Titheing and other hot potatoes

Last Sunday the person giving the talk at one of the congregations was talking about titheing. His basic ethos was, if I understood him correctly, that titheing was a law we needed to follow, that the church was the modern day 'storehouse' and that we were obligated to give 10% to the church, that whatever we thought of the leadership of the church and what they did with it was irrelevant since it belonged to the Lord and that if we didn't put 10% in the collection when it went round God was shouting 'Thief, that's mine...' at us. Even if we are living under grace [as he put it] we are still obligated to give 10% to the church.

I came away irritated and annoyed. We do give away at least 10% as a freewill offering to the Lord's work, but what he was saying didn't sound like the words of our Father. It didn't sound like way He wants to relate to us at all. Of course the speaker quoted parts of 'The Word of God' to prove his point, judiciously chosing the verses he used.

Now apart from the fact the Bible never refers to itself as 'The Word of God' but uses this phrase to refer to Jesus [thus using it to refer to the Bible is probably blasphemy] I just felt uneasy about the burden being laid on the shoulders of those listening to this talk, which he called preaching, but it didn't sound like proclaiming good news to me!

So what about titheing and giving? I had a starting question... if it is a law, and its certainly not one of the ten commandments, then it must be part of the Judaic law which the Jews didn't believe referred to the gentiles and which raises a further question... if it is part of a body of law we should follow from the Judiac tradition, how many of the other hundreds and thousands of laws the Pharisees put upon the people should we also be following?

But let's put that on one side for the moment and look at titheing. The issue is pretty clear that the Lord said 10% of everything the Jews received was His.

'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy 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. Leviticus 27:30-32 [NIV]

OK, but what should be done with the tithe?

But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you. Deuteronomy 12:5-7 [NIV]

Hey, just a moment, that sounds as if they were supposed to eat it and enjoy it with the Lord. To make sure the Jews get the point, the Lord repeats it another two times... the tithe should be eaten with rejoicing as a celebration of all the Lord had done for them.

But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. Then to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD. And there rejoice before the LORD your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. Deuteronomy 12:10-12 [NIV]

You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice before the LORD your God in everything you put your hand to. Deuteronomy 12:17-18 [NIV]

And... if the case of people who were too far away from the temple to take their tithe there and eat it this is what they should do:

Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. Deuteronomy 14:22-26 [NIV]

Presumably [though it's not specified anywhere] people who earnt money rather than grew crops and raised cattle did the same... bought cattle, sheep, wine [or anything they wished] and then had a party with the Lord with it.

The storehouses [mentioned elsewhere] are because you need to store food for the party, you cannot consume 10% of your annual food intake in one sitting! Now this does seem to fit with the Father I know. Right from the very beginning he walked and talked with mankind in the garden... where they grew crops and enjoyed the food He provided. Through to Revelation which talks of a huge banquet with the Lord and tables laden with food.

Here's a quick aside and its interesting the numbers [sorry about the pun]. Both censuses recorded in Exodus/Numbers put the number of non Levite Jewish males over 20 as being about 603,000. The number of Levites at this time was 22,000. Do a quick calculation and you realise that the Livites were 3.6% of the population of non-Levites. Which means... that if they get a tithe from the general population every three years they will be living on pretty much exactly the same as the general population! And from that tithe they will eat and celebrate with the Lord using a tenth of the tithe they were given.

In the New International Version the word tithe only occurs in the Old Testament. There are two references in the Gospel to the Pharisees giving one tenth of their income but not truly turning their hearts to the Lord, and then in the book of Hebrews chapter seven there is reference to giving tenths. Note no direct reference in any of the books aimed at the Gentiles - titheing was a particuarly Jewish concept.

But let's look at what the author of the book of Hebrews is saying. I won't quote the whole chapter, if you want to read it look up Hebrews 7 on BibleGateway.com. This chapter is saying that the Levitical law based way of doing things has been transformed into the the new... in pretty strong language 'The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless' [verse 18].

So why do we persist in trying to go back to the law? I think the reason is practical. We have churches [which replace synagogues] and these need money to keep them going.

As an aside here I have a friend who runs a gathering of followers of Jesus from a Muslim background - which some people might call a church. They meet in each others homes, much like the early believers, and this friend is their leader. One day he was talking to me and was saying he was having a great deal of difficulty in encouraging them to give. The members of his group asked why, since they didn't have a building to maintain or staff to pay. Good question. One of the reasons that churches need money is because they have buildings to maintain and staff to pay. If the structure of gatherings of believers were different they would not have those needs!

But let's assume that at least for some people the building centric church is what they want. That then does need money. But giving a tithe to the church to maintain the building and pay the staff is defintely not what the Lord had in mind when He instituted the practice. In a real sense using a tithe that way is robbing the Lord of His opportunity to have a party with His people!

The Jewish people supported their building projects with freewill offerings - the temple was built that way and one would assume the synagogues too. Scripture suggests that the early followers of the Way [what Christians called themselves in the time of the New Testament] also gave freewill offerings for many things especially helping brothers and sisters in their needs.

So, the guilt trip dropped on the people in the church last week did actually work for me, but not in the way the speaker intended. I don't feel guilty about not giving 10% to the church. I feel guilty that we don't do enough partying with the Lord!

And I feel angry that church leaders are misleading followers of Jesus and duping them into what is not our Lord's desire.

[Thought aside: We have a gathering of 'followers of the Way' every Friday evening at our home where we have a meal, which is usually something of a feast... and remember the Lord. This is close to the idea of titheing. But... in general we spend less than 30% of our income on food so if we legalistically tithed it would mean more than one meal in three should be a tithe meal.]