Malachi 3:8-9 Part 1 of 2

"Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!

But you ask, 'What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?'

You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me."

 

"Should people cheat God?"

Zechariah 5:3  Then he said to me, "This scroll contains the curse that is going out over the entire land. One side of the scroll says that those who steal will be banished from the land; the other side says that those who swear falsely will be banished from the land." (see verses 1-4)

Exodus 20:7  "You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name."

Exodus 20:15  "You must not steal."

Isaiah 48:1-2  "Listen to me, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel. You don't keep your promises, even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD of Heaven's Armies." (see verses 1-11)

 

"Yet you have cheated me! But you ask, 'What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?' You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me." 

Leviticus 27:30  "One-tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy." (see verses 28-31)

Deuteronomy 14:22  "You must set aside a tithe of your crops--one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year." (see verses 22-29)

Nehemiah 10:37  "We will store the produce in the storerooms of the Temple of our God. We will bring the best of our flour and other grain offerings, the best of our fruit, and the best of our new wine and olive oil. And we promise to bring to the Levites a tenth of everything our land produces, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our rural towns." (see verses 28-39)

Nehemiah 13:10-12  I also discovered that the Levites had not been given their prescribed portions of food, so they and the singers who were to conduct the worship services had all returned to work in their fields. I immediately confronted the leaders and demanded, "Why has the Temple of God been neglected?" Then I called the Levites back again and restored them to their proper duties. And once more all the people of Judah began bringing their tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil to the Temple storerooms. (see verses 1-14)

Luke 18:11-12  "The Pharisee stood by  himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank you, God, that I am not like other people--cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I am certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' " (see verses 9-14)

 

(parentheses are mine)

 

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Limited to 15 verses per post.