Thought for the Week

I am feeling led to look at ‘The Tithe’ in this week’s Thought’. Basically The Tithe is giving to God, one tenth of grain, vegetables, fruit, and domesticated animals produced that year. There are other associated words, i.e. offerings, gifts, sacrifices, but I just plan to look at ‘tithe’. The original tithe seems to be voluntary. Abraham, celebrates his victory in a war. He dedicates one tenth of the spoils of war to Melchizedek, known as the priest of God, and King of Salem. The second I note is, when Jacob, fleeing from the wrath of his brother, dreams of the ladder reaching to Heaven. In an encounter with God, God promises to bless Jacob. Jacob makes a vow: “If God will be with me, watch over me on this journey, provide for my needs, return me safely home, then He will be my God, I will worship Him here and I, Jacob, will give one tenth of my goods to God.” Later, in the desert of Sinai, the tithe is written into the code of living for Israel. The tithe is owed to God, Who owns the land and everything in it. I suppose it could be considered an income tax. In a similar setting, The Pharaoh of Egypt had a dream. Joseph interprets it and provides a plan to deal with a coming-seven-year-bountiful-harvest, followed by a seven-year-famine. In Joseph’s plan, he confiscates twenty percent of harvests and stores this for the future. When the famine comes, Joseph sells the stored grain. The famine continues, the Egyptians have no money to buy grain so, they sell their animals, their land, and eventually indenture themselves as slaves of Pharaoh for food. When the famine is over, since Pharaoh owns everything, he levies a twenty percent income tax on everyone. God levies tithe on all Israel. It seems to apply to all edible fruit, vegetables, grains, and animals. There are some complexities inside this law but that is the basic principle for it. Tithe applies to Israel. It does not apply to the Church. But I think we could recognize that, as Abraham and Jacob voluntarily gave the tithe so could we. During my career as a pastor, I had two men who challenged my thought about tithing. But to their credit, both men made the effort, quite successfully, I might add. One of them later came to me and told me, “When I shovel my gifts to God I use a dust pan but God returns the blessing to me and He uses a #14 scoop shovel.” “I only wish you had told me about this when I was a young man.” I know there are those who say, “I cannot afford this kind of giving.” But there is a passage in the Book of Malachi (3:10) God says “Bring the whole tithe into my house and prove(test) Me in this way. See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that you will not be able to contain it.” It is a bit risky to ‘Put God to a test.’ But in this case, God is inviting the test. Humanly, it does not seem possible you can get along better on the ninety percent after you have given God the first ten percent than you can when you give God nothing and keep all you earn. But, try it and see. Of course, it would be a good idea to check your motives: If what you do is to bring praise, thanks, and glory to God that sounds like a good motive. If what you do is simply to benefit yourself, you might want to reconsider. It is true, God does judge our actions, even our words and our thoughts. But He is also checking our motives. It might need saying: “You cannot fool God. He knows us inside and out.”

Scriptures to Read

Malachi 3:-5

Malachi 3:6-12

Malachi 3:13-18

Genesis 14:17-20 & 28:10-22

Leviticus 27:30-34

Deuteronomy 14:22-29

St. Matthew 23:23-24