Will a Man Rob God?

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side…” Psalm 124:1

This is the business that Jack built.  This is the city where sits the business that Jack built.  These are the people that commute to the city where sits the business that Jack built.  These are the tools that the people use that commute to the city that work in the business that Jack built.  These are the checks that pay the people who use the tools that commute to the city that Jack built.  This is the earthquake that destroys the city and wipes out the records which Jack used to write the checks to pay the people who use the tools that commute to the city where sat the business that Jack built.    

Our hold on everything is so fragile, isn’t it?  If not for the Lord, our physical agility, our domestic tranquility, our upward mobility would so quickly go south it’d make our heads spin.  If the Maker wasn’t a giver, we’d all be in a heap of trouble. 

So why should we the needy give of our substance?  If our hold on things is so tenuous, doesn’t generosity only push us closer to the edge of disaster?   The fact is, we give because we are needy!   

Here the Curly Howards among us squeal in frustration, slapping their faces:  “Are you tryin’ to gimme the double-talk?”  Just bear with me a moment.   Among our many needs is our need to give.   We’re made in the image God the Giver.  He not only gives us the world and all its wonders,  He gives us health, strength, and daily food.  He gave us His only Son to die for our sins.  Through the presence of Christ in us, we’re being remade into His image–the image of a loving, giving God.  We need to give–like we need toothpaste, Vitamin D, and seatbelts.   Greed cripples and disfigures us, defacing the image of God in us, like spraying paint on a cathedral. 

The prophet Malachi asks, “Will a man rob God?”  ?  If we refuse to make God’s dream come true, if we resist becoming more like Him, which is His deepest desire, certainly we’ve robbed Him.   No, God doesn’t need our money, any more than Niagara Falls needs a squirt from a syringe.   God needs nothing from us.  It’s we who are the needy, not Him.  And we need to give.   Otherwise, we rob God of…us! 

You think about that as the offering plate goes by Sunday.  Amen.