But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?” says the Lord of hosts (Malachi 1:8).

The LORD had commanded that offerings made to Him be "without blemish," but the post-exilic priests were offering animals that were blind, lame, and sick. They dishonored the LORD by not giving Him their best. God challenged them by asking if they would give such an offering to their governor. And if they would not think of giving a blemished offering to their human lord, how could they give such an offering to their far greater master, the LORD God?

Friends, clearly we are no longer under the Law of Moses. We have no requirement to bring unblemished sacrifices to the LORD, for Jesus was the one, only and final unblemished sacrifice for us. However, we ourselves are living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1). And He has called us to be "holy and blameless in His sight" (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:16).

In the New Covenant there is not such an emphasis on external garb as there there was in the many and detailed regulations for worship under the Old Covenant. Instead, humility, purity, and sober and alert thinking are emphasized for Christian worship.

That said, should we wear shabby and dirty clothes when we come together to worship the Lord? Should we be careless about our hygiene? No. Even though God is more concerned with our spiritual condition than our outward appearance, and there is no specific command to wear our best clothes in the congregation, this is not a license to wear our worst.

Since thre is no specific command, we would do well to dress in such a way that God is most honored and His purposes are best served. For me this means not to overdress or underdress, not to draw too much attention to myself in one way or another. When we gather for worship, we should direct our attention to God. Being dirty and unkempt will distract that attention. Being dressed too immaculately may also distract that attention. Therefore, I dress simply, cleanly, and in such a way that I neither offend nor awe. Our dress should fit the occasion, whether a funeral or a wedding, whether a service among the rich or a service among the poor, whether witnessing to the homeless or on the steps of the Capitol.

The sin of the priests in Malachi was that they were careless and despised the LORD. God had given them specific instructions, but they disobeyed. For us, we do not have specific instructions but we are commanded to understand the Lord's will and to do all things for His praise; therefore, it behooves us to be mindful and not negligent in how we present ourselves in the service of our Lord.

“I have loved you,” says the Lord.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” - Malachi 1:2 - 3

God's sovereign choice for the object of His love was Jacob over Esau even before they were born and hadn't done anything yet. People may say, “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” (Romans 9:19) Apostle Paul's logical(?) answer to the question of those who see the seeming absence of fairness in God's choice was,

"Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?"

It is a hardsaying of God, and Apostle Paul's explanation for it is even harder to accept! This makes me fear God and at the same time love God more because my salvation was not my choice but His! Praise be to Him!

Malachi should be read alongside Nehemiah 13, for on many counts they read like parallel accounts.

Malachi speaks against the men of Judah because they divorced their wives and married the foreign women, whose God was not the LORD, and with whom God said not to intermarry (cf. Malachi 2:10-16):

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god (Malachi 2:11).

Nehemiah also indicts the men of Judah for marrying the foreign women against the LORD's command (cf. Nehemiah 13:23-27):

Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah... Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” (Nehemiah 13:23-24,27).

Again, Malachi wrote of how the whole tithe was not being brought into the storehouse, which supplied food to the Levites who worked at the Temple. 

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house (Malachi 3:8-10).

We find a very similar indictment in Nehemiah:

I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts. All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms. I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites (Nehemiah 13:10-13).

Here we learn that the portions assigned to the Levites were not being given to them. As a result, they left the service of the Temple and went back to their own fields to get food for themselves. Nehemiah then assigns some reliable priests to bring the tithes of the people into the storerooms and to make sure that they get properly distributed to their fellow Levites. It appears that the sin here was not in the giving of the tithes per se but in the bringing them into the storerooms and the distribution of them to the Levites. Thus, the indictment was specifically against the priests in charge of this storing and distribution. 

Again, Malachi writes about how the priests have despised God's Name by bringing defiled, stolen, lame, and sick offerings. He also accuses them of corrupting "the covenant of Levi," because they have shown partiality in their practice of the law.

A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ You are presenting defiled food upon My altar... and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand? (Malachi 1:6-7,14).

But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts. “So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction (Malachi 2:8-9).

In the same way, Nehemiah discovers that the priests, being related to the foreigners Tobiah and Sanballat, perpetual enemies of the post-exilic community of Israel, turned the storerooms, which were reserved for the tithes to be distributed to the Levites, into the private quarters for these men. Thus, they disobeyed God's command and defiled the Temple at the same time:

Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests... (Nehemiah 13:4-5)

Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense (Nehemiah 13:7-9).

One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me. Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task (Nehemiah 13:28-30).

As you read the account in Nehemiah, you should notice something here that is related to the indictment with respect to the tithes not being brought into the storehouses. Eliashab the priest was in charge of the storerooms. He turned these storerooms into the private quarters of Tobiah and Sanballat. No wonder the tithe was not being collected there. No wonder the Levites were not getting their share of the food put into there.

Friends, both Malachi and Nehemiah address the post-exilic community; therefore, they provide a near historical context for understanding the principles being taught in either book. And as we saw, there are many parallels.

