M

Yeah, the passage that makes everyone completely squirm in their pews.

V

You're talking about Malachi.

M

We have to. We are going straight to Malachi chapter 3, verses 8 to 12. Because, you know, this is the baseline of the entire modern debate on the topic.

V

It really is the anchor point.

M

I want to read the text, but I want us to really stop and look at the actual language being used here because it is brutally direct.

V

It doesn't pull any punches at all.

M

Not one. God is speaking to the nation of Israel, and he says in verse 8, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you in tithes and offerings?

V

The phrasing there is just intentionally shocking.

M

Robbery. I mean, that's intense.

V

It is. The Hebrew word used there conveys this idea of defrauding or violently taking what legally belongs to someone else.

M

Wow. Violently taking.

V

Yeah. The original audience would have been completely paralyzed by that accusation. I mean, to defraud the creator.

M

It sounds like a death wish.

V

Exactly. But God is making a definitive statement about ownership here. He's saying, this 10% is not yours to withhold.

M

Right.

V

He's saying when you keep it, you are actively embezzling from the crown.

M

Okay, I have to push back on that a little though.

V

Sure. Go ahead.

M

Embezzling from the crown. Like comparing God to the IRS or framing him as a tax collector, it feels a bit rigid, doesn't it?

V

Trevor Burrus, I can see how it sounds that way to modern ears.

M

Right. Like is God just concerned about revenue to keep the lights on in heaven? I think a lot of believers today hear that language and think it sounds like a spiritual shakedown.

V

Yeah, I totally understand why it feels that way if we view it purely through a modern capitalistic lens.

M

Right, because we hate taxes.

V

Exactly. But if we connect this to the bigger picture, we have to really look at how a kingdom actually operates. Okay.

M

Tracking with you.

V

The creator of the universe doesn't have a cash flow problem.

M

Right. Streets are gold, so I think he's good.

V

Exactly. God doesn't need our paper money. The analogy of the kingdom tax is about sovereignty, authority, and citizenship.

M

Okay. Break that down for me.

V

Well, in a physical nation, paying taxes is an acknowledgement that the government has authority over you. Yeah.

M

Whether we like it or not.

V

Right. And in exchange, it provides the infrastructure of your life: roads, military defense, legal ports.

M

The things that keep society from collapsing.

V

Precisely. So in the kingdom of heaven, returning the tithe is a physical, undeniable acknowledgement that God is your king. Oh wow. It is you saying, I recognize where my provision actually originates. So it isn't a shakedown, it's a declaration of allegiance.

M

Okay, that makes so much sense. So it's less about the money itself and more about the structural alignment of who is actually in charge.

V

Yes, exactly.

M

That brings us to verse 9, which says, You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

V

The consequences are severe.

M

Very. And then verse 10 immediately pivots to what might be, honestly, the most audacious dare in the entire Bible.

V

It really is incredible.

M

It says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts.

Speaker 2

Try me.

M

Yeah. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

V

It is the only place in Scripture where God actually invites humanity to test him.

M

Literally saying, Prove me wrong.

V

Yes. But uh we have to understand what the storehouse actually was to grasp the weight of this.

M

Right. Because it wasn't a bank fault.

V

No, not at all. In ancient Israel, they didn't have digital bank accounts or stock portfolios. Their wealth was entirely agricultural.

M

So grain, oil, livestock, that kind of thing.

V

Exactly. The storehouse was this massive physical structure attached to the temple. It was essentially the welfare system of the entire nation. It fed the Levitical priests who had no land inheritance, but it also fed the widows, the orphans, and the immigrants.

M

Meaning when the storehouse was empty, the most vulnerable people in their society literally starved.

V

Yes.

M

The entire spiritual infrastructure just collapsed.

V

Exactly. So when the Israelites withheld the tithe, they weren't just shorting God, they were starving the marginalized and dismantling the priesthood.

M

Wow, that adds so much weight to the robbing accusation.

V

It does. So God says, Fill my house and I will shatter the limits of your house. And that brings us to the core promise, the one that our framework today specifically focuses on.

