Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,
says the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Read Chapter 3
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
Listen, then, impious one. You know that everything belongs to God; you will not give the Creator of all things something of his own? The Lord God is not in want; he does not demand recompense but honor. He does not require you to pay back something of yours. He asks the firstfruits and tithes, and do you refuse? Avaricious one, what would you do if he had taken ninetenths for himself and left you the tithes? Surely this already happened when the meager harvest failed because rain was withdrawn or when hail struck your vintage or frost killed it. Why does this happen, greedy calculator? The ninetenths were taken from you because you refused to pay tithes. The fact remains, of course, that you did not give, but God exacted it. This is our Lord’s exceedingly just practice. If you deny him the tithes, you are brought down to it. As it is written, “Thus speaks the Lord: ‘Tithes of your field and the firstfruits of your land are with you. I see you, and you think you are deceiving me. Withi...