As I have mentioned before, context is critical to understanding any passage of Scripture. When this context is not observed, the Scriptures are distorted and wrong applications proceed from it.

Anyone, preacher or layman, can wax eloquently over a word or phrase or even a passage of Scripture. But that is not what God has called us to do. He has called us to correctly divide the word of truth - not simply to give nice-sounding sermons:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:14).

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name" (Malachi 1:6).

“And now, you priests, this warning is for you" (Malachi 2:1).

Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands (Malachi 2:13).

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness (Malachi 3:3).

While Malachi is an oracle against Israel, particularly those that have returned from exile, the focus of Malachi is against the priesthood, as the above sign-post verses reveal. The first two verses give direct reference. The third gives indirect reference to priests by virtue of their exclusive access to the altar. The fourth gives a general context of the priesthood by directly mentioning the Levites, of whom the priesthood is a subset. Most importantly, from Malachi 1:6 to the end of the book the only group clearly and consistently identified with the second-person direct address "you" is the priesthood.

Why is this important? The indictments with respect to the blemished offerings, wrongful teaching, marital unfaithfulness and divorce, sorcery, adultery, perjury, unjust wages, and oppression of widows, the fatherless and foreigners are addressed to the priesthood. Therefore, first application is made to them before any broad principles can be drawn for others. Nehemiah 13 may provide the best historical context for these indictments against the priesthood in Malachi, as many of the indictments against them are repeated there. 

Why is this important for us? Understanding the context will keep you from misapplying principles from the book. Oftentimes, these indictments against the priesthood are applied to people in general (i.e. the laity). While general principles may be broadly applied, it should first be noted and emphasized that priests were in view.

For example, understanding the context helps us to see that the command to "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse" applies specifically to the priests. Apparently, along with the other things amiss in their offerings (e.g. bringing blemished offerings in Malachi 1), they may have been keeping some of the tithe for themselves rather than sharing them with the other Levites, who ministered with them. This was the problem in Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:10). And if there is any parallel idea in the New Testament, perhaps one could compare this to Paul's rebuke of those that were self-serving and neglecting of others during the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-22).  Although I believe the Bible clearly teaches that Christians are no longer obligated to tithe on the basis that the Old Covenant was made obsolete by Christ on the cross and replaced by a New Covenant (Hebrews 8:7-13; Romans 7:6), it should also be noted that even if some tithing principle carried over into the New Testament, Malachi 3 would still be more appropriately applied to ministers rather than to laymen. It was an indictment of the priests for misappropriating the tithes given to them. Here's a more detailed treatment on the topic:

http://dailyqt.org/docs/ShouldTheChurchTeachTithing3rdRev.pdf

I have shared this very thoughtful and comprehensive paper showing how a lot of the modern teaching on tithing is just plain wrong. I encourage you to take the time to read it.  If the article seems a bit too long for a single day's reading, I encourage you to start with chapters 12 and 13, which directly apply to today's reading in Malachi. 

I need to add here that some may not agree with the perspectives presented here. My view on tithing is likely one of those areas of disagreement. I humbly pray that sharing differing perspectives will not be a cause for discord but rather encourage deeper reading and careful study of the Bible and more enlightened discussion of issues, so that every member may grow up in their knowledge of Christ and their maturity in Him (Ephesians 4:14-15).

My thoughts after Malachi 3 and the tithing issue.

How much do you steal from God?

If you calculated from your income would it be 10% or more? If not you should assess your faith.

Does 10% scare you? Would it shroud you with doubt for tomorrow’s provisions? If so then I pray for your faith (Luke 22:32). If God proposes that you change your income so you pay yourself 10 times what you pay him what changes would you have to do? What if he helped you and said, first pay yourself 20 times what you pay me? Perhaps you are an infant in Christ, he might recommend 100 times. Whether you give 10%, 5%, or 1% remember fear is not from God. Test yourself that are truly his (2 Corinthians 13:5). If you are growing I would expect your "tithe" would grow too.
Remember if you are giving and feel it is not enough... you are on a good track what we do is only pleasing with a contrite heart.

Isaiah 64:5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.

To the rest....

If you calculated from your income would it be 10% or more? If so, great! How does it feel!

If you feel righteous because you give 10% or more, you should assess your faith. You may be stealing from God.

Are you secure because you obeyed the law? Are you crowned with accomplishment because you did like Abraham? You may be giving 50% or 100% but you may be like Saul (1 Samuel 13:9) handling something that is not for you, God's glory; making you (Isaiah 64:6) like one who is unclean, and all your righteous deeds like a polluted garment.

Test yourself that you are truly his (2 Corinthians 13:5). If you are growing I would expect your "tithe" would not be enough. For how could you repay the Father for his Son! But with only a contrite heart.

Let us not profane God's holy name by serving Him partially. I think about what it means in my current circumstance to say "Yes, Lord" to the question that Jesus asked the rich young man. God surely demands wholehearted devotion from us because there can be none before Him among us. The highes honor is justly due Him because He is our Father and Master.