Monday 16 January: Where is the Storehouse?

A: Malachi 3:10 verse teaches us our tithe should go into the storehouse for there to be meat in His house.  

A: Deuteronomy 12: 5-14 is a command to bring ‘burnt offerings’, ‘sacrifices’, ‘tithes’, ‘heave offerings’, ‘vows’, ‘freewill offerings’, and ‘firstlings of herds and flocks’ to God’s chosen dwelling. God’s children cannot choose where to deposit their tithe. The principles we can take from these verses for ourselves today are we must bring our tithes and offerings to God’s house. Although it is blessed to give giving outside of God’s house will not suffice when it comes to tithes and offerings.  

In Exodus 23:14-17 God told the Israelites they were to hold three feasts unto God every year (Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles). The Feast Pentecost aka the Feast of Harvest involved the people’s firstfruits of the crops they had sown in the field. The Feast of Tabernacles aka the Feast of Ingathering happened at the end of the year when the people gathered crops from their field.  

King Hezekiah appointed the priests and Levites to organisational divisions and ordered the people in Jerusalem ‘to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord.’ The people brought their tithes, offerings, and gifts faithfully. (2 Chronicles 31:11-21, Nehemiah 12:44-47) Nehemiah was aggrieved by Tobiah having a room in the house of God. He ordered for the rooms to be cleansed and upon learning the Levites had not received the portions due he reprimanded them asking ‘Why is the house of God forsaken?’ Following this, he appointed a number of individuals to take up positions in office because of their faithfulness. (Nehemiah 12:8-14) The organisational structure of the SDA Church today reflects this ‘central storehouse principle’ with tithes and offerings forwarded by local church treasurers to the ‘conference storehouse’.  

A: If everyone decided to give their tithe to whomever at the expense of the Adventist church itself the church would not have all resources to look after itself, the congregation, and its officers and spread the Gospel to maximum potential. That practice is a bad idea and contrary to Scripture because the tithe belonging to God is not put into His hands for His use.