MALACHI 3 (FROM CAC'S NOTEBOOK)
MALACHI 3 (FROM CAC’S NOTEBOOK)
There is always, I believe, a preparation for the Lord, but when He comes He takes up things so that God may be served. The sermon on the mount is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ lye. His sitting is a permanent position so long as the refining goes on. The addresses to the seven assemblies show Him as refining. It is the children of Levi: those responsible for the service. The refining process is in order that we may handle holy things in a holy way. An oblation in righteousness (verse 3): the oblation is generally the meat-offering but it seems extended here to the peace-offering, and perhaps other offerings. We can only bring what we have of Christ, but we must bring it as purified from all that is not Christ: being disciplined by the Lord is refining. “Let a man prove himself” is a similar thought. Leviticus 9, 1 Chronicles 21: 26 would be the former years, the days of old.
The whole tithe is to be brought into the treasure house: Numbers 18. The test is always present as to how far our affections are in practical activity with regard to the Lord’s work. In a difficult day it is not so easy to find the Levites,
[p. 576] but we can always find one: the labourers are few. But we have to accept the principle that our spiritual prosperity depends, as 2 Corinthians 9: 6 expressly says, on our sowing: the spirit of blessing, and each according as he is purposed in his heart. But the levitical tithes are an obligation: they are part of the divine economy, an opportunity to show that we are concerned there shall be food in God’s house. It is striking that there is nothing said in the New Testament about tithes, but 1 Corinthians 9 helps as to the principle of it.
When there is a lack of fruitfulness we might ask whether “the whole tithe” has been brought in.