Saints Made Merchandise is continuing to
draw the attention of many people from within the body of Christ and outside. I
continue to receive enquiries with some demanding extracts which is the reason
why I posted this extract on face book and WhatsApp but now with an extension:.
Now let us look to the next word- Rob.
(2) ROB:
This is the only word I will trace down to its original Hebrew form. It is
translated from the Hebrew word, קָבַע ‘QUABA’ which means to cover (up) i.e. defraud, to rob or spoil. ….. The
word refers to taking what belongs to someone by chicanery without the owner’s
consent. The Collins pocket English dictionary also confers the word defraud as
one of the meanings of the term rob. Since it is feeble man who takes away what
belongs to Almighty God, I strongly feel that the word plunder, which has
violent connotations, cannot be the most suitable translation of the word in
these circumstances. Instead the word defraud is a more suitable paraphrase
because it denotes deception rather than violence. It also denotes deprivation.
Here man takes by ruse and dishonesty rather than violence. What he merely does
is convert what belongs to God to his own or some other use never intended by
God. For instance, instead of providing food, the tithes will be used as a bait
of gaining more wealth. The children of Israel never tithed in order to obtain
more fields yet we do it for the sake of prosperity. We do not tithe to provide
food but to entice God for some filthy riches. In short we have converted
tithes to some other uses that God never intended. If we have sowed to the
flesh must we reap of the spirit?
Will a man rob God? I used to say God is
too strong to be robbed by mere man but one day I discovered that man has the
capacity to rob God. From the above translation of the word rob; I deduced that
in Malachi 3 God was charging his people with the crime of fraud. It cannot be
a crime of plunder or violent looting because then man would be too weak to
pillage Almighty God. He charges the entire nation of the same crime thereby
suggesting that even the priestly tribe of Levi was also part of the crime. The
fact that the priestly tribe was also a partner of the crime means that
something very severe had gone wrong with tithing. May be nobody was still
bringing tithes at all or the Levites were taking hundred percent of the tithes
converting it to their own use or something more serious that we do not know
was taking place. Whatever was happening it is very evident that the people of
God were depriving God His tithes.
There is another book that was written at
almost the same time as the book of Malachi which may give us an insight in to
what could have been happening during that time thereby explaining how the
fraud was perpetrated. The Book of Malachi was written between 440 and 400 B.C
whilst the Book of Nehemiah was likely written between 445 and 420 B.C. This
piece of information implies that the conditions prevailing during the days of
Nehemiah and Malachi were similar or both authors could have lived during the
same period of time.
In chapter 4 of his book, Nehemiah
describes how the elite were abusing and oppressing the needy and the
vulnerable of society whist Malachi in verse 5 of his 3rd chapter says that God
will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow, and the fatherless, and those who turn aside the stranger from his
right, and fear not the LORD of hosts.
Nehemiah in his 13th chapter from verse 5 to 10 further gives yet
another description of a disturbing incident that occurred during the same
period. He says that when he had been briefly away from Jerusalem, the priest
took the Levites’ share from the store house and gave it to Tobiah, God’s
enemy. The resultant starvation of the Levites led to their abandoning their
duties. These two events suggest that it were the priests and the elite who
were therefore defrauding or robing God.
Whist the priest was converting the
Levite’s share of the tithe to Tobiah’s use; the elite were busy oppressing the
hireling, the widow, and the fatherless, in their wages and turning aside the
stranger from his right. That is how they systematically robbed God hence the
message of Malachi chapter three.
The crime the nation was committing could
have been a non-violent one but was a highly sophisticated cunning and possibly
well-orchestrated transgression of an accounting and financial nature which
demonstrated bad stewardship which resulted in the neglect of the poor in direct
violation of the laws and commandments of the Lord. Are we also not guilty of
the same offence? Is our tithing not fraudulent in nature? I leave you to give
the answers. This is food for thought.
Following this post some have requested for
at least one chapter and her I give you chapter thirteen:
THE PURPOSE OF PROSPERITY
I
|
n winding up this book it is proper that I
comment on prosperity. Some may think that I am against prosperity but that is
not entirely correct. Whilst I am not against prosperity I categorically state
that I am completely against being hypnotised with the attainment of wealth.