M

Yes. Verse 11. It says, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts.

V

The devourer?

M

This concept of the devourer. Let's really break that down because for a modern listener, you know, rebuking the devourer sounds like something straight out of a fantasy novel.

V

Like a dragon or something.

M

Right. What was the actual tangible reality of the devourer for the people hearing Malachi?

V

For an ancient farmer, the devourer was absolute existential terror. Really? Oh, absolutely. We are talking about an agricultural economy entirely dependent on the weather and the ecosystem.

M

No crop insurance back then.

V

Exactly. The devourer was the sudden dark cloud of a locust swarm that could strip a whole year's worth of wheat in like three hours. Oh man. Just gone. Gone. Or it was a localized drought that dried up the family well. It was a sudden blight or fungus that hit the grapevines a week before the harvest.

M

So you do all the work, and then right at the finish line, you lose everything.

V

Right. And if the devourer struck, you didn't just lose your profit margin, you lost your ability to survive the winter.

M

You starved. I mean your children starved.

V

Yeah.

M

Your land was sold to pay off debts, and you became a slave.

V

Yes.

M

It was a razor-thin margin between prosperity and absolute ruin.

V

Precisely. So when God promises to rebuke the devourer, he is promising a divine supernatural barrier around their livelihood.

M

Like an invisible shield over their fields.

V

Yes. He is essentially mathematically guaranteeing that 90% of their income operating under the supernatural protection of the king will yield infinitely more preservation and prosperity than 100% of their income left entirely exposed.

M

Exposed to the vulnerabilities of just a fallen, unpredictable world.

V

Exactly.

M

Okay, that is a wildly compelling economic reality. It shifts the tithe from being a loss to an absolute premium for divine protection.

V

It changes the whole math equation.

M

It does. But uh here is the massive theological hurdle we have to jump right now.

V

I know exactly what you're gonna say.

M

I can hear the listener practically screaming this to their headphones. Malachi is the Old Testament. That is the law of Moses.

V

We're not under the law.

M

Right. We are New Testament believers. We are under grace. Paul says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. So all this talk of storehouses and curses and locusts is totally obsolete for a Christian today.

V

It is the most common and frankly the most logical pushback to this entire topic.

M

It makes sense on the surface.

V

It does. Because if the tithe is strictly a mechanism of the Mosaic Law, then yes, it passed away with the Levitical priesthood.

M

But our framework today argues something radically different.

V

It does.

M

And to prove it, we don't look forward to the New Testament yet. We actually have to travel backward.

V

Deep into antiquity.

M

Yes. Centuries before Moses was even thought. Centuries before a single commandment was carved into stone on Mount Sinai.

V

We have to look at Genesis chapter 14.

M

Genesis 14.

V

This is the foundational precedent. Honestly, if you don't understand Genesis 14, you cannot understand the New Covenant theology of giving.

M

Okay, let's set the scene for the listener. We are talking about Abram, who we later know as Abraham, the father of faith. Right. He has just pulled off a staggering military upset. Four powerful regional kings had invaded, taken all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah, and kidnapped Abram's nephew Lot.

V

It was a massive geopolitical crisis.

M

Total crisis. So Abram takes 318 of his own trained men, pursues this massive coalition army in the middle of the night, slaughters them, and recovers all the people and all the stolen wealth.

V

A total victory against impossible odds.

M

Right. He is returning home, incredibly wealthy from the spoils of war, and just riding high on this victory. And out of the desert steps, one of the most mysterious figures in all of human history.

V

Melchizedek.

M

Yes. Let's look at Genesis chapter 14, verses 18 to 20. It says, Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God most high.

V

What a fascinating introduction.

M

And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tithe of all.

V

There is so much layered theology here.

M

So much.

V

First, let's just look at the literal definition. He gave him a tithe of all. This is the very first time the word tithe appears anywhere in the biblical text.

M

The very first time.

V

Yeah. And all it means, literally translated, is a tenth part. Abram calculates 10% of all the staggering wealth he just recovered, and he just hands it over to Melchizedek.

M

Yes. And here's where it gets really interesting to me.

