STOP THE THIEVES!

Robbers in the house of God!

In the house of God, we don’t buy and sell, we bring gifts; gifts of sacrifice befitting honour to God.  The robbers who receive are cut from the same cloth as the robbers who give.  The one is concerned about what people put into the temple coffers, the other reserves the best gifts for personal use.

The prophet Malachi was confronted with a similar problem, even though it was profiteers of a different sort—the attitude was the same.  God was not happy with the quality of Israel’s gifts and sacrifices, ^{Mal 1:8} “When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?  When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?  Try offering them to your governor!  Would he be pleased with you?  Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.” 

Ananias and Sapphira ran into grave problems for cheating God.  Believers in the early church had agreed to share their possessions, and the Ananias’ family was part of the deal.  No one was forced, everybody joined in on a voluntary agreement.  When Ananias and his wife saw how much they had made from their deal they decided to secretly keep some of the money and declare a portion of it as the sum total of their transaction.

 

Both died, according to Peter, not because they kept back the money, but because they lied to God (Acts 5:4), the money was theirs to do with it as they saw fit, but they chose not to be honest about the transaction.  Dealing with money matters in the house of God is secondarily a financial matter but primarily a spiritual matter.  Our blessing is not in how much we receive, but in how we give—the gift is the measure of the attitude with which we give.

Giving is not an agreement you make with people but with God. We finally join as a group in a covenant we individually make with God.  The covenant must be between an individual and God, before it is an agreement with the collective.  If you cheat on the covenant, you are lying to the Spirit.

What and how you give says much about your attitude towards God, God blesses the attitude not the gift, people use gifts to bribe others for more business, but that attitude does not go very far with God.  You give because in the end what you have does not really belong to you; the earth in all its fullness belongs to God, you honour God because God has honoured you. 

What could we give to God in exchange of what God has already given to us?  David acknowledged, ^{1Ch 29:14} “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”  In another setting, Jesus watched people place gifts into the temple treasury, some gave large amounts, and a widow walked up and dropped in two copper coins.  And the Master said, ^{Lk 21:3-4} “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”  His maths was proportionally right, she gave one hundred percent, were others gave a smaller percentage of their possessions.

Jesus spoke of her mind-set not her poverty; you give out of your frame of mind not your pocket, your pocket reflects your frame of mind.  As David said, ^{1 Ch 29:17 (NLT)}“I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there.  You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.”   Paul said it differently, ^{2Co 9:7(TNIV)} Each of you must should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  It is your heart that determines your gift, not your pocket.

James reminded those who gloat about tomorrow, ^{Jas 4:13-14} “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why, you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  James is not saying money is not important, but he is saying there is more to life than making more money, if we find the missing link then our perspectives on money are effortlessly thrown into perspective.

In the order of the Divine, God eventually, has the final word about anything and everything.  We do what we can to the best of our ability and then leave the rest to God.  We plan for tomorrow, “God willing, “ but we live for today, as Jesus taught, ^{Mt 6:34} “Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Even if you did worry, how would that make a difference in your life?