written by one of our partners in ministry at FBC, Dr. Dick Ivey
We began this study last week with a short course in investment and planning strategies. Highlighted was the 80-10-10 rule or perhaps more accurately said, the 10-10-80 rule. That is, give 10% of what you make, save 10% of what you make (using some of the strategies we talked about in last week’s DD) and learning to live within your means (or below your means) on 80% of what you earn.
I reminded you of the mantra with which I grew up: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. For those of you who either grew up in or whose parents grew up in The Great Depression, you have probably experienced the largesse of over abundance that our parents gave us. They made certain that their children did not have to suffer the indignities of poverty they experienced…sometimes robbing their children of the struggles necessary to ensure success.
That calls to mind a story I may have told you about my backyard “camping” experience as a 10 year old boy. If I told it to you before, well here it is again…
My buddy and I were sleeping out in the backyard in West Texas one evening and awoke to see five cocoons wiggling on a branch over our heads. The first four produced those big brown moths with dark brown spots on their wings making them look like the eyes of something big and ferocious. God gave them that a deterrent to predators who were scared away fearing those “eyes” belonged to an even larger predator. The fifth and smallest moth was having lots of trouble getting out of the cocoon, so I asked my buddy to sit on one end of my army surplus cot to hold it down while I stood on the other end. I took my trusty Old Timer’s pocketknife and held gently to the small end of the cocoon and began to slit a small opening in the side of the cocoon. Surely enough, it helped the moth emerge from it’s sheath. It struggled and struggled to get on the top of the branch to dry its wings only to shudder, falter and die, falling to the ground.
I was a grown man before I learned that the moth and butterfly develop their respiratory and circulatory systems during the struggles they go through in extricating themselves from the cocoon. When I “helped” the tiny moth, I killed it.
So we raised a generation of people who have not had to struggle for what they have. This entitlement mentality has lowered the sense of need to give back that characterized our parents’ lives.
The life of R. G. Letourneau is the exact opposite of that tale.
(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._LeTourneau)
Robert Gilmour LeTourneau (November 30, 1888 – June 1, 1969), was born in Richford, Vermont, and was a prolific inventor of earthmoving machinery. His machines represented nearly 70 percent of the earthmoving equipment and engineering vehicles used during World War II, and over the course of his life he secured nearly 300 patents. With the help of his wife, the late Evelyn Peterson (1900-1987), he founded LeTourneau University, a private, Christian institution, in Longview, Texas. LeTourneau was widely known as a devoted Christian and generous philanthropist to Christian causes, including the “LeTourneau Christian Center” camp and conference grounds in Rushville, New York.[1] LeTourneau was often referred to by his contemporaries as “God’s businessman”.
During his lifetime, he decided to move from simple giving back to Christian causes until he came to give away 90% of what he earned and he and Evelyn lived on 10% of what he earned. He took seriously the commands that Malachi wrote about and that we are going to explore this week.
So the week begins with introspection on your part. What part of your income do you devote to giving back to God because of His unprecedented abundance to you? I’ll wait while you go check your tax return.
A little about Malachi before we get into the text for the week. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi)
Opinions vary as to the prophet’s exact date, but nearly all scholars agree that Malachi prophesied during the Persian period, and after the reconstruction and dedication of the second temple in 516 BC (compare Malachi 1:10 ; Malachi 3:1, Malachi 3:10). The prophet speaks of the “people’s governor” (Hebrew “pechah”, Malachi 1:8), as do Haggai and Nehemiah (Haggai 1:1 ; Nehemiah 5:14 ; Nehemiah 12:26). The social conditions portrayed are unquestionably those also of the period of the Restoration. More specifically, Malachi probably lived and labored during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. The abuses that Malachi mentions in his writings correspond so exactly with those which Nehemiah found on his 2nd visit to Jerusalem in 432 BC (Nehemiah 13:7) that it seems reasonably certain that he prophesied shortly before that date, i.e. between 445 and 432 BC.
Shortly after Malachi wrote, there was no prophet in Israel for nearly 500 years. Significant is a study of what happened when the second Temple was dedicated. I urge you to go research this yourself, and when you do, compare how the presence of God was shown in the Tabernacle and the first Temple dedication. See specifically, Ezekiel 10-11.
Reading between the lines, you can hear the desperate plea from the prophet to see what could be done to get the presence of God to return to His people. Could it be that the withholding of tithes was what caused the covenant between Israel and God to be broken? (Sometime in the future you will hear a treatise from me on where the Israelites went astray from the “with us” God of the Old and New Covenants.)
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob are not destroyed.7 Ever since the time of your ancestors, you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, “How are we to return?”8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.” “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’” “In tithes and offerings.”9 “You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.”10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”11 “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops and the vines of your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty.12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord almighty. Malachi 3:6-12
FBC Celina, TX 