TITHES AND OFFERING

TITHES & OFFERINGS

GENESIS:  ABRAHAM to MELCHIZEDEK -- Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who delivered your enemies into your hand.” And Abram gave him a tithe of all he had. (Genesis 14:18-20)(See also Psalm 110:4 & Hebrews 7:1-10)

OLD TESTAMENT -- Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10)  *  Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you ask, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, because you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My Temple, and try 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 such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. 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. “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:8-12)

NEW TESTAMENT -- Give and it will be given unto you -- good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38) [Oral Roberts built his International Healing Ministry and Oral Roberts University with this one verse as a financial foundation.] * Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the offering box; and many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. Then Jesus called his disciples to himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:41-44) * “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithes of mint and anise and cummin, but have neglected the weightier matters of the law -- justice and mercy and faith! These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23)

EXAMPLE:  Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, “Arise, go to  Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” So He arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. So he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup so I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said,  “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” So she replied, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar. Look what I am doing! I am gathering a few sticks so that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” But Elijah said to her, “Do not fear! Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; then afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: “The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the Lord sends rain on the Earth.” * And so it was, according to the Word of the Lord which He spoke to Elijah. (1 Kings 17:8-16)

Modern American Example: John D. Rockefeller once donated a million dollars to his church.