How blessed is the man...in whose heart are the highways to Zion!

Psalm 84:5

Mankind finds itself on the horns of a dilemma. We want to be in control. This is natural. God is in control of everything and we are made in His image. God's first command to Adam and Eve after "be fruitful and multiply" was to subdue the earth and rule over everything in it (Gen. 1:28). As evidence of his dominion, Adam named all the animals (Gen. 2:19-20).

Unfortunately, the fall corrupted our ability to control, as well as our motive for doing so. Before the fall, I presume, authority was exercised for the benefit of the subject. Since the fall, control has largely been self-serving.

Then God comes along and says, "Trust Me." To trust is to give up my right to be in control and allow another to hold the reins. No wonder we struggle.

If it were only a matter of trusting God, it would not be so bad. We know that God is good and "His mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9). Giving control of our lives to Him is the essence of salvation. It gets a lot more troublesome when we consider trusting other fallen human beings whom God has placed in authority over us here and now. It is here that the struggle between control and trust is the greatest.

Children chafe under their parents' restrictions, which are imposed for their safety and well being. Employees resist (or break) company policies which are usually in place to ensure profitability and continued employment. Students antagonize their teachers, who devote their lives to educating children. Wives may give lip service to submission, but wear the pants in the family anyway. And nearly all of us disobey traffic laws on a regular basis. We seem to think that authorities are there to oppress us and thwart our self-determination.

The problem we face is that God equates how we relate to those over us with how we relate to Him, the One who is the ultimate Authority. When the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron during their wilderness wanderings, he said to them, "Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord" (Ex. 16:8). Their grumbling and resistance to leadership evidenced their lack of trust.

One area where I see this dilemma occurring is in the matter of giving. Embedded in God's mandate through the prophet Malachi to "bring the whole tithe into the storehouse" (Mal. 3:10) is God's valid question, "Do you trust Me?" In practical terms that boils down to, "Do you trust the leadership of your church to spend your money the way God wants it spent?" We find it much more comfortable to designate where we want our offerings to go. Give this much to the missions fund, this much to the building fund, and this much to benevolence. If these amounts are in addition to the tithe, there is no problem. The challenge of Malachi 3:10 is to bring one tenth of all you earn, plop it down with no strings attached, remove your hands, and walk away, leaving its use totally in the control of others. This requires a level of trust that it seems many find difficult to attain.

Tithing is not just obedience to a command, it is a test of faith. The one and only thing we must control is our will to choose. Trusting God by trusting human leadership is risky, but is really the only way to resolve the dilemma for our good and to God's satisfaction.

© J.H.Nichols 2008

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