V

Why does he do it?

M

Exactly. Why? There is no Levitical law telling him to do this.

V

Moses hasn't even been born yet.

M

Right. There is no temple, there is no storehouse, there is no prophet threatening a curse of the devourer if he doesn't pay up. It is a completely unprompted, spontaneous action.

V

It is entirely voluntary.

M

I've always wondered what possessed him to just hand over 10% of a massive fortune to a guy he seemingly just met on the road.

V

It's because of the revelation Abram had in that exact moment.

M

What do you mean?

V

Well, look at what Melchizedek actually says to him. Blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hands. Okay. Up until that sentence, Abram might have thought his brilliant nighttime raid and his 318 elite soldiers were the reason he won the battle.

M

Oh, like he was patting himself on the back.

V

Exactly. But Melchizedek recrames the entire reality. He says, God handed you this victory. Abram suddenly realizes his survival, his success, and his newfound wealth are entirely supernatural.

M

Right. The tithe wasn't a tax he was forced to pay. It was a spontaneous, overwhelming realization of source. It was Abram saying, I thought my hustle got me this wealth. You're right. It was actually God.

Speaker 2

He recognized the true king.

M

So the tenth is his immediate physical response to that revelation. It proves that the tithe is not a product of the Mosaic Law.

V

Not at all.

M

It is a product of relationship and honor. It completely transcends the law because it predates it by more than 400 years.

V

And we really cannot ignore the physical elements Melchizedek brought with him to this meeting in the desert.

M

Right, the bread and wine.

V

Yeah. Verse 18 says he brought out bread and wine. This is not just, you know, an ancient snack after a battle. Right. As the theology points out, this is communion.

M

Wait, communion?

V

Yeah.

M

Like thousands of years before the Last Supper.

V

Yes. It is a prophetic shadow. You have a victorious believer, Abram, meeting the priest of God. Okay. The priest serves him elements of a covenant meal, bread and wine, blessing him and sustaining him.

Speaker 2

Wow.

V

And the believer's response to that communion, to that covenant blessing, is the immediate surrender of the tenth.

M

That is incredible.

V

It establishes a permanent spiritual pattern. The high priest blesses with grace and provision, and the believer responds with honor and the tithe.

M

That pattern is stunning. It just completely dismantles the whole tithing is just old testament law argument.

V

It really pulls the rug out from under it.

M

It does. Okay, so we see the spontaneous relational origin of the tenth with Abram. But how does that become the formalized institutional law that God was so fiercely defending in Malachi?

V

We have to track the evolution.

M

Right. To track that evolution, we move forward from Abram to his descendants, the children of Israel. They have been freed from Egypt, and they are wandering in a completely barren wilderness.

V

A totally hostile environment.

M

And God is about to permanently, mathematically encode the concept of the tenth into their daily survival.

V

We are looking at Exodus chapter 16 now.

M

Yes.

V

The Israelites are, you know, two million people deep in a desert that absolutely cannot sustain them. There is no agrarian economy here.

M

No fields to plant.

V

No rain to wait for. They are facing imminent catastrophic starvation. The trauma of that lack must have been suffocating for those families.

M

I can't even imagine. And then the miracle happens.

V

The manna.

M

Exodus 16, verse 31. And the house of Israel called its name manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Speaker 2

This is incredible.

M

God literally rains bread from the atmosphere every single morning. It is the ultimate manifestation of supernatural provision.

V

But God doesn't just feed them.

M

Right. He gives Moses a highly specific, honestly, kind of bizarre command regarding this manna.

V

He tells them to build a memorial. Yes. Verse 32 says, Then Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness.

M

So Moses tells Aaron to take a golden pot, fill it with an omer of manna, and place it inside the Ark of the Covenant.

V

In the Holy of Holies. Yes. And the critical, undeniable detail is hidden right at the end of the chapter in verse 36. What does it say? It writes Now an omer is one tenth of an epha.

M

One tenth. So an omer isn't just a random scoop of bread.

V

Not at all. The math is exact. The epha was the standard ancient measurement of grain. It represented the whole of what a family needed to survive for the day.

