Part 2: But what about….?

 Now that we’ve laid a foundation, it’s time to tackle the big ‘But what about...?’ passages — the ones that tend to stir the most debate and deserve a closer, grace-filled look: 

What about Malachi 3:10? 

What about Abraham and Jacob giving before the Law?

 Let’s dive in together, not to argue, but to understand.

 So what about those early stories in Genesis?

Abraham giving a tenth to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20) and Jacob vowing to give a tenth of everything he received (Genesis 28:22)?

Many often point to these moments as evidence that tithing predates the law and therefore remains binding. So, let’s take a look!

It’s absolutely true that these moments happen centuries before the Mosaic Covenant. Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of war—once (that we know of), to the high priest Melchizedek.

 Here's the perspective we often don't hear, though: under Mosaic Law, that kind of offering wouldn’t have even qualified as a tithe. There was a different law for plunder (Numbers 31).

So Abraham’s gift, though generous, wouldn’t have counted as a “tithe” under the law, which makes it hard to make this out to be anything more than a gift, a gesture of honor and gratitude, not an ordinance being obeyed. 

Then there's Jacob. 

Jacob vowed to give a tenth of all that God gave him—but interestingly, Scripture never tells us whether he followed through, or even where he would have given it? We’re left to wonder.

But putting that aside, we must also ponder the fact that Jacob makes this promise to God—it suggests that giving 10% wasn’t something he was already doing. Some might argue he was vowing to do what he should have been doing all along, but the text points in another direction. This feels less like duty and more like awe—a voluntary, spontaneous response to God’s presence and promise.

While that gives us one angle to consider, there’s another piece of the puzzle that adds even more depth to the conversation.

It’s worth gently considering that just because something happened before the Law doesn’t necessarily mean it was intended to carry on after the Law. That line of reasoning can feel convincing at first, but when we step back and look at the whole of Scripture, it starts to feel a bit less solid.

Take Job, for example—most scholars agree he lived before Moses, and yet we see him regularly offering sacrifices on behalf of his children, “just in case” they sinned (Job 1:5). But Job wasn’t alone. We see sacrifices as far back as Cain and Abel (Genesis 4), Noah offering burnt offerings after the flood (Genesis 8:20), and Abraham building multiple altars to the Lord (Genesis 12–22). These examples show that sacrificial practices existed long before the Law was given at Sinai—yet we don’t take them as evidence that personal animal sacrifices are meant to continue today. Their presence before the Law doesn’t automatically make them enduring.

The same can be said for the Levirate Law, which commanded a man to marry his brother’s widow if she had no children (Deuteronomy 25:5–10) and like tithing, it shows up in Scripture before the Law was fully established (Genesis 38). 

To take this parallel even further, I'd like to point out how Jesus references the Levirate Law in Matthew 22, when the Sadducees pose a question about resurrection. He neither denounces it nor upholds it as binding—it’s simply part of the story. The same is true in Matthew 23:23, when He mentions the Pharisees tithing mint and dill. He acknowledges the practice (which by the way was over and above what the tithing law actually required -typical of Pharisees!), He neither denounces it nor upholds it as binding, but redirects it to the heart of the matter.

And while we’re on the topic, let’s look at the Sabbath, too. Sabbath observance was built into creation itself—God rested on the seventh day and later commanded Israel to do the same. And yet, under the New Covenant, Paul writes in Colossians 2:16–17, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

Even the Sabbath—which predates Mosaic Law and is explicitly commanded in it—is not a requirement for New Covenant believers. (although, as we'll talk about later, it may be in our best interest to observe it anyway!)

So if we’re no longer bound to Sabbath-keeping in the same way, despite its early and important presence in Scripture, nor the Levirate Law, nor offering sacrifices, we need to ask: why would we treat tithing differently?

 After exploring the offerings of Abraham and Jacob, we come to perhaps the most famous tithing verse in Scripture — Malachi 3:10. 

What exactly was God saying here? Let’s lean in and unpack the bigger story behind this powerful passage.

This passage is often the go-to when people believe that tithing is still a requirement for Christians. The language is strong

 “Will a man rob God?” 

And the promises sound compelling: 

“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse… and see if I won’t throw open the windows of heaven.” 

Let’s dive into this passage.

Malachi (a Prophet) is speaking to the Israelites under the Mosaic Covenant, during a time of deep spiritual neglect.

They weren’t just withholding money — they were disregarding their covenant responsibilities entirely.

The temple was falling into disrepair. The Levites, who relied on the tithe for survival, were being neglected. The problem was far bigger than finances — it was full-blown covenant unfaithfulness.

What we see in the context of this passage is not just a failure to tithe — it's a deep issue of disobedience.

Over and over, the people were offering God their leftovers,

the bare minimum, or worse —

The things they didn’t want anyway.

They were giving blemished sacrifices (Malachi 1:8), disregarding their covenant vows in marriage (Malachi 2:14), and questioning whether it was even worth serving the Lord (Malachi 3:14).

In every area, they were holding back — not just their dues, but their hearts.

 Money often exposes what’s going on underneath. It has a way of revealing our trust issues, our desire for control, our reluctance to surrender. 

 When God says, “Return to Me,” He wasn't just asking for a percentage of their income — He was calling for repentance.

 In a way, God could have been putting His finger on the thing they were most unwilling to give — not because He needed it, but because they needed to loosen their grip and transfer their trust back where it belonged. 

Their hearts seem to have grown cold — dulled by fear, choked by greed, numbed by entitlement. But God’s call to bring the tithe likely wasn’t just about their wallets; it was about their hearts. It was an invitation to return — to trust again, to obey again, to realign with the covenant they’d drifted from.

And God, ever faithful, wasn’t making a new promise when he told them he would open the widows of heaven— He was pointing back to the promise He’d already made, as if saying: “You’ve seen My word hold true in the curses… now come close and see if it doesn’t hold just as true in the blessings as well.”

 This was a direct reference to the covenant outlined in Deuteronomy 28 — a chapter where God detailed the blessings for Israel’s obedience and the curses for their rebellion. He had told them clearly what would happen if they remained faithful in the land He gave them, and what would happen if they turned away.

 Malachi 3 is God challenging His people to come back into that agreement — to once again walk in obedience and trust, and to receive the covenant blessings He had already set in place.

But let me clarify this point: as New Covenant believers, we live under a different promise. Jesus fulfilled the law and initiated a new kind of relationship — one not rooted in a land-based blessing system, but in spiritual adoption and eternal inheritance. Our covenant is not "if you obey, then I will bless you" — it’s "I have blessed you in Christ; now walk in the Spirit and live out the abundant life I have for you in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3, Galatians 3:13–14, Romans 8:1–4.)

We don't give to receive a material blessing — we give because we've already been richly blessed in Christ. We obey not to earn favor, but because grace has already made us favored. 

Even today, money remains one of the last things we tend to surrender. But it’s never just about the money. It’s about whether we’ll let Jesus be Lord over all of us. Malachi reminds us that when God asks for something, it’s not because He needs it. It’s because He sees what’s keeping us from Him -from what's best for us.

 That invitation is still there,

 to trust, 

to obey,

 to realign our hearts 

But now it's not to secure blessings… It’s to enjoy the fullness of the blessings we've already been given through Jesus.

Coming up in Part 3, we’ll look at the idea of a tenth more closely—why that number shows up & what it might mean.