Day 179: April 22, 2026 – Malachi 1-4 and Psalms 71 and 73

Short book of the Bible is Malachi. It is also one of those books that is filled with condemnation for Israel because they are no offering to the Lord that which ought to be offered. This is specifically true in the offerings where the people are choosing to give to the Lord that which is not worth anything at all, the blind animals, the lame, those that nobody wants. The questions comes what would happen if they offered these animals to an earthly ruler. The answer is clear, swift retribution.

The phrase that is well known is the command in chapter 3 to bring the full tithe into the storehouse. The question arises if God will be cheated. The answer is clearly no, but as people we think that this is possible, that somehow when we give to God of our tithe we can do less because we actually doubt if God is present or if he really cares or if he even notices that we have done this. Nobody at the level of his church, his receiving agent, is holding us accountable so we really are able to do that which we want. The key is to allow people to understand that what we want should be what God wants, and so the tithe would never become an issue.