M

Okay, I'm cracking.

V

God specifically commands that exactly one tenth of that provision be separated, placed in a golden vessel, and permanently sealed in the presence of God. That's wild. It is a physical, mathematical memorial of the tithe.

M

Let me make sure I'm wrapping my head around the psychology of this because it's intense.

V

It really is.

M

I'm imagining an Israelite father. He has to go out and gather manna every morning just to keep his kids from dying in the sand.

V

Oh, literally life or death.

M

Every single crumb matters. And God asks them to take 10% of their daily survival ration, not the surplus, not the extra, but the very food keeping them alive and lock it away in a box they will never open again.

V

Yeah, think about the trust that takes.

M

It's like taking the first dollar you ever made, but instead of framing it on the wall to celebrate your own hustle, you put it in a vault as a constant, terrifying yet beautiful reminder that God is the only reason your lungs are still pulling in oxygen.

V

That is a brilliant way to frame the psychology.

M

It's heavy.

V

Because what was actually inside the ark.

M

The Ten Commandments.

V

Yes, the tablets of the law, which represented God's righteous standard. Then you had Aaron's rod that budded, which represented God's chosen authority.

M

And then the pot of manna.

V

And the golden pot containing exactly one tenth of the manna representing God's supernatural daily provision.

M

That is a powerful trio.

V

By placing the tenth in the holiest place, it encoded a message for every future generation.

M

What was the message?

V

Never forget. When you were powerless, when the earth gave you nothing, the heavens opened and fed you, the tenth belongs to the one who provided the whole.

M

Wow. So if the man in the ark is the memorial, and the interaction with Mokizedeck is the precedent, we finally arrive at the ultimate intersection for you, the listener.

V

The New Testament.

M

The New Testament. Because we still have the elephant in the room, Jesus fulfilled the law.

V

Right.

M

The Levitical priesthood, the temple, the physical storehouse, all of it was destroyed in 70 AD. We don't have a temple in Jerusalem to bring grain to anymore.

V

The whole system is gone.

M

Right. So is tithing still a mandate for a Christian today under the New Covenant?

V

To answer that, we have to wade into some of the most complex, dense, and honestly glorious theology in the entire Bible.

M

Get ready, listeners.

V

Yep. We have to go to Hebrews chapter seven. Because if you don't grasp the legal argument the writer of Hebrews is making here, the New Covenant view of giving will always feel incredibly confusing.

M

Okay, let's break this down meticulously. Because Hebrews seven can be a tough read.

Speaker 2

It really can.

M

It's all about contrasting two different priesthoods. The Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament and the mysterious order of Melchizedek from Genesis.

Speaker 2

Right.

M

Versus one to three. Recap the Genesis story we just talked about. It describes Melchizedek as the king of Salem, priest of the most high God.

V

But then it starts using language that makes him sound almost divine.

M

Yeah. It says he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

V

The writer is establishing Melchizedek not just as a historical desert king, but as a type or a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ.

M

An eternal priest.

V

Yes. And then the writer brings the tithe into the courtroom as the primary evidence of Melchizedek's superiority. Okay. Verse 4 says, Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

M

The logic there is just wild. How so? He's essentially saying, look at Abraham. Abraham is the undisputed patriarch. Everyone bows to Abraham. But even Abraham bowed and gave ten percent of his wealth to Melchizedek.

V

Right.

M

So whoever Melchizedek is, he outranks the father of our faith.

V

Exactly. And the text then pivots to look at the sons of Levi.

M

The priests under the law.

V

Yes. Under the law of Moses, only the tribe of Levi could be priests. And they had a legal commandment to collect the tithes from the rest of the Israelites.

M

That was their right under the law.

V

But the writer of Hebrews points out a fatal flaw in that system in verse eleven. It says, Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron?

M

Hold on, this is where it gets dense for me. Walk me through the legal gridlock here. Sure. Why does there even need to be another priest? Like why couldn't Jesus just be a Levitical priest and keep the old system going?

V

Because of the strict, unyielding bloodline requirements of the Mosaic Law.

