Is tithing required of believers?

If you have sat under the storehouse sermon, you probably gave because you genuinely love God and wanted to honor Him, and that heart is good. Churches that teach the tithe are usually trying to fund real work, care for real people, and form generous disciples. Those are worthy aims, and the desire to give back to the One who gave you everything is right.

And there is a true principle in the neighborhood. God's people are meant to be openhanded, to support those who labor in His service, and to never let the poor go hungry. Scripture is relentless about generosity. You are right that giving is not optional for a follower of HaShem.

You may also, though, have felt the pinch of being told that withholding ten percent of your gross income is robbing God, complete with a threatened curse. If something in that felt more like leverage than love, trust the flinch. It is worth examining.

But the frame, "ten percent of your paycheck to the church or you rob God," does not survive a reading of the actual command. The Torah tithe, maaser, was agricultural, "all the yield of your seed" and herd (Deuteronomy 14:22-29), and it did not go to a building fund. It supported the Levites who had no land (Numbers 18:21), funded the festivals where the people feasted before God, and every third year fed "the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow." The Malachi passage everyone quotes was a rebuke aimed at the priests of that day who were stealing the offerings, not a tithing manual for your salary (Malachi 3:8-10). Put down the guilt-leverage built on a verse pulled out of its room.

Here is the reading. The principle that endures is glad, generous, deliberate giving: "each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). And the Torah's heart for the poor still stands; leave the corners of your field (Leviticus 19:9-10). Give freely. Just do not let anyone bind a curse to a percentage God never charged you.

Do not take it from me. Read Deuteronomy 14:22-29 to see where the tithe actually went, then read Malachi 3 watching who is being rebuked. Then ask: can a command given to landed farmers and corrupt priests be turned into a threat against your paycheck?