The character of God Himself should be the foundation of all our thinking and all our actions. Because God does not change, He does not consume Jacob or Jacob's children when they grasp at things that don't rightfully belong to them. Rather, just as He transformed Jacob into Israel, He now invites the people to return to Him. If they will test Him with their obedience in tithing, they will find that the Lord is pleased to open the windows of heaven to bless His people and put His favour on display to the watching world. When we are stingy with the Lord, we get progressively poorer. When we are generous with the Lord, even the unbelieving nations around us will see that we are richly blessed. This is not because God is a vending machine that needs to receive before He gives. Our tithing does not fill a need in God, but in us. Our generosity displays that we have the humility to understand that we are tenants in God's vineyard and that we have full trust in His provision and in His sufficiency to care for His own.
