November 9, 2025
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Last time we discussed original sin and how God did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. We looked at Genesis 3 where the devil exploited Eve’s desire for knowledge to entice her to disobey God’s command. We made the point that God instead wants us to depend on the Holy Spirit for all knowledge and wisdom.
Today’s word is similar in that it explores God’s plan to provide all our needs, and even to prosper us in all areas of our lives. The scriptures today will make that clear, but like Adam and Eve, our promised blessings are conditioned upon obedience.
Blessings of Obedience
Deuteronomy 8:
18 “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as [it is] this day.
Deuteronomy 28:
1 ¶ “Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the LORD your God.
3 “Blessed [shall] you [be] in the city, and blessed [shall] you [be] in the country.
4 “Blessed [shall be] the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
5 “Blessed [shall be] your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed [shall] you [be] when you come in, and blessed [shall] you [be] when you go out. (NASB)
Verse 2 promises, if we obey the Lord, His blessings will not only come upon us, but they will also overtake us. We will be blessed whether we live in the city or the country. Our children will be blessed. And whatever we set our hands to, whatever type of work we do, will be blessed.
I love verse 5: “Blessed shall be your basket…” The basket is where you put whatever you need at the moment. It is a storage area for the immediate need. The picnic basket has everything you need for the picnic meal. In the study of economics, a basket of goods and services is priced each month to measure inflation. The concept of that basket of goods includes all things the consumer needs to purchase for his or her life. So, when God tells us in verse 5 that our basket shall be blessed, He means we will be blessed in every area of need. The kneading bowl refers to the making of bread, meaning we will have plenty to eat.
But there is more to this promise…
Deuteronomy 28:
11 “And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
12 “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
13 “And the LORD shall make you the head and not the tail, and you only shall be above, and you shall not be underneath, if you will listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe [them] carefully,
14 and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
God’s Economic Plan
The scriptures make clear that God never wanted us to depend on the government for our well-being. His plan was for us to bring the tithe (10% of all earnings) and additional offerings into His storehouse, and for the Church to care for the priest, the widow, the orphan, the poor and the homeless.
Leviticus 27:
30 ‘Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S; it is holy to the LORD.
Note the tithe belongs to the Lord. It is His, not ours. And note that the tithe is holy to the Lord.
Malachi 3:
7 ¶ “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept [them.] Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation [of you]!
10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
11 “Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast [its grapes],” says the LORD of hosts.
12 “And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.
Verse 7 acknowledges that we have not been faithful with respect to His commandment to tithe, but promises if we return to Him, He will return to us. So, He is saying we can restore ourselves into the good graces of this principle by beginning to tithe. We do not have to go back in time and pay a retroactive tithe. We just need to start today, and He will return to us all His promises of blessings.
Note that verse 8 says if we withhold the tithe, we are robbing God and cursing ourselves. The first 10% belongs to the Lord, but He gives us free will to give it back. He is not like the government which requires withholding. God lets us hold it, and He is looking for us to express our faith by giving it back to Him.
Verse 9 teaches that we curse ourselves when we do not tithe. 1st Corinthians 6:10 tell us thieves will not inherit the kingdom of God. If we lose that inheritance, we are cursed.
Verse 10 promises, however, if we bring the tithe into the house of the Lord, He will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until it overflows. Ah, once again, blessings will overtake us.
What’s more, in verse 11, God promises to rebuke the devourer (the devil), so he no longer destroys the fruit of our labor. I remember, before I started tithing, that even though my income was increasing in my job, I still was having trouble making ends meet. The car’s transmission would fail and need replaced. Things would happen that would just prevent us from prospering. To be honest, sometimes we wasted money or made poor choices. That’s because, when we do not tithe, the devil has access to the fruit of our labor, and he can cast down our grapes, meaning that our labor will not efficiently produce fruit, and some of our fruit will become rotten (wasted).
The truth is, paying a first fruits tithe requires discipline that improves how we spend our money, and it also requires a degree of faith that God will provide an overflowing blessing. The Hebrew word for “blessing” in verse 10 means “benediction” which in turn means “good word.” So, the tithe promises that God will speak into our spirits what we need to prosper, and how we can avoid wasting our fruit. It might give us a creative idea for making money, or for saving money on the items we need. That’s benediction.
Note also in verse 10 that God refers to His storehouse and that He wants there to be food in that storehouse to bless those in need. Deuteronomy 26:12 makes clear that He intends for the Church, not the government, to care for less fortunate among us.
Deuteronomy 26:
12 ¶ “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns, and be satisfied.
The Levite referred to in verse 12 refers to the clergy of the Church, and the term “stranger” would incorporate those who are homeless. God wants His church to feed those who need fed. The tithe is His financing plan for all of that. And when we withhold our tithe, He considers it robbery because the tithe belongs to Him.
