Giving And The Prophets Series

In many areas of life, we find minimum standards. There are minimum daily requirements of vitamins. There are minimum speed limits on the interstate. You probably remember a time in your student life when a paper was assigned and the first question a student asked was, what is the minimum number of pages this paper can be?

Why did this question annoy the professor so much? Because it represents the wrong attitude of how little can be done to just fulfill the assignment. The professor wants his students to be so enthralled by their work that a minimum number of pages does not even come into play.

Wanting to know the minimum does reveal something about our attitude. If we ask what the minimum standard is we can give to the Lord and still be OK then it reveals a problem in our relationship with the Lord. We find joy in giving abundantly.

I used to work for Quaker Oats. Our founder Henry Crowell never asked what the minimum standard was he could give. For 50 years he gave 65% of his income to the Lord’s work. He was a chief contributor to the work of D. L. Moody. He believed that God gave him bold marketing ideas that took Quaker Oats from a tiny little business to a fortune 500 company.

The right attitude in giving is going to see our giving as a privilege, not as a duty. The prophets rebuke God’s people when they make giving a duty.

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,

you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy

and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”

2 The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness:

“The time will surely come

when you will be taken away with hooks,

the last of you with fishhooks.

3 You will each go straight out

through breaches in the wall,

and you will be cast out toward Harmon,”

declares the LORD.

4 “Go to Bethel and sin;

go to Gilgal and sin yet more.

Bring your sacrifices every morning,

your tithes every three years.

5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering

and brag about your freewill offerings—

boast about them, you Israelites,

for this is what you love to do,”

declares the Sovereign LORD. (Amos 4:1-5)

The prophets were used by God to preach strong messages calling God’s people to turn back to God. They preached these harsh messages when God’s people turned their back on God. Amos may have been the harshest of all the prophets, but he preached under the most desperate of situations.

There was impending doom on the northern Kingdom. They could not conceive they needed a harsh message when they were an affluent society and had a high percentage of people attending worship. Underneath the façade was moral and spiritual bankruptcy. Things were not right with God, and they needed a harsh prophet to call this out.

He opposes all but he particularly called out the women of society. They were demanding luxuries to maintain their high society status and put pressure on their husbands for more affluence. They found ways to oppress the poor to keep their standards up. Amas calls these society seeking women cows of Bashan.

There is judgement coming and the Assyrians will conquer them. They will be led out with two kinds of hooks. The first is cattle hooks the second is with fishhooks. Their worship was a mockery. There was moral failure in the midst of economic prosperity. This moral failure would lead to the destruction of Israel the Norther Kingdom.

Jesus said where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Instead of coming and worshiping at Bethel, the place where Jacob met the Lord and vowed to tithe, they would go and sin. They would bring a tithe and it was a façade. It was about maintaining the minimum. Their real concern was materialism and society.

There giving was just going through the motions to ease their consciences. They would boast and brag at their tithes, but they were giving with an empty heart. The prophet Amos has picked up on a theme that is consistent with New Testament giving and that is their motivation for giving.

When Jacob gave a tenth at Bethel it represented a giving heart to God. They are giving a tithe for outward show. There is a two-stage spiritual deterioration seen in giving. The first is what we see in Amos when giving is for outward show. The second stage is seen in the Malachi chapter about finding ways to give less.

The prophet Malachi speaking God’s word to the people brings a heavy message. The problem is that they were bringing blind and crippled animals for sacrifice. Giving has become a burden for them and they treat it with contempt.