This message will reveal truths from the Scriptures which you may never have seen before. Even people who are generous in their giving may not be pleasing God because they are not giving God the basic thing that He wants. God wants a relationship with you when you give. Otherwise, your giving is not acceptable to Him.
The day we are living in parallels the time described in Deuteronomy 26. Just as we are about to enter into the full possession of the Kingdom, so the Israelites were about to possess their Canaan too; however, on a lesser plane and in a lesser day. Yet as we possess more of the Kingdom each day, we can learn valuable lessons from the strategy God gave the Israelites.
“Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you shall bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ”
When you bring your tithe to the Lord, you do not just give it; you come rejoicing and proclaiming: “Lord, we have a contract together. You are the party of the first part and I am the party of the second part. I am giving You what is Yours, and You are declaring that I am Yours.”
“Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.
“ ‘Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ” Deuteronomy 26:1–9.
What was the purpose of this report? Did they think God had forgotten His history? The Bible is history, spelled with two words: His story, because He made it happen. God did not forget His story at all; He remembered what He had done. What were they doing? They were positioning themselves in relationship to all that had happened. Perhaps you are one who could say, “Lord, I used to walk in old order. I was under bondage and a captive of Babylon. Then You spoke the Word. I proceeded through much tribulation to get out of that place. I finally came here with my little basket to stand before You, a liberated person, a citizen of the Kingdom.” Like the Israelites, you review what you have been and what has happened to you. That is why some of the feasts had the significance they had. As God’s people kept the Passover every year, they always remembered that the Israelites had been brought out of Egypt as slaves. They always reviewed their history, and brought it right up to date. At the same time, they positioned themselves realistically on the promises of God, claiming the provision and the answer that God had given.
“ ‘And now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which Thou, O Lord hast given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God.” Verse 10. This is a little more complicated than writing a check and placing it in a tithing envelope. Sometimes when we think we are tithing, we are not following the Old Testament expression of a ritual and covenant. It is true, that we are through with ritual, but we are not through with the idea of covenants. We never will be. Jesus said, “This is a new covenant in My blood” (Matthew 26:28). Every time you take the Communion, you are bringing yourself right up to date. You are saying, in effect, “Lord, I was bought with a price, by the blood of Jesus Christ. I belong to You.” When you take that precious blood, you are refreshing and renewing a covenant relationship with God.
When you bring your tithe before the Lord, and after you have reviewed your history, you say, “I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.” Our giving should be done that way. We should take a little more time with the giving. Let the people come up and stand before the Lord and say, “Lord, I bring this firstfruits of what You have given me. This is just a token of what You are going to give me, because I am setting my foot firmly on the land of promise. I am claiming every promise You have given me. With this token that I give You, I am positioning myself as Your heir, as a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. I enter into this covenant relationship with You.” In our giving God always wants us to express a relationship with Himself.
If this is the kind of giving that pleases God, then let us no longer think of churches as charitable institutions, where people give because it is for a good work. God does not want your money; He wants you. He wants you to enter into a relationship with Him. We see this truth throughout the Word. God is always saying. “Let us have a relationship together. You acknowledge My claim on you, and I will acknowledge that I am your God, and you are My people. I will be close to you and look after you; and you will put My Kingdom first.”
Set your basket down before the Lord and worship Him. Worship that is based upon a relationship is the truest worship of all. The same is true of love. In order for it to reach its depth and the expression of the whole being, love has to be based on a relationship. When young people commit fornication, they often excuse their action by saying, “We fell in love and we could not help ourselves.” They had only the attraction of the flesh, but no relationship. God condemns that in the Word. If they love each other, then they should establish a relationship together. God says that is what love is all about.
Sex, without a relationship and without a responsibility on both parts, is sin. But sex with a relationship that God has smiled upon and sealed is not sin. The whole world is saying, “Let us have religion without a relationship. Let us have sex without a relationship.” The body was not made for fornication, but for the Lord (II Corinthians 6:13). Sex gets the upper hand sometimes, but it is still secondary. We were made for the Lord, to have a relationship with Him. This is the whole plan of the ages. Two people may have a good relationship together and a real understanding, but if they do not have it with the Lord, that relationship will fall apart. It is when two people enter into a relationship before God, and with God, that they have the marriage which He blesses.
When you come to worship the Lord, without having made a commitment of yourself to Him, without having entered into that relationship with Him, you are like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The same truth applies to your giving. Do not throw God your charity. Give Him yourself. Enter into a relationship with Him. Be His child, and then let the giving come forth.
