"Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day.
"You ask, 'How have we robbed you?'
"The tithe and the offering—that's how! And now you're under a curse —the whole lot of you—because you're robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple….” Mal. 3:8-9 Message Bible
There is another element in the story of Ananias and Sapphira that is subtle and dangerous.
Ananias was engaged in an act of worship with his offering. Barnabas had laid his gift ‘at the apostle’s feet’ and this same expression is used by Ananias.
Their offerings were not merely to Peter, but to God. Here is the worst kind of hypocrisy, the kind that made God angry. Hypocrisy bordering on sacrilege.
It was not a matter of pretending to be a show Christian, but really about being a liar and a cheat.
Sacrilege goes further; it is robbing God of what is rightfully His. It is withholding what we have professed as belonging to God.
Interestingly, Peter and Ananias are not just two people confronting each other. It is a spiritual battle that is joined between God and Satan, determining whose vessel, Peter and Ananias, have become.
A similar thing had happened before Ananias and Sapphira. In the Garden of Eden a man and a woman tried to deceive God and the result was death. (Death entered the world through their sin).
Then there was Achan “stealing” what rightfully was God’s’ he and his entire family and possessions were destroyed. Adam, Achan, and Ananias…….at the beginning of each new start God was making with His people, the same thing happened.
Is it possible these things were written about for our instruction?
Maybe we should take heed and believe God will not be mocked. We will reap what we sow.
He really does know our hearts and motives!
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