The Windows of Heaven

The Story

The Jews had returned from exile and rebuilt the temple. But a hundred years later, their faith had grown cold. The priests were cutting corners. The people were going through the motions. Malachi was the last prophet God sent before four hundred years of silence.

Times were hard. Crops were failing. Insects were eating the harvest. And the people had stopped bringing their tithes, the tenth of their income they were supposed to give to support the temple and the Levites.

God spoke through Malachi with a startling question. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.” The people asked, How have we robbed You? God answered: “In tithes and offerings.”

Then God made an offer He doesn’t make anywhere else in Scripture. He invited them to test Him.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

He promised to rebuke the devourer, the pests destroying their crops, and said all nations would call them blessed.

Reflection