Our Scripture passage continues, Deuteronomy 26:11–14a. “And you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household. When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns, and be satisfied. And you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house.’ ” (In other words, whatever belongs to God should not be hidden away some place; bring it to God’s house.) “ ‘ I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Thy commandments which Thou hast commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Thy commandments. I have not eaten of it’ ” (what God had given him) “ ‘while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead.’ ” Every one of these statements carries great significance.
When they brought their offerings, they did not approach the Lord empty-handed, and they were altogether joyful. When you give to the Lord, it should be with a joyful heart. If you give begrudgingly to God, you will probably soon be in trouble. If you cannot give with a joyful heart, you had better keep your money, even though there may be many areas of need in the church. If you cannot give joyfully, keep on seeking the Lord, and keep your money in your pocket. The day will come when we will give altogether joyfully to the Lord.
They were not to give in mourning, nor while they were unclean. Never give the Lord hush money, saying in effect, “Lord, I have not been doing so well lately, and I thank You that You have not blown the whistle on me. So I am going to slip You a little extra here.” Do not give Him hush money. They were also not to offer any of it to the dead. Perhaps you think that a denominational church is just as good a place as any to give to the Lord. Is the church dead? We are not to give the tithe to the dead.
“ ‘I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me. Look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the ground which Thou hast given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Thou didst swear to our fathers.’ This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.” Anything that we do has to be done with the first commandment in mind. We are to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
“You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice.” (You are saying, “You are my God, and I am going to listen to You.”) “And the Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He shall set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.” Verses 14b–19.
There is a mutual covenant involved when you bring your tithe. The Lord declares you to be His people, and you declare that He is your God and you are going to serve Him. All of this is involved when you bring “your little basket.” Giving, then, is even more than worship, though worship is involved. When they set the basket down, they worshiped the Lord, but the worship was not empty. Because the giving is so tied in with our worship and our covenant relationship with God, there should be some kind of provision for giving in every church service, even if an offering is not taken. In the midst of our worship, we can give to the Lord and proclaim the fact of our covenant relationship with Him: “I am Yours; You brought me out. Here is some of the firstfruit that came off the land You gave me. I am possessing all of it. I proclaim my possession of it. I proclaim that You are my God, and I am Your possession forever.” God responds to that.
One of the greatest examples of a people who entered into a ministry of giving is found in the Macedonians. Macedonia was the upper state of Greece at that time, and the lower state was Achaia, where Corinth was located. In II Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, reminding them of the pledge they had made to God the year before; yet they had never fulfilled it. When the Macedonians up north heard what the Corinthians had pledged, it so moved them that they began to enter into miraculous, supernatural giving. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “You fellows sure did talk big. You even stirred up the Macedonians, and you should see the way they gave. Now, you perform what you promised.”
Notice what Paul said in II Corinthians 8:1–5 concerning the Macedonians. Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God (they had entered into something which they could not have done without God’s grace) which has been given to the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord. (Notice that they gave beyond their ability.) We could illustrate this by saying, “Every time they reached into their pocket they found another twenty.” How can a man give more than he has? They did it. They just kept giving. They entered into the ministry of giving—all of them. This was one of the greatest miracle churches in giving that existed in the New Testament.
Paul continued, Begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints (imagine people begging to give!), and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. There was a relationship. The first thing the Macedonian believers did was to give themselves to the Lord. When they had become His possession, they started giving themselves to the apostles; then they gave their money. They kept on giving as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. They tapped the miracle flow. God will cause grace to abound to a people like that, so that they, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work (II Corinthians 9:8). They touched the thing that God loved—the giving and the worship that are tied in with the relationship to God.
What happens on the other side of the coin when a man gives without a relationship? Look at Cain. Some say that Cain’s offering—the fruit of the earth—was the wrong kind of sacrifice; however, there were other instances where God accepted fruit. Perhaps Abel’s offering fulfilled a type better than did that of Cain, for Abel offered one of the flock which was a type of Christ who was to come as a sacrifice for sin. Notice that God told Cain, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Genesis 4:7a. In other words, “If you were relating to Me as you should, your offering would have been accepted.” It would have been accepted if he had had a right heart, but sin was lying at the door, and it was not long before terrible things began happening. Cain killed his brother, and then he became a marked man, a fugitive on the face of the earth, banished from the presence of the Lord.