M

Good genealogy stuff.

V

Exactly. Under the law, if you were not a direct biological descendant of Aaron from the tribe of Levi, you could not minister at the altar, period. And if you tried. If you tried, you would be struck dead. It was a completely closed system. But here's the issue Jesus wasn't from the tribe of Levi.

M

Oh wow. He was from the tribe of Judah.

V

Correct. So legally, under the Old Testament law, Jesus couldn't be a priest at all.

M

The law explicitly disqualified him.

V

Yes. Furthermore, the Levitical priesthood was flawed because it was administered by mortal men. The priests kept dying.

M

That's a pretty big flaw.

V

Right. The sacrifices of bulls and goats had to be repeated every single day because they could only cover sin temporarily. They could never permanently remove it.

M

It was basically a middleman system that was never designed to be the final solution. It couldn't bring perfection.

V

Exactly. So the writer of Hebrews drops a spiritual atomic bomb in verse 12.

M

What's it say?

V

He writes, For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.

M

This is the absolute crux of New Covenant theology, isn't it?

V

It absolutely is.

M

Because the Levitical priesthood was temporary and flawed, God bypassed it entirely. Jesus steps onto the scene as the ultimate final high priest.

V

Yes.

M

But to do so legally, he doesn't claim the priesthood through the law of Moses. He reaches all the way back past Moses, cast the law, and claims the eternal priesthood of Melchizedek.

V

He becomes a priest not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.

M

So what does this all mean? Like for the listener, how does this legal loophole actually apply to them today?

V

Let's synthesize it.

M

Let me see if I can summarize the absolute brilliance of this. The Levitical law, the temple, the storehouse that was the middleman.

Speaker 2

Right.

M

They collected the tithe under a temporary legal system. But Jesus arrives, fulfills the law, and essentially says, the middleman is dead. Yes. By rising in the order of Melchizedek, he takes the believer right back to the original pure, spontaneous relationship that Abram had in Genesis 14.

V

You've nailed it. That is the exact synthesis our framework is making today.

M

That's beautiful.

V

If Abraham, the father of our faith, tithed to Melchizedek out of pure honor and revelation, and Jesus is the eternal high priest in that exact same order of Melchizedek.

M

Then the relational dynamic of giving a tenth to the high priest is not abolished under the new covenant.

V

It's completely intact. In fact, it's elevated.

M

It's elevated because the recipient is changed. You aren't giving to a mortal Levite who is going to die. You are giving to an immortal king who is seated higher than the heavens.

V

Yes. And the connection between Melchizedek and Jesus becomes undeniable when we look at how Jesus actually inaugurated this new covenant.

M

Right. Let's look at the elements.

V

Do you remember the specific physical elements Melchizedek brought out to Abram in the desert?

M

He brought out bread and wine, the communion element.

V

Right. Now fast forward a few thousand years to the upper room in Jerusalem. Let's read First Corinthians chapter eleven, starting in verse twenty-three.

M

What does Paul say?

V

The Apostle Paul writes, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

M

The bread.

V

Yes. And then in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

M

It's a perfect unbroken mirror image.

V

It really is.

M

Melchizedek offers a communion meal of bread and wine to Abram before the law even existed. Jesus offers the exact same communion elements of bread and wine to his disciples to establish the new covenant after the law is fulfilled.

V

What's fascinating here is the absolute continuity. God's character is staggering. The elements of the covenant, the bread and the wine, haven't changed. The order of the high priest, the eternal order of Melchistec hasn't changed. So. Therefore, the logical theological conclusion is that the believer's posture of gratitude, honoring that high priest with the tithe, hasn't changed either.

M

It brings everything full circle. We have to ask ourselves, what is our reasonable response?

V

That's the perfect question.

M

If Jesus has offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice, if he's the high priest who continually offers us the communion of his broken body and spilled blood to secure our eternity, how do we respond?

V

Right. Do we offer less than Abram did?

M

Exactly. And that brings us back to the practical reality of Malachi's challenge. If the king of the universe invites you to test him by returning the tithe and promises to open the windows of heaven and rebuke the devourer, why would you risk not being in right standing with that government? Yeah, why would you operate your life without that divine protection plan?

