Verse of the day · August 28
What was the storehouse in Malachi 3:10?
Last time the windows of heaven were opened, the world drowned.
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.
Malachi 3:10
A nation back from captivity had a temple to keep running, and the tithes that paid for it were coming in short. For that they were cursed with a curse — famine and scarcity, unseasonable weather, insects eating up the fruits of the earth. Then the scarcity became the argument: they were impoverished, they said, and could not afford the tithes, and what the temple was owed would feed their own families instead. Told they had robbed God, they pleaded not guilty and put him upon the proof of it.
Out of the tithes and offerings the priests and Levites had maintenance for themselves and their families, and the people had detained them — not paying, or not in full, or not of the best, bringing the torn and the lame and the sick. The whole nation was guilty of the charge, Matthew Henry writes, as if they had confederated against God. The scarcity had been sent to part them from the sin, and they had made it the excuse for it.
Some tithes had been brought and the rest kept back, and John Gill reads their sin off that one word all. Henry has them keeping back part of the price like Ananias and Sapphira, pleading that necessity has no law — but even necessity must have this law. The storehouse was the treasury, Gill explains: chambers adjoining the temple where the tenth of every eatable thing was put. There were more chambers than Solomon built, because Hezekiah had to add some — in his reign the tithes came in so plentifully that there was not room enough for them.
The people had already offered a trade, and theirs ran the other way round: let God give them their plenty again, as formerly, and then try whether they would not bring in his tithes and offerings, as they did formerly. No, says God — bring in all your tithes as they become due, and the arrears of what is past, and try me whether I will not then restore you your plenty. Henry puts the priority into one clause: bring in the full tithes to the utmost the law requires, so there is meat in God's house for those that serve at the altar, whether there be meat in your houses or no. Those that will deal with God must deal upon trust. His reward is with him, but his work is before him: the work comes first, and the reward after. Elijah put the widow of Zarephath into that order, asking her for a little cake first, and then letting her prove whether there would be enough afterwards for her and her son. Many have been losers for him. None, Henry says, were losers by him in the end.
Prove me now herewith is an invitation to run the experiment, and its terms are plain: test me whether I will keep my promise of blessing you, on condition of your doing your part. The windows named in it had been shut and stopped up, letting down no rain, which is what brought the scarcity. Only the Lord himself could open them: the key of rain, the Jews say, is one of three keys he has reserved for himself and never puts into a minister's hand. Those windows had been opened once before over a whole world, in Noah's flood, to pour down a deluge of wrath and a curse upon the earth. Here they are opened to pour down blessing.
Pour out is, literally, empty out, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say — a vessel tipped until nothing is left in it, with no blessing kept back. Gill collects the renderings and they measure it at the other end: Kimchi's father took the last clause to mean there would not be a sufficiency of vessels and storehouses, and the Targum has it running until you say it is enough. The Geneva Notes have God disregarding the size of the need altogether — not having respect how much you need, but I will give you in all abundance, so that you will lack place to put my blessings in. Henry reaches for the multiplied oil, which was not stayed as long as there were vessels to receive it.
All Judah carried the tithe into the treasuries, and Henry makes no doubt they had the benefit of these promises immediately upon their return to duty. The curse was not taken away only. It was turned into an abundant blessing. The last clause — that there shall not be room enough to receive it — is very concise in the original, and reads literally unto not enough. What runs short is the room: it denotes enough and to spare — and still, Gussetius observes in a note Gill relays, not enough to answer or express the abundance of mercy and goodness in the heart of God.
Men are never straitened in him. They are often straitened in their own bosoms — in the weakness of their faith and the narrowness of their desires. They had wanted the plenty first, and were made to bring the tithes first instead. What ran short in the end was never what came down. It was the room.
Drawn from Matthew Henry, John Gill, the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary and the Geneva Bible notes.
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