The story of Ananias and Sapphira is another illustration. In fact, one must wonder whether that story has even been completely understood. The fact that they lied to the Holy Spirit has always been emphasized, but certainly there are many people who lie to the Holy Spirit. They must, because they have already lied to themselves. They really believe the lie, so they must be telling God some lies too. This story is not as simple as that. Something else must have been involved.
But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.” Acts 5:1–4. And Ananias dropped down dead.
You cannot understand this account in the fifth chapter until you read the fourth chapter, and see the abundant grace that was upon the early Church. They would sell their possessions and lay the money at the apostles’ feet. Giving was based on a relationship which Ananias and Sapphira missed. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of lands or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles’ feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need. Acts 4:32–35.
In the will of God, they were relating to the Lord and to one another. The result was the same as that of the Old Testament tithe: they came and proclaimed their relationship to God, and they laid the money at the apostles’ feet. This was very significant. It meant that their relationship to the apostles was under God. They were just like the Macedonians, who first gave themselves to the Lord, and then, Paul writes, “to us, by the will of God.” They were entering into divine order in their giving. They were relating to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ; and they were relating to the apostles. As they laid their offerings at the apostles’ feet, they were saying in effect, “Here we are, ready to do the whole will of God.” And God blessed them. Then when this hypocrite, Ananias, got into the picture, he dropped dead. God turned on the giving that was without a holy relationship.
The restoration move that God has brought forth in this day is not a financial program. It is filled with projects that the Lord directs us to do, but He does not want our service, our money, or anything we can give, unless we have entered into the right relationship in divine order with Him. A well-known evangelist of the past generation felt that the large offerings of a converted saloon keeper should be accepted, though many people objected. He reasoned, “The devil has had this money long enough. Let us liberate it.” Even though that remark seems to have wisdom in it, we should be very careful in such a situation. If there is any likelihood that the money is being given without an absolute dedication or the right relationship with the Lord, we should not accept it.
Giving has to be based on a relationship with God. The whole idea of tithing presented in Malachi establishes that principle. Malachi 3:7–18: “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!” It is all tied together. When people lose their relationship with the Lord, they are robbing Him.
“But you say, ‘How have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test 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 a blessing until there is no more need. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts. God will shower His blessing on them.
“Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against Thee?’ You have said, ’It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape.’ ” This passage speaks about people who are despising the name of the Lord and robbing Him. Next it speaks of those who keep His Word.
Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. It is all tied together. Usually the people who do not have a relationship with God are not good givers anyway. They are robbers; they rob God.
When you come before the Lord with your tithe, do not say, “Look Lord, I am being generous to You.” Instead, say, “Lord, I am giving You a little of the land that You have promised me. I am placing my foot on that land and declaring that it is mine.” In giving your little basketful, you are claiming the whole estate. Tithing should never be considered as letting loose of ten percent Tithing should always be considered with this attitude: “Here is a little token of the great promise that I am possessing, and God, don’t You forget it! I am going to possess it all! I proclaim this day my relationship with You. You are my God. These promises are mine, and this land is mine.” That kind of giving opens up the abundance of the Lord to you.
Then the Lord says, “What can I do? I acknowledge that this person is Mine. He did what I told him. He brought the tithes and contributions. He brought them in a basket and laid it down before My altar. He proceeded to tell Me who he is and what he has; and I acknowledge that he is what he says he is. He is My child. I acknowledge, that because he has claimed a promise, it is his land.”
This same principle applies in the legal procedure involved in purchasing a piece of property. When a contract is signed, there is an exchange back and forth; promises are given on both sides. The deal is not consummated without some kind of down payment. Later, if the purchaser reaches the point where he is in danger of foreclosure, he can start the whole procedure again by paying a certain amount of money, provided it is recognized as a valid payment. Likewise, when you come before the Lord, you can say, “You have made a covenant with me, Lord, and I am validating this covenant by making a little payment. Now You cannot kick me out. As long as I make a little payment, I am in.”
Worshipers of the Lord, get out your baskets. Believe in the unlimited provisions of God and claim the covenants and promises and blessings. Proclaim to the Lord, “I am the person that You placed on this land. It will be a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I possess it, and this day I bring the tithe and validate my covenant with You. This land is mine. I am Yours, and You are going to bless me!”
As we apply this exciting principle of tithing, we will soon reach the place where we give, not for projects, but in a relationship to the Lord. As a result, there will be an overflowing abundance back to us.