V

That is the perfect segue.

M

Because it is one thing for us to sit here, dissect ancient Hebrew, marvel at the theological loopholes of Hebrews 7, and you know, talk about how beautifully the bread and wine mirror each other.

V

It's very inspiring in a sterile environment.

M

Exactly. It is easy to be theological when your mortgage is paid, your pantry is stocked, and your 401k is growing.

V

But life isn't always like that.

M

No. We had to transition from the framework into the raw, bloody, urgent application of this.

V

Because the real test doesn't happen in a theology classroom. It happens in a crisis.

M

Yes. What happens when the devourer is at your door?

V

When things go wrong.

M

What happens when your spouse loses their job? Or you get a terrifying medical diagnosis that comes with crippling hospital bills, or the economy tanks, and your small business is facing bankruptcy.

V

Those are terrifying real moments.

M

In that moment, staring at a spreadsheet that is screaming red, tithing feels mathematically impossible.

V

It feels irresponsible.

M

Right.

V

Yeah.

M

You look at your circumstances, and every survival instinct in your biological body says, I cannot afford to let go of this 10%. I have to hoard it. I have to save myself.

V

The framework addresses this directly, and it doesn't offer a gentle platitude.

M

What does it say?

V

It asks a piercing question. After hearing and witnessing his faithfulness, would you begin to doubt that he can supernaturally provide during a time of crisis and give you testimonies from this test?

M

Wow. It demands what it calls audacious faith.

V

Not just regular belief.

M

No, audacious, unreasonable, mathematically defiant faith. And to show us what that looks like in the real world, we go to the book of Daniel, chapter three. We are talking about the fiery furnace.

V

The context here is absolute life or death tyranny.

M

Set the scene for us.

V

You have three young Jewish men in exile: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on earth, has built a towering gold image.

M

A massive idol.

V

Yes. And the law is simple. When the music plays, you bow and worship the gold, or you are thrown alive into a massive roaring furnace.

M

So it is the ultimate pressure to conform for the sake of self-preservation.

V

Exactly.

M

I want us to really put ourselves in their shoes. Because the furnace isn't just an ancient story, it's a metaphor for whatever financial or personal ruin you're terrified of right now.

V

Right.

M

The heat is radiating, the guards are waiting, everyone around them is bowing. The biological urge to just compromise, to just bend the knee to the gold to survive, must have been overwhelming.

V

It had to be.

M

But let's read their actual response to the king in Daniel 3, verses 16 through 18.

V

It is one of the most defiant speeches in human history.

M

They say, Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

V

Yeah.

M

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O King. But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

V

But if not, those three words What three words are the definition of audacious faith?

M

I really want to camp out on those three words for a minute. But if not, this changes the entire motivation of a believer.

V

How so?

M

They're staring at the flames. They look at the king and say, We know our God has the power to save us. But even if he decides not to, even if we burn to ash today, we still won't bow to your gold.

Speaker 2

Wow.

M

It's like jumping out of an airplane without looking to see if you have a parachute. They weren't trusting God for the rescue. They were trusting God regardless of the rescue.

V

That completely shatters the transactional view of tithing.

M

Right.

V

The transactional view says, I will give God my 10% so that he will fix my bank account. It is manipulative. It is using God as an ATM.

M

Which so many people do.

V

They do. But Audacious Faith says, I am going to honor God with my first fruits because he is the king. I know he can fix this crisis. But even if he doesn't, even if I lose the house, my allegiance to the kingdom of heaven will not shift.

M

I will not bow.

V

Exactly. I will not bow to the God of panic. I will not worship the gold image of self-reliance.

M

Yes. When you are facing financial ruin, releasing that tithe is an act of spiritual warfare.

V

It truly is.

M

You are looking at the math, looking at the impending furnace of debt, and saying, My provision does not come from this job. It does not come from this government. It comes from the high priest of the Order of Melchizedek.

V

And that is why the framework frames tithing during a crisis, not as an oppressive burden, but as a profound opportunity.

