R.G. LeTourneau and the Reversed Tithe

In 1935, a Texas earthmoving contractor named R.G. LeTourneau made a decision that his accountant called reckless. Already tithing ten percent of his income, LeTourneau felt the Lord pressing him further. He established a foundation and began giving not ten percent, but ninety — living on the remaining ten.

LeTourneau had known poverty. During the Depression, his equipment company nearly collapsed. Creditors circled. Yet even in those lean months, he refused to stop giving, trusting the promise of Malachi 3:10 — that the Almighty would open the floodgates of heaven for those who brought their whole tithe into the storehouse.

What followed defied every business textbook. LeTourneau's company grew into the largest earthmoving equipment manufacturer in the world. He held nearly three hundred patents. His machines built roads, airstrips, and infrastructure across six continents. The more he gave, the more his enterprises flourished — not because God operates a vending machine, but because LeTourneau discovered what the prophet Malachi already knew: you cannot out-give the Lord.

"I shovel it out," LeTourneau often said, "and God shovels it back — but God has a bigger shovel."

Malachi 3:10 is the only place in Scripture where God invites His people to test Him. LeTourneau took that test. He spent fifty years watching God pass it.