Tithes and Offerings by HENRY S. SHAW

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 23, 1915

Tithes and Offerings

By HENRY S. SHAW

The Blessings Promised — The Curses Pronounced

By HENRY S. SHAW

"THE earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Ps. 24:1. "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of hosts." Haggai 2:8. "For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof." Ps. 50:10-12.

THE TEST IN TITHING

Primarily, as is shown by these texts, everything is the Lord's; but He gives it all into the hands of man, with instructions that the tenth shall be "holy unto the Lord." The matter of returning to Him the tenth is left to man, as the Lord's steward; and this question of stewardship, with its responsibility, has to do with every person in the world into whose hands any of this world's goods may come. Whether it be little or much, the result of faithfulness is the blessing; and the result of unfaithfulness, the curse.

The fact that the Lord pronounces the tenth holy to Himself, places the question where no man can afford to pass it lightly by. To appropriate God's sacred things to a common purpose, has always been a serious matter, and is no less serious to-day. Many instances in Bible history might be cited to illustrate the results of man's disregard for those things which the Lord has set apart for sacred uses. Here is one:

When the Lord commanded Israel to take Jericho, He instructed them to bring to the treasury of the Lord all the spoils they should find in the city. He said, "All the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord." Joshua 6:19.

The city fell into their hands, and afterward the report came to Joshua that "the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord." Joshua 6:24. Joshua understood that all this which the Lord had consecrated for the treasury of the Lord had been faithfully deposited where it belonged.

DEFEATED THROUGH DECEPTION

A few days later, Joshua sent an army to take Ai, and the men of Ai came out against them. Israel was defeated, and thirty-six of the men of Israel fell. There was great mourning in the camp of Israel.

They could not understand why they should suffer this defeat; but the Lord told them that Achan had taken from Jericho some of the gold and silver and other things, and instead of taking it to the treasury of the Lord, for which it had been consecrated, had stowed it away among his own stuff for himself; and through this disregard, that which was consecrated to be a blessing if placed in the Lord's treasury, became "the accursed thing" when appropriated to a common use. See Joshua 7.

"WHEREIN HAVE WE ROBBED THEE?"

Malachi wrote to the church in his day: "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from Mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation." Mal. 3:7-9.

You have no respect for My ordinances. You can lay hold of My sacred tithes, and appropriate them to your own common purposes; and in consequence, instead of being blessed with a blessing, you are "cursed with a curse."

TO BE CURSED OF GOD

It is a fearful thing to be cursed with a curse. One day the Lord and His disciples came to a fig tree to get some figs, but found none; and the Lord said to it, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. . . . And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away." Mark 11:12-21.

What a fearful condition! Somebody is cursed with a curse because of not having returned the Lord's tithe to Him; and the solemn question comes to the reader, as well as to the writer of this article, "Is it I?"

THE REMEDY

There are many people to-day who are really blighted with the curse, temporally as well as spiritually, because they have not been honest with God. But for all such, there is a remedy. The Lord has made it plain. Here it is: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. 3:10, 11.