Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. Psalm 50:14-15.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Offer to Me thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Then I deliver you when you call in the day of trouble and you shall glorify Me. Psalm 50:14-15.
What am I talking about? If you want to know Me, you must know My promise and your vow. Let Me explain by My Word and you will find the source and the promise and the vow. And they are for you as well in My one everlasting Covenant of Love.
Let us go to the vision of Jacob which Jesus verified as fulfilled in Him and find the promise and the vow.
Jacob was running from Esau but under the cover of going to find a bride from the people of his father and mother. As he left home, Isaac gave to him the Blessing of Abraham.
Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples; and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” Genesis 28:1-4.
This is very significant. Isaac gave Jacob the blessing that I had given Abraham and that Isaac had received from Abraham. What was that blessing? Not just the land but much more. I gave it to Abraham after he was willing to walk out with Me the very act of the death and resurrection of My beloved Son with his son Isaac, knowing that I Myself provide the Lamb that would take away the sins of the world. I taught Abraham the Gospel ahead of time in more ways than one for with that blessing came a promise. But let Me come back to this in a moment.
So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. Genesis 28:5.
On his journey he came to the mountain of Moriah, the very mountain where Abraham had walked with Isaac that later would be temple mount, Ha Macom. And Jacob spent the night there. And in that night I gave him a dream that was a vision of the promise to come.
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12.
Does this sound familiar? It should.
Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” John 1:49-51.
You shall see an open Heaven and My angels going from Heaven to earth and back again through Jesus. A promise of the LORD of Hosts that you should remember also, about the open windows and deliverance from the destroyer.
But let us return to Jacob and his vision of the night:
And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:13-15.
I made him a promise just as I made Abraham and Isaac and My purpose was to carry it out. And what was the vow he made? It is one I still tell you to test Me on and see that it is indeed all I make it out to be.
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
He vowed that if I opened the windows of Heaven and blessed him with all added onto him that he needed I would be his God and he would tithe to Me.
The tithe. Let us look back further.
When Abraham had Isaac upon the altar, I stopped him from offering him as a burnt offering for sin for only Jesus could take away the sins of the world for He was the one born of the seed of the woman with none of the curse that Adam let loose upon the earth in Him.
And I gave that promised Messiah as the gift to come from Abraham’s line according to the flesh as a promise on that same mountain where I gave Jacob the vision of the connection that would join Heaven and earth again as one in My Son.
Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of His enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Genesis 15-18.
I promised him a seed that would plant in his line that would possess the gate of HIS enemies. Singular, not plural. And you know who that is and what that revelation is. The Messiah, My Son, My only and beloved Son.
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” Genesis 22:1-2.
And that is the first time I use the word “love” in the Bible and it was about My Son. And what happened when Jesus came that John was the messenger to open the way? The hearts of the children would turn to the Father and the heart of the Father to the children. All who received Him He gave the authority to be born again from above as My children, joint heirs with Christ. And He redeemed you from the curse of the law of sin and death so that you would receive the Blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit by faith. Galatians 3:13-14. All because I taught Abraham the Gospel of Salvation ahead of time. Galatians 3:8. Abraham saw the day of Jesus and rejoiced. Why? It was not Isaac or any man born of Adam’s corrupted seed that would open Heaven to you again but the pure unblemished Lamb I Myself would give the world I created on Him as the chief cornerstone. On that revelation that on that rock I would build My church and the gates of enemy, i.e., the gate of hell, the authority over man of Satan that Adam submitted his life and that of his descendants to, the seed of the woman of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of the David, would crush.
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:16-18.
When did I make Covenant with Abraham? After he tithed to Melchizedek, “a priest of God Most High.”
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” He gave him a tenth of all. Genesis 14:18-20.
Where did we start? Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. Psalm 50:14-15.
But let us go on with this treasure vein of revelation. The tithe is very important. The tithe is Mine, the rest is yours. The promise I fulfill is the Messiah and salvation, prosperity and blessing, redemption from the curse. I am the God who sows seed. Jezreel. I sowed My Son into your world and into your heart.
“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord (Adonai), whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD (Yahavah) of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi (priests) and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness (spiritual sacrifice, 1 Peter 2:4-5;9-10). Malachi 3:1-2.
And what would bring this about? Return to Me for I have redeemed you.
“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Malachi 3:7.
And what is My answer?
“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!” Malachi 3:8-9.
Remember the vow of Jacob that opens Heaven over you? I am your God and you witness this by giving Me one tenth of all I give you. As Abraham also did. As Jacob did. And remember, he tested Me to see if My promise to him was true that I would did prosper him and add all things to him and I did. He left with staff in hand and the Blessing of Abraham upon him and he returned safely as of two companies, many children, great flocks and herds, and very wealthy. Test Me in this.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:10-12.
