The tension between these two—bringing a sacrifice and expecting a reward—provides a venue to common argument today. Some feel obligated to “defend God” against human selfishness, and would refuse the balance in proposition that the text declares. But the truth is, God does freely offer the rewards of His blessing—and delights to do so. He doesn’t bother to argue: “Don’t you dare give Me something and suppose you’re manipulating Me to give back!” Instead, His Word simply says, in effect, “Since you believe in and come to me, I would expect you to believe I will reward your quest.” Of course, tithes or offerings (which are, indeed, appropriate and biblical “sacrifices”) aren’t to be a tit-for-tat bargain with God! But God’s call to worship is attended by His own commitment to bless us. That’s why I unhesitatingly teach the promises of God regarding His desire to bless us with physical and material provisions.
Whatever interpretive view a leader takes toward Malachi 3:10-12, whether it is viewed as a contemporary covenant or not, it still reveals a largesse in the heart of God toward human obedience in giving—and the justice of human expectancy of blessing in conjunction with that obedient worship.
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try 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 such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts; “and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
It is not unspiritual to rehearse again the timeless fact: Worship is God’s gift to us for our blessing and benefit. He doesn’t need it. We do. And as we learn to enter with full and open hearts, we will find humbled and cleansed hearts, and ultimately come with full and opened hands that give … and go away with His promise to refill them, over and over!
Those hands will learn one more thing.
4. Worship that extends God’s love by every means.
If indeed God-pleasing worship address human need more than it supplies a divine one (if indeed there is such a thing as a need on God’s part), it is to be expected that worship that honors the desires of the Almighty will beget reaching hands. It is, thus, unsurprising that our Savior’s summary definition of the “greatest commandment” issues into “the second, which is like (in importance) unto it.” The vertical mandate, which focuses on our worshipping God (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”), issues in the horizontal (“and your neighbor as yourself”). Basically, the only true divine approval our worship will find is when it results in our hearts being focused on such things as:
Forgiveness toward others, with peacemaking and reconciling efforts evident in our day-to-day agenda for living;
Gracious, life-style evangelism characterizing our conduct and communication, so that the glory found in His presence is manifest in our shedding a warm, attractive “light as a believable, winsome witness.”