Why We Bring Our Tithes into God’s Storehouse

Scripture says: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” (Malachi 3:10)

We can see in this word: God’s command and God’s purpose and God’s promised blessing. First, God’s command—God commanded His people: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.” The tithe is the first 10 percent of our income. These firstfruits were actually built into our income by the Lord Himself and necessary for sustaining His work. And God commands His people to bring that tithe to Him. “A tithe of everything … belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.… The entire tithe … will be holy to the LORD” (Leviticus 27:30, 32)! In Malachi’s day people were not tithing their income to the Lord. Because they apparently were living beyond their means, they were using the Lord’s 10 percent to pay their own bills! Consequently, the Lord told them: “You are robbing Me” (Malachi 3:8–9)—a very serious matter!

The Lord’s word continues: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse….” The tithe is not ours to disperse, for the tithe belongs in the house of God. God calls His house “the storehouse.” Jacob uncovered this truth hundreds of years before the Law was given. As soon as Jacob raised up a house for God, he began tithing (see Genesis 28:22). But besides our tithes, we are also privileged to give special offerings. Exodus 35:29 and 36:3 call these special offerings “freewill offerings.” Our tithe is in obedience to God’s word of command, but our special offerings flow from the generosity of our own hearts, above and beyond the tithe; they are, therefore, called “freewill offerings.” In our case, we bring our tithes into God’s house—which for us is Immanuel’s Church (where most of our “freewill offerings” are given as well), but there are times we give “freewill offerings” to needs and to causes apart from Immanuel’s Church. Because this money, above and beyond the tithe, is “freewill,” we are “free” to distribute whatever we wish, wherever we wish. But we cannot do that with our tithes, because the tithe belongs to the Lord and is to be placed in His “storehouse.”

God’s Word is clear: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse …” and His purpose in this is also plain: “That there may be food in My house” (Malachi 3:10). The house of God has always been a community distribution center for God’s blessings. That’s why it is called the “storehouse,” and that is why it is essential to “bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house….” In the Scriptures we see that many people were fed from God’s storehouse—the poor and the needy were given food out of God’s tithe (“so that … the aliens, the fatherless and the widows … may come and eat and be satisfied, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands,” Deuteronomy 14:29). The ministers of God were also given food from God’s storehouse. (“The priests, who are Levites—indeed the whole tribe of Levi … shall live on the [tithe] offerings made to the LORD … for that is their inheritance….The LORD is their inheritance, as He promised them,” Deuteronomy 18:1–2). And even the tithing people themselves were blessed with blessings that overflowed back upon them from God’s storehouse (see Deuteronomy 12:5–7). The tithe made possible all of these blessings.

Consequently, in Immanuel’s Church, when we have to turn down the needs of poor and needy people because there is not enough in “the storehouse” to help them, we know that some of our people must have been withholding from God, creating the shortfall. When we have to cut back on ministry support—whether it be our own ministers or our supported missionaries to foreign lands—because there is not enough in God’s storehouse to sustain them, we know that some of our own people have probably been robbing God, helping to create this shortfall. And when we have not had enough money to adequately undergird our own children’s ministries or our own youth ministries—which provide blessings upon our own families—we know that some in our midst must have been using God’s money elsewhere, having failed to obey Him in bringing their tithes into God’s storehouse, when there has not been enough in the storehouse to meet these needs.
When Moses gave these original instructions to God’s people concerning bringing their tithes into God’s storehouse, He spoke this relevant word: “You are not to do … everyone as he sees fit…,” for His people were an interdependent community. When we fail to bring our tithes into God’s storehouse, or even when we seek to dispense our tithes on our own, separate from God’s storehouse, we undermine the heart of true community. “Everyone [doing] as he sees fit” undermines God’s vision for community, for the “storehouse” is a community venture; it undergirds what we collectively support together!

So God’s command is clear—“bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…” and God’s reason is clear, “that there may be food in My house.” And finally, God’s promised blessing is also so very wonderfully clear—“Test Me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” (Malachi 3:10).

Because of the sober words: “You are under a curse … because you are robbing Me” (Malachi 3:9), saints have asked if they also were under a curse because they were not tithing. Our answer to that question is: No, you are not under a curse for not tithing, for “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…” (Galatians 3:13–14)! But out of faithfulness to God’s Word, we must also add, neither are you being blessed the way God intended to bless you, because the blessing of Malachi 3:10 is for those who are faithful in bringing their tithes into God’s storehouse. God says, “Test Me in this….” As we make sure there is food in God’s house, He makes sure there is food in our house! He promises to open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing upon us that we will not have room enough to contain it!

We, as a family, are a witness to the truth of this Scripture. From our teenage years, Dotty and I have brought God’s tithe into His storehouse (the church community we were a part of; and that has been Immanuel’s Church for the past 22 years). We have also delighted in giving freewill offerings. And, I believe because of simple compliance to God’s Holy Word, we, as a family, have experienced the floodgates of heaven opened upon us, with so many blessings that we scarcely have room enough to contain them—primarily the blessings of God’s presence, and also abundant financial and material blessings, and blessings of well-being, and blessings of genuine community in the house of God! [Like Job, we also have had our share of trials and testings and refinings in the fire! But God always brings us out of the fires refined as silver is refined, and purified as gold is purified; see Job 23:10–12].

And so from Holy Scripture and from our own experience, we, as a family, invite you to join us in bringing “the whole tithe into God’s storehouse!” And put God to the test! “Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it!”