The Lord said that we must not be worried about our needs and wants. Being
apprehensive does not in any way solve any of our shortcomings or satisfy our
needs. Obsession about wealth usually arises from being anxious about needs and
wants. Actually the Lord said that worry has never and will never improve any
person’s stature.
Modern day prosperity Christians always hunt wealth such that even
their prayers are perpetual pleas for wealth. They desire to be the most
opulent persons in their locality and wish to parade their extravagance to all
and sundry as evidence of their faith. This desire creates within them an
unending hankering for money which the Bible says is the root of all evil. This
craving for money may lead to compromised ethics and morals to the extent that
the source of money may be of no importance as long as the money gets in to
their pockets.
In contrast to the above the Lord in Matthew 6:33 said, “Seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
to you.” Instead of seeking wealth the Lord advises us to seek his kingdom and
righteousness first. Our greatest desire must be to live righteous lives in the
obedience of God. When we live righteously God will meet our needs without us having
to worry about it.
This is where the Prosperity gospel differs greatly with God’s
principle of prosperity. The Prosperity gospel says desire wealth, claim
wealth, get wealth and be very rich. God’s principle says live a righteous life
and God will meet all your needs and wants. All that you neglect by seeking
God’s kingdom and righteousness will be added to you. The rich young ruler was
told to sell all his wealth, distribute it to the needy and follow Christ. To
the young man this was impossible because he had a lot of wealth. To him
parting with his wealth was tantamount to becoming extinct. It was his wealth
which was a mark of distinction between him and the rest of society. Without
his wealth he would be reduced to an ordinary pauper in his community hence he
refused to follow the master.
It is clear that seeking God and his righteousness demands living
for God and not for self. The anointed Messiah once said that if you save your
life you will lose it but if you lose your life for the sake of Christ you will
gain it. The Bible also says that those for whom Christ died must now live for
him. Living for Christ means that the desires, wishes and will of Christ takes
prominence over our own desires, wishes and will. It means that we will seek
his growth at the expense of our own demise. He will become great through our
becoming insignificant. John 3:31. What belongs to us becomes his own. In short
it means that he will live his own life in and through us hence his
righteousness must of a necessity express itself through our own lives. In view
of that we will live righteous and upright lives and in turn he will add his
goodies to us.
Deuteronomy 8:18 clearly states who gives wealth and why. The LORD
our God gives us power to get wealth so that he may establish his covenant
which he swore to our fathers, as it is this day. He does not give us
prosperity to just make us big but to establish his covenant with us. It is
necessary to understand that covenant first otherwise we will lose it just like
the rich young ruler did. God gives us the capacity or ability to gather wealth
so that when we have gotten the wealth we then fulfil the fundamentals of his
covenant with us. You see it is for his own purposes and not ours hence his
kingdom is greater than our desire.
The covenant he makes reference to was first entered between him and
his servant and friend Abraham. In entering the covenant with Abraham he said
that he would in blessings bless Abraham so that he would become a blessing to
all the families of the word. He was not blessing Abraham so that Abraham would
selfishly feel blessed but God wanted to bless the whole word through Abraham.
God’s desire is that we become a blessing to our communities. He gives us
wealth or the power to get wealth so that through that wealth we will bless our
communities. That is exactly what he wanted the rich young ruler to do when he
told him to sell all he had, distribute the proceeds to the poor and live for
Christ.
In the 9th chapter of 2nd Corinthians we are
told that when we give, the Lord will in turn give us much more. Many do not
read some of the verses within the context of the chapter. As a result they
give for the sole reason of receiving back yet the chapter explains why God
keeps on giving us. In the first verses of that chapter Paul praises the
Corinthian for their zeal in giving towards meeting the needs of the saints. In
verse 7 he reminds them that they must give willingly and not out of
compulsion. One must make his own independent decision to give and not coerced
to do so because God loves a cheerful giver. In verse 8 he then says that after
God has given us back he will ensure that that we have all sufficiency and much
more to do further good works. That means that if I give two people God will
meet my needs and also give me some more resources so that I will be able to
give more than the initial 2 people. The purpose of that return is to ensure
that I am able to continue in good works by giving many more people thereby
becoming a blessing to my fellow men. By becoming a blessing to others we will
be establishing God’s covenant which he swore with our predecessors.