M

An opportunity.

V

Yes. When you have plenty, giving is easy. But when you are in the furnace, giving is a testimony. It is the exact moment where God is given the platform to prove his supernatural provision.

M

That makes total sense.

V

As the text argues, now is absolutely not the time to trust only in what we can see in the natural.

M

To reinforce this psychological posture, we are pointed to Psalm 46. Because when you make that choice, when you refuse to bow to fear, you need an anchor. We all need an anchor in the storm. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.

V

That is the external chaos. Right. The collapsing markets, the layoffs, the medical emergencies, the mountains literally falling into the sea.

M

And then verse 10 gives the command for the internal reality. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

V

Be still and know. In the Hebrew, that phrase be still carries the connotation of letting your hands drop.

M

Oh, letting go?

V

Yes. Stop striving. Stop frantically trying to manipulate your circumstances to save yourself.

M

That's powerful.

V

When you release the tithe in the middle of a catastrophic crisis, you are physically acting out that stillness. You are dropping your hands.

M

You're saying to the devourer, I am not going to panic.

V

Exactly. I know that the king is on the throne, he is my present help, and he will defend my 9% better than I could ever defend my hundred.

M

Wow. What an absolutely staggering journey we have been on today.

V

It really covers so much ground.

M

We started by looking at the sheer unyielding force of God's challenge in Malachi. You know, the warning of the kingdom tax, the threat of the devourer, and that mind-bending promise of the open windows of heaven.

V

Then we traveled back through the centuries to witness the genesis of the tithe, watching Abram spontaneously hand over a tenth of his war spoils to the mysterious Melchizedek after receiving the bread and wine of communion.

M

Yes. We stood in the sweltering wilderness of Exodus, feeling the trauma of starvation, only to watch Moses command that exactly one tenth of the supernatural manna be sealed in a golden pot inside the Ark of the Covenant as a permanent mathematical memorial of grace.

V

We navigated the intricate legal gridlock of Hebrews chapter seven, watching Jesus completely bypass the mortal, flawed Levitical priesthood to establish himself as our eternal high priest in the immortal order of Melchizedek.

M

And finally, we stood in front of the roaring flames of Daniel's fiery furnace, confronted by the ultimate demand for, but if not audacious faith in the face of our own terrifying modern day crises.

V

For you listening, the theology has been laid out.

M

It really has.

V

The history is clear. The question that remains is entirely personal.

M

What's the question?

V

When the pressure is on, when the math doesn't make sense, are you strong in your courage to keep putting God first? Yeah. Are you leaning on your natural sight, the spreadsheet, the visible circumstances, the bank account balance, or are you resting your full weight on supernatural trust in a benevolent king?

M

It is a question that requires a response.

V

Yeah.

M

Every time you get a paycheck, you are making a decision about citizenship.

V

Absolutely.

M

And as we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you, the listener, with one final provocative thought to mull over. Something that builds on the profound imagery we've unpacked today, particularly that golden pot in the ark.

V

Oh, I love this part.

M

We talked about how Moses commanded that the tenth of the manna be preserved so that future generations, children who never had to wander in the desert, who never felt the terror of having no food, could physically see the bread that fed their ancestors.

Speaker 2

It was a tangible, undeniable legacy of faith.

M

Exactly. They could point to it and say, that is proof that God provides. Right. So my question to you is this What memorial of God's provision are you building in your own life right now for the next generation to look at?

Speaker

Wow.

M

When your children or your grandchildren look at how you navigated your financial furnaces, will they see a legacy of panic, hoarding, and self-reliance? Or are your current financial choices your acts of audacious, unreasonable faith in the middle of a crisis, actively creating a pot of mana that will prove God's absolute faithfulness to your lineage long after you are gone?

V

That is a weight that every believer must carry.

M

It really is.

V

The terrifying beautiful reality is that the financial decisions we make today become the spiritual testimonies of tomorrow.

Speaker

Let that sit with you this week. Keep seeking the truth, keep trusting the high priest, and keep building that memorial. Until next time, it's the way that the