Tither’s rights keep all you have from the destroyer and I rebuke him. If you give Me the tithe the rest is blessed. One tree in the garden was Mine even though Adam and Eve were to cultivate the entire garden. The tithe is Mine even though you cultivate it. You offer the tithe to support the work of My church, you do not take it and spend it first elsewhere. If you eat your seed, you will not have a harvest. It must be sown to be grown.
You shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’ Deuteronomy 26:13-15.
Many people today take the tithe lightly and are not giving it to Me, saying they see no profit in it and it is vain to give it when you could spend it to pay your bills and put away in savings for your retirement. But that is not so and I do not condone that kind of arrogance. I cannot bless it and multiply it.
“Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge.’” Malachi 3:13-14.
When the people took the money given them to rebuild the temple and instead built their own homes while My house fell into ruins, I did not praise them.
Then the Word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?” Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.” Haggai 1:3-6.
The people took this to heart and got busy rebuilding My house and what happened?
I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts. ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:7-9.
And for those who have made Me their God and revere My Name, I keep a book of remembrance about you. And on you I shine My light.
“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 4:2-3.
And what are the last words of the Old Testament before Jesus comes?
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” Malachi 4:5-6.
Sound familiar? Go to the message of Gabriel to Zechariah as he told him of the birth of a son to him named John who would go to prepare the way of My Son:
And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:16-17.
And what was Zechariah’s final word when John was born despite his doubts? My Words to Malachi again:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:76-79.
And what about Jacob’s ladder full of angels ascending and descending from an open Heaven? Jesus already told you that is fulfilled in Him. He brought the Kingdom to earth and opened the windows of Heaven and it all started the night that a child was born to you and a Son given you and on His should dominion rests.
And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is [e]Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a [f]manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will towards men.” When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. Luke 2:9-16.
The promise to Abraham, the seed that would take down the gates of the enemy. The promise to Jacob of the joining of Heaven and earth with the angels bringing down the glory of Heaven that I have given you who believe in My Son as I opened Heaven to those who received Him and thus made Me their God and fulfilled the vow to Me. Yes. It is My Will for all people to be saved and come to know the truth and to prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers by walking in the truth. In blessing I bless you and in increasing I increase you. And it is in Jesus I bring you all that but go on to more, who is He? Your great High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. We have gone full circle for I speak the end from the beginning.
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:13-20.
We are back to Genesis 22 again and the promise to Abraham and the vow of Jacob and the tithe to Melchizedek when He brought out the bread and the wine. Yes but even more in Jesus.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. Hebrews 7:1-3.
Melchizedek is the Holy Spirit and I anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit as a pries forever according to the Order of Melchizedek. And Jesus in turn has poured out that anointing on you from My throne and made you also a kingdom, priests unto Me. For Jesus is a King and a Priest and so is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus. But what has this to do with the tithe? Everything. You tithe now unto Jesus the High Priest of God Most High to whom Melchizedek testifies. I taught Abraham the gospel ahead of time.
Until Jesus came, mortal men, the Levites, receive the tithe but now it is Jesus to whom you tithe in His body the Church of which He is the head.
In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case One receives them, of whom it is witnessed that He lives on. Hebrews 7:8.
When you partake of the communion meal of the body and blood of My Son you proclaim the His saving death until He comes. 1 Corinthians 11:16. But when you tithe you witness that He lives forever. Hebrews 7:8. Why else would you tithe? You are storing up treasure forever.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21.
If you will recall, every house that was built for Me among My people, from the tabernacle of Moses to the temple of Solomon was built and maintained by the tithes and offerings of My people. And all I have asked is one tenth of all that I give you. But many won’t even give that not even a small share of the harvest I give them, like the tenants of the vineyard. But they are cutting off their source of supply that opens the windows of Heaven and keeps the destroyer off your home, family, health, and wealth. Give Me something to work with and do not rob Me by taking what is Mine. The wages of sin is death.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
I love you. Did you enjoy the journey we went on? Do you know the offerings of thanksgiving and the vow now? And My answer? You notice when I speak of the tithe it always involves My title of LORD of Hosts and the heavenly angels. And I know you love Me and that I am your treasure by the tithes and offerings you give. Let Me open the windows of Heaven for you. Test Me. Like Jacob. Like Abraham. Like Isaac. They all tithed. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And I am your God and you are Mine. I fulfill all My promises. What is your response?