Tithing Today

Tony Wastall

Introduction

Attitudes toward the practice of tithing today vary widely among the Christian community. Many believe tithing is part of the Old Testament law that should be left behind along with regulations about leprosy and unclean food. Others hold that it serves as a good ideal for generous giving but contains no particular spiritual relevance. Finally, there are those like myself who believe tithing is not only relevant today but contains important truths in respect to our relationship with God. Furthermore those truths have great bearing on how we minister the good news of Christ and build his church.

In seeking to understand tithing, we must take a careful and honest look at the scriptures. The principle of tithing first occurs in the life of Abram as recorded in Genesis 14. But that is not the first example of someone giving to God. The early pages of Genesis record many incidents of people bringing offerings and sacrifices to God.

In all these acts of free-will giving a simple principle can be observed, namely God is consistently receiving back something for himself.

In the garden, Adam and Eve had the right to every tree except one. In every week the seventh day was God’s. On entering the land of Canaan, God kept the first city, Jericho, for himself. The laws of the firstborn and first fruits ensured that God would always receive what was his before man.

In other words God expects to receive back to himself, something of the material benefits with which he has blessed man. Respecting this principle results in blessing; violating this principle results in judgement of one kind or another.

Psalm 24:1 says that, 'the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it'. Put another way, all that we have belongs to God initially. But he has created it for man’s blessing. God has given us all things richly to enjoy. Psalm 115:16 say, ‘The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to man.’

He has given us the crops in the fields, the animals, birds and fish; he has given us the mineral wealth contained in the ground. All of it was created good and all of it was given by a benevolent God for the enjoyment of man.

But in his generosity God requires something back to him in recognition of his ownership. He has in fact given us a stewardship. If there is a pre-Abrahamic principle that we can observe in relation to material stewardship it is this:

Everything comes from God. But not all of it should be kept by man.

This is the most fundamental principle determining our attitude to God and the world. Man is no more than a steward of material things. We do not actually own anything. We came into the world with nothing and we leave taking nothing with us. Everything we own is no more than leasehold from God.

Unless a person understands this basic truth they will always struggle with the issue of tithing, because at its heart tithing requires us to relinquish our right to ownership of material things. They are God’s. We are stewards. He has prior claim.

The struggle for many who resist tithing is the view that their money is theirs to give or withhold as they choose. Those who practice tithing hold that their money is God’s and he has the right to the first ten percent. This is the difference. Tithing is not primarily about an amount, it is about ownership.

The Patriarchs

Abraham

In Genesis chapter 14 we read the story of how Abram with his fighting men set about rescuing his nephew Lot who had been taken prisoner in a conflict between two groups of Canaanite kings.

On his return home with Lot and all the spoils of his victory, Abram was met by a mysterious priestly character with the name Melchizedek.

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, 'blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.' Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything'.

GENESIS 14:18-20

Everything about Melchizedek is loaded with typological significance to Christ. The name Melchizedek means ‘king of righteousness’. Then as king of Salem, he is also king of peace, for Salem means peace. But the similarity to Christ doesn’t end there. He goes under the title ‘priest of God most high’, verse 18. Finally he blesses Abram, verses19-20, thereby conducting a priestly role toward him.

We are indebted firstly to the revelation David received in Psalm 110:4 and then to Hebrews 7:1-10 for our understanding of the significance of Melchizedek. The point being that Abram tithed to one greater than him, a spiritual authority with the power to speak blessing over him. As my friend Tim Mann rightly points out in his powerful teaching on this subject, tithing was inextricably linked to God’s covenant. Tithing was part of Abram’s response to the covenant blessing he had just received from the priest of God, Melchizedek.

Now let’s draw one more important observation from this passage. Abram’s tithe came 400 years before the Law of Moses. Tithing did not begin as a law! It began with Abram, the man of faith! Faith always shows itself in works, one of which for Abram was tithing.

It is clear that Abram was enjoying a New Covenant type relationship with God long before the New Covenant was even inaugurated. Jesus said, ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day…’ John 8:56. Paul also said that Abraham, ‘saw the gospel in advance’, Galatians 3:8.

Abraham enjoyed this covenant relationship with God by grace through faith. He was the friend of God, James 3:23. He is called the father of those who believe, Romans 4:11. Jesus said to the Jews who claimed to be Abraham's children, ‘If you were Abraham's children, then you would do the things Abraham did' (John 8:39). One of the things Abraham did was to tithe! All of this places us firmly into an Abrahamic root of which tithing is part.

Why the tenth?

Before moving on from Abraham let us consider the interesting matter of the amount. Why ten percent? Was it merely an arbitrary figure that originated in the mind of Abram? Or is there deeper significance to this particular fraction?

Although Genesis does not reveal Abram’s thinking at this point we must deduce that the amount of one tenth was God’s will not Abram’s whim. The fact that the giving of the tithe is subsequently enshrined in the laws and statutes of Israel only serves to confirm its divine rather than human origin.

