9 Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the heaps; 10 and Azariah the chief priest, from the family of Zadok, answered, “Since the people began to bring their contributions to the temple of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare, because the Lord has blessed his people, and this great amount is left over.”
If ever there was a parallel to this, its our western society today. If we all gave the way the people did here.....there wouldn't be any poverty, and the world would be looking at the church as a pivotal lynch-pin in our society. Instead we tend to think of ourselves first. We hoard the schtuff. The poor stay hungry and we get a little bigger tv.
tp
it is so true. Even in healthy churches giving tends to be a small percentage of a families income. We do not tend to give of our first fruits but rather what is left over. You are right, so many societal problems could be solved with the help of the church which in turn would open doors to share with people the message that Jesus saves. If all churches could band together rather than focus on surviving on their own they could impact entire communities. As we see with many of these patterns there is risk that when the money starts flowing the behavior changes the faith in God is sometimes replaced by faith in self. we people are pretty weak as a general rule.
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