Hebrews 11:4 - By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
God gave His people many blessings, often at the expense of
their enemies. He gave them a number of opportunities to loot the spoils of
those who wanted to do them harm. However, it's important to give God His due
of the spoils--and that's where tithing comes into the picture. It's our way of
giving back to God the blessings--the plunder if you will--He has given us. We
find in Genesis 4 that Cain and Abel both make offerings to God as tithes:
"...it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the
ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of
their fat" (Genesis 4:3-4).
But what happens
next? God "respected Abel and his offering, but He did not
respect Cain and His offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance
fell" (Genesis 4:4-5). You see; it's important to give our best to God,
and to do it with a wholeness of heart. We know God loves a cheerful giver:
"So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not
grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians
9:7)
Tithing is
important; when we aren't giving to God, we are taking from Him. Look
at what happened after the plunder of Jericho: But the children of Israel
committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi,
the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed
things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel. (Joshua
7:1)
When we don't tithe, we set
ourselves up for defeat. You schedule defeat, put it on your calendar. What
were the "accursed things"? It was the tithes.
Tithing Like Abel
ReplyDelete