More Promises of Blessing
There are many promises of “Blessed Baskets” in the scriptures. Here are just a few:
Luke 6 (Jesus speaking)):
38 “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Note the imagery here. A basket or barrel of grain or feedstock, when pressed down and shaken together, and running over means you are getting a lot. When you buy cereal at the store, it is not full because it is shaken together, but it is not pressed down and shaken together and then filled again. Jesus is promising a greater blessing, an overflowing blessed basket.
Also notice Jesus is warning that our attitude toward giving will determine the blessing we get in return. Whatever our standard is will determine our blessing. If we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly.
2nd Corinthians 9:
6 ¶ Now this [I say,] he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.
7 Let each one [do] just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
9 as it is written, “HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ABIDES FOREVER.”
10 Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;
11 you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.
12 For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.
Again, Paul is re-emphasizing Jesus’ words that our attitude in giving is important. Giving should put us in a good mood. Verse 8 is important: God can make His grace abound to us, so we have an abundance to give. And I love verse 10: God is the one who provides the seed for us to sow. God is our provider, and He is the one who gives enough to sow, and more importantly, He promises to multiply that seed and increase the harvest of our righteousness. That means when we sow, He will multiply it, and our harvest will be greater than we deserve based on what we gave.
Note verse 12 defines ministry as not just fully supplying the needs of the saints, but “…also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.” God is a God of the overflow. He wants to prosper us. But the key point is, when we give, thanksgiving should go to the Lord and not to us.
More promises to provide and prosper us:
3rd John 1:
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
Philippians 4:
19 And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
How to Give
As we said, the tithe is defined as 10% of your income, and it is known as the first fruits tithe. The idea of first fruits is that you pay the tithe off the top when you receive it. Some want to wait until the month is over to see if they can “afford” the tithe, but that’s not biblical. It takes faith to trust that God will bless you back, so it is important to tithe when you receive it.
Should you tithe on your gross pay, or net pay? I had a pastor once who answered that with this question: “Do you want blessed on the gross or the net?” My reading of the word is that we should tithe on the gross. Taxes are just another expense like food and housing costs. The fact that the governments withhold the money just makes it easier to pay. So, I advise you to tithe on the gross.
Where should your tithe go? If you are attending a church regularly, you should tithe to that church, as prescribed in Numbers 18.
Numbers 18:
24 “For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, ‘They shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’”
25 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
26 “Moreover, you shall speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you take from the sons of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe.
If you are “between churches,” I suggest you seek the Lord for guidance, understanding that He wants to provide for the Levite (the ministers where you are being spiritually fed), as well as the widows, orphans, poor, and the stranger (homeless).
Please note that the tithe is not all we should be giving to the Lord’s work. Malachi 3:8 refers to tithes and offerings.
Malachi 3:
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and offerings.
So, while we tithe to the church where we are being spiritually fed, offerings can be made to other ministers or organizations above the tithe, as the Lord leads. Many ministries are providing opportunities to bless Israel in this critical time. The word of God says He will bless those who bless Israel. Organizations that minister to the homeless, widows, orphans, etc. would also qualify for offerings, if your church does not offer such opportunity.
Again, attitude is important here. The Apostle Paul said the Macedonians were splendid examples for us in giving.
2nd Corinthians 8:
1 ¶ Now, brethren, we [wish to] make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia,
2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.
3 For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability [they gave] of their own accord,
4 begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints,
5 and [this,] not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
Paul said the Macedonians would beg for the opportunity to give. That needs to be our attitude. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us where we can give to do His work. Paul wrote to the Galatians that they should “sow to the Spirit.”
Galatians 6:
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.
9 And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.
10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
Closing
In closing, Deuteronomy 28 promises if we diligently obey the LORD our God, blessings shall come upon us and even overtake us. Malachi 3 promises if we pay tithes and offerings, that He will open the windows of heaven and bless us until it overflows us. The Lord always intended for His Church to care for the clergy, the widows, the orphans, the poor and the homeless. He never intended governments to do this.
The scriptures instruct us to sow into the Spirit of God. We are to sow bountifully, not sparingly, not grudgingly or under compulsion, but cheerfully. Paul writes that we should beg for the privilege of supporting the Lord’s work.
Let us pray.
Father God, thank You for the promise of blessed baskets and blessed kneading bowls. We declare Your word is true. Guide us by the Holy Spirit to sow into the Spirit and reap eternally. Show us, Lord, how we can sow into Your work bountifully, not sparingly. Stretch our faith to give, that we might receive a blessing too large to store. We receive Your word that You make all grace abound to us, that having sufficiency in everything, we will have an abundance for every good deed. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
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