Genesis 14:19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
The opening passage in Malachi also includes these two words: “My House”, so the next logical question is what is God referring to when He says My house? If I were to give you an invitation to my house, you would not go to any house on my street and call it my house, for the simple fact that I do not live there and it’s not mine anyway. And there are follow up questions to your answers to the question of what constitutes “My house.”
For instance, does The Lord leave it up to any preacher to designate and determine what My house is? The Lord is speaking very specifically in the passage for He says that the tithe must be brought into the storehouse, and the storehouse must be His house, so when those two stipulations are employed in the interpretation, it does not leave any wiggle room for suppositions, assumptions, or private interpretation.
There are a multitude of churches, denominations, congregations, independent ministries, and other televangelists who are claiming a piece of the pie by instructing their followers to fund their churches or ministries with their tithes and offerings that have been devoted to God. Now, while it is true that through your freedom of choice you can contribute to any of these ministries, the tithes and offerings that have been consecrated to God must be returned to God’s storehouse or My house, according as God stipulates.
Nehemiah 10:38 And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.
May The Lord add His blessing to the study of His word. God bless!