Tithes and offerings are not the same - Proverbs 3:9-10.

The following verses outline some of the differences

Tithes

• Tithes open Heaven's windows to you - Malachi 3:10
• Tithes diligently presented cause God to consistently rebuke the devourer for you - Malachi 3:11
• Those who tithe are those who the nations will come to called blessed of God - Malachi 3:12

Note: tithe is the term applied the tenth of a person's increase that belongs to God - Leviticus 27:30

Offerings

• Offerings sow seed in your fields in expectation of harvest - 2 Corinthians 9:5-11
• Offerings produce full, undamaged harvests for tithers - Malachi 3:11

A visitor to this web site wrote:

I have heard it preached that when we tithe the windows of Heaven are opened up but it is the offerings that bring in the overflow. Is this correct?

I wrote back and answered:

Strictly speaking, no it isn't! The problem many preachers and teachers run into is their own loseness in regard to choice of words to describe conditions and I believe this is one of those cases.

Malachi is very clear, isn't he, about what the tithe does when you prove God with it? What we read in chapter 3 verse 10 is clearly a condition of overflow as a result of proving God with our tithe. What exactly is in overflow? Blessing! What blessing is that? For the people reading this in Malachi's day it was obvious, it was the blessing of Abraham as they had it in their scriptures in detailed form in what we now know as Deuteronomy 28 verses 1-14.

This is important to understand because it helps us realise the breadth and extent of the blessing. It is not just talking about money. Money is included but is not the major or sole feature of the blessing.

The visitor continued on to ask:

Is it the offering that dictates our overflow?

Reply:

No, as this visitor rightly perceived, it isn't. You might ask then, what is the role of offerings in our well-being? Paul in the epistles gives us plenty of information on this - Gal.6:6-10 and 2 Cor.9:1-11.

Offerings are seed. Sowing seed brings a like harvest. Every seed brings forth fruit after its kind. Your offerings bring about a specific harvest. You sow money in a particular ministry or you give to the poor and there will come back to you a multiplied return. Ecc.11:1.

Tithes ensure the full breadth of the blessing has access to your life. Offerings make the financial field of your life very productive, that is, fruitful.

Another visitor commented:

To rob God is not in tithes only but in offering also. Malachi 3:8. Many Christian become tither but give no offering, the Word call them robbers.

Reply:

In the Old Testament there were five offerings. These were: Burnt offerings, Grain offerings, Peace offerings, Sin offerings, Trespass offerings. The first three were voluntary and the last two were mandatory.

The reference in Malachi 3:8 to robbing God in regards to offerings would therefore have referred to Sin Offerings and Trespass Offerings and not to Burnt Offerings, Grain Offerings and Peace Offerings.

Of course, in the New Testament all offering for sin and trespass has been made on our behalf by Jesus Christ. For this reason it is no longer possible to rob God of offerings. All offerings in the New Testament are voluntary as is born out by the verse,

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7 - NKJV

Those who do not give offerings in faith with good cheer are, though, missing out on the blessing of multiplication described in 2 Corinthians 9:10 and other places in the New Testament.