We must therefore conclude that the amount of one tenth came to Abram by revelation. R T Kendal in his book on the subject comments, ‘…Abram perceived the will of God long before God verbalised it on tablets of stone. Thus Moses was not only taking his cue from Abraham, or just sanctioning Abraham, but was being governed by the same principle of revelation that affected Abraham in the first place’ (Tithing, page 48).

Now let’s consider further that all numbers in scripture carry significance. There isn’t the scope here to study this fascinating subject in depth but a careful reading of the bible shows a consistent application of meaning to numbers. Some are immediately obvious like the number seven which speaks of spiritual perfection, fullness or completion. God took seven days to complete creation, the seventh being a day of rest. On the Day of Atonement, blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat seven times. The book of Revelation is full of references to the number seven.

The number twelve signifies the government of God through his people. There were twelve tribes of Israel and twelve apostles of the lamb. The New Jerusalem has twelve foundations and twelve gates. I recommend E W Bullinger’s amazing book ‘Numbers in Scripture’ for an in-depth study of this intriguing subject.

The number ten signifies the perfection of divine order. It denotes the conclusion of any system. It implies that nothing is missing; the cycle is complete.

For instance we have Ten Commandments, the summary of the whole of the law. God sent ten plagues on Egypt, bringing complete judgment after which God rescued and redeemed his people. The Lord’s Prayer has ten clauses. Matthew chapter 25 tells the story of the ten virgins, signifying the whole number of the people of God.

Concerning the tithe, Bullinger says, ‘the tithes represent the whole of what was due from man to God, as marking and recognising God’s claim on the whole’, page 243. We may say the tithe represents one unit of all that comes from God and belongs to him. Giving the one tenth acknowledges God’s sovereign right over the ten tenths.

The tithe therefore is God’s basic yardstick in measuring his rule over our lives. It is not a measure of our giving at all. That comes after the tithe.

Jacob

The second record of tithing is found in the life of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. The occasion was his experience at Bethel recorded in Genesis 28. At this point he was running away from home, a cheat who had stolen his brother Esau’s birthright and blessing.

His encounter at Bethel was nothing short of a conversion experience. Until this point in time there is no evidence of the knowledge of God in him. He never mentions the name of YHWH, builds an altar or utters a prayer. But his encounter at Bethel results in a heart-felt prayer of commitment to YHWH, the God of his father and grandfather.

If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.

Genesis 14:18-20

Jacob settled the issue of tithing when he had nothing. Before God had blessed him in any material way he had established the tithe principle in his life. It demonstrates that tithing is not dependent on our level of material prosperity. It is a decision. For many people the argument runs something like this: ‘When I have enough money I will begin tithing.’ But the tithe principle is not an issue of amount. It is an issue of lordship over a person’s life. Jacob made that commitment as a destitute runaway.

Then again for those seeking to minister to the poor, there is the temptation to excuse them from the tithe principle because of their material lack. But Jacob began at zero. The tithe is not an added burden for the poor such that we should protect them from it. Rather, it is one of the first principles we should teach the poor in order for them to enjoy the blessing it brings. From the evidence of God’s word, the tithe is one of the greatest poverty-breaking tools God has made available to man.

For Jacob, a commitment to tithing went hand in hand with the surrender of his life to YHWH. It is obvious from the story that Jacob knew all about tithing. We know that his grandfather tithed from our examination of Genesis 14. The inference was that his father Isaac also tithed because Jacob did not grow up in his grandfather’s house but in his father’s house.

Jacob’s commitment to tithing was spontaneous, obvious and immediate. The encounter at Bethel is the first time in his life that Jacob called on the name of ‘YHWH’. It is the first time we find him building an altar or praying to the God of his fathers.

Although Jacob would have been familiar with the family practice of tithing, he made his own decision to tithe when the Lord became his own God. It was based on a revelation not a tradition or a religious rule. This is vital because tithing other than by a revelation of the truth will only produce guilt and pressure.

Tithing in the law

The first mention of the tithe in the Law of Moses actually undergirds the principle we have observed previously, namely God’s ownership of his people’s material blessings.

A tithe of everyone from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord. If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it. The entire tithe of the herd and flock – every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod – will be holy to the Lord. He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.

Leviticus 27:30

Rather than the introduction of a new layer of rules and regulations, God simply emphasises the creation principle of divine right to the tenth part. The reason for tithing is that God owns it. What is new here is more to do with the application of the tithe; where it was to be brought and the purpose for which it was given.

I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting. From now on the Israelites must not go near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. It is the Levites who are to do the work of the tent of meeting and bear the responsibility for offences against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord. That is why I said concerning them: ‘they will have no inheritance among the Israelites’.

The Lord said to Moses, “speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘when you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering. Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the wine press. In this way you will also present an offering to the Lord from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the Lord’s portion to Aaron the priest. You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you’”.