These four verses constitute perhaps the greatest discourse we have on the law of tithing. If we hold back our tithes and offerings, Malachi taught, we are robbing God. In another sense, we are also robbing ourselves. We are cheating ourselves out of enormous blessings. Tithing is as indispensable to our salvation as is baptism.
During an interview, one young elder told President Ogden about a good man he and his companion were preparing for baptism: “But the man has some doubts about tithing. He says he doesn’t think he can pay tithing for a while, because they are poor and he is about to finance a medical operation for his little daughter.”President Ogden and the young missionary talked about the usual things that the investigator needed to understand about the law of tithing, but then the elder said something else: his companion had told the investigator not to worry about it, that the Lord would understand, and that he wouldn’t have to pay tithing for a while yet.
The president called the companion in, and they talked about refraining from denying the blessings of tithe paying to anyone, because tithes are paid with faith. Here was a beautiful opportunity to teach a prospective member how the Lord blesses us if we’ll just demonstrate our faith and keep his commandment; then we may anticipate the blessings of obedience. Then President Ogden asked the elder, “By the way, what is the operation the little girl needs?”
He answered, “To repair her cleft palate.”
A few weeks earlier, President Ogden had listened to a medical doctor from Utah describe the work of his worldwide medical humanitarian service foundation, which had recently been organized in Santiago to help those with certain physical abnormalities, especially cleft palates. Surely the operation on the prospective member’s daughter could be arranged for. The directness and immediacy of the resolution of a need were overwhelming. What an opportunity to teach two missionaries and their investigator that the Lord can indeed provide for those who are willing and obedient.
Tithing is a law with a promise! The Lord assures us that when we faithfully observe this law of spiritual economics, he will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings, such that we won’t be able to contain them all; and he will “rebuke the devourer for [our] sakes”—or keep the wolf from our door; see the commentary at Jacob 2:17–19.
Opening the windows of heaven means revelation, and great revelation—coming to know the Father and the Son—is available in the temple. But of course we have to show our willingness to sacrifice, our willingness to obey—by paying our tithing—before we can enter the holy temple. It is highly unlikely that persons who refuse to pay their tithing will honor the even more demanding covenants that are administered in the temple.
Sacrifice really does bring forth the blessings of heaven. So while we may think we are giving up something to God, he actually enriches us with more than we have given. The word sacrifice derives from the Latin sacer, meaning “holy” or “sanctified.” When we sacrifice something, it is not so much a deprivation as a sanctification. Is the payment of tithing a loss of the 10 percent, or is it a consecration, a sanctification, of the 10 percent?