This short summary on prosperity is what I was trying to express in
the chapter which precedes this one. God blesses us so that we may bless others.
If he makes us rich, it is to enable others to become rich through our
generosity. We must not exploit others but we must bless others.
3 John 1: 2-4’s summary is that our material prosperity must mirror
what will be happening in the inner man. He says we must prosper and be in
health in proportion to the prosperity of our souls. Prosperity must begin in
the spirit and only express itself in the physical later. When we seek God’s righteousness the human spirit
will prosper hence our aim must not be prosperity but the righteousness of God.
Poverty is not a measure of godliness and will never be a sign of
holiness. Poverty is not from God but is from satan and that is the reason why
God wants us to fight it. God will certainly bless us so that with the abundance
of that blessing we may fight poverty by meeting the needs of the poor or
provide them with the capital and means to fight their insufficiency.
Through Moses the Lord said, “For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as
he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not
borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over
thee. If there be among you a poor man
of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy
God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from
thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt
surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Thou shalt
surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto
him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy
works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall
never cease out of the land: therefore
I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to
thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. Deut 15:6 -11.
In this age there will never be a time when the poor will cease to
be in the land hence I agree with the prosperity gospellers that poverty is a
curse. Since it is a curse we must therefore fight it by stretching our hand to
eradicate the poverty from our brothers and sisters. For this reason Christ
became poor for our sakes as it is written in 2Corithians 8:9 that “ye know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” If we became rich
through his poverty then with his riches we must eradicate poverty from our
fellow men. Since we freely received we must freely give. This also is bearing
each other’s burdens
One important thing we must realise is that wealth is only an
instrument through which we may use to better our lives and of those who
surround us or depend on us. Wealth must never be worshipped hence Paul said to
Timothy, “charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded,
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in
the living God.” Many a time people worship God’s instrument instead of God
who ordained the instrument. In 2nd Kings chapter 18 king Hezekiah
did the right thing of removing God’s instrument after realising that people
were now worshiping God’s instrument instead of worshipping the God who
anointed the instrument. In the wilderness the Israelites were attacked by
fiery serpents whilst they were coming from Egypt during the Exodus. Moses made
a brazen serpent in obedience to God,s instruction and anyone who looked at the
brazen serpent after being bitten by the poisonous snakes was healed instantly.
During the days of the kings of Judah, the Israelites were worshipping that
bronze serpent and that is the brazen serpent king Hezekiah destroyed because
it was now receiving God’s glory as if that glory was its own.. Read 2 Kings 18:1-7.
The same is happening with the modern man these days. Some of us are busy glorifying
wealth instead of the God who gave it. Therefore since prosperity is merely
God’s instrument for our betterment, worship and trust must be reserved to God
alone.
Finally prosperity must not be limited to money but must enable us
to walk in truth and that is why John wrote, “For I rejoiced greatly, when the
brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest
in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in
truth.’ 3 John 1: 2-4. We can walk in truth when we are built and established
in the truth and that is why our material prosperity must mirror our spiritual
prosperity. Biblical prosperity therefore goes beyond wealth as it is anchored
in walking in the truth. The Lord said he is the Way, the Truth and the Life
and therefore walking in truth refers to walking in the manner the Lord desires
or it means living for Christ. The real purpose for prosperity is therefore to
glorify Christ by the manner we utilise that prosperity. Once again I reiterate
that poverty is not godly and will never be a sign of godliness in as much the
same way that riches are not a mark of conscientiousness..
Now that you have read extracts of chapter three and have also read all of chapter 13 hurry up and get your own copy on
http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Made-Merchandise-Analysis-Offerings/dp/0797469141 or Munashe's book from
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