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“Questions and Answers 126: Israelite Tithing”

Allen Dvorak
10/13/24 - Sun PM

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I want you to imagine with me this evening that you are an Israelite living in Egypt.

Your nation has been in slavery for a long time.

But there have been nine plagues that have been brought by God against this nation, this country of Egypt and the land is virtually destroyed.

But God announces that there's going to be one more flag.

And Moses talks about that in Exodus, the 11th chapter beginning in verse four, Moses said, thus says, the Lord about midnight, I will go out into the midst of Egypt and every first born in the land of Egypt shall die from the first born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne.

Even to the first born of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill and all the first born of the cattle.

There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt such as there was never, has never been, nor ever will be again.

And so on that night, you're in your home, you've killed the Passover land.

The blood has been put on the door post in the lintel.

And as the late night hours pass, you hear cries and lamentation and screams as more and more people die in the land of Egypt.

All the firstborn.

Can you imagine the sound of a country of a people who are losing all of their 1st 1st borns I studied this evening is going to at least in a peripheral way, touch upon the Passover and the meal that was instituted on this very night, a meal that would be carried out on the last night of Jesus life as he instituted the Lord's Supper.

Our study this evening is a question and answer sermon.

And uh some of you may not be familiar with this process, but occasionally I devote a sermon to answering questions that are submitted to me.

The questions that I answer are not necessarily related to one another.

And this evening, our questions are not really related.

Um They're on different topics.

The answers that I give to these questions are my answers.

As I understand the teaching of the scripture, they shouldn't be thought to represent the thinking of the other elders, including now, Eric mckee, they are my answers and uh they don't constitute any kind of congregational creed by any means.

So two questions I prepared tonight and I hope we get to both of them, but I have to be frank with you.

The first one is going to take a while.

We're going to talk a little bit about Israelite tithing.

Oh joy.

But then we're going to pass to another topic and talk about the fruit of the vine that's used in the Lord's Supper.

Is it to be fermented wine or was it grape juice that was used when Jesus instituted the last supper on that last night of his life?

So beginning with the first question and because it's in quotes, this is the question as I received it.

There are actually three questions here.

How were Israelite tithes used?

How frequently were tithes given was a tithe given based on total current wealth at the time of giving or some other metric.

I'm going to say this.

I have obviously had great influence on this congregation because people submit one question, but it's really three questions.

That's kind of the way I do my class notes, it'll say number seven, but there will be three questions on number seven.

That way I don't have to go 89 and 10.

And so the questioner has actually given me three questions and this these questions arose as a result of a recent study in the adult auditorium class.

We are concluding Second Corinthians here on Wednesday.

But just recently, we talked about chapters eight and nine.

And I think nearly all of us probably are aware of the fact that Second Corinthians eight and nine talk about giving.

And in our discussion of those chapters, we talked about the difference between tithing and the free will giving that is commanded there in First Corinthians 113 and then discussed even further in Second Corinthians eight and nine.

So we're gonna look at a number of relevant passages and it is my intention to read uh fairly good portion of these passages.

Uh The first one being Leviticus, the 27th chapter verses 3032.

And I apologize, but I really don't apologize because in order to understand what God's provisions were for tithing, we need to read these passages.

There are essentially three or four that are major passages that give us a lot of information about tithing.

What was required of the Israelites in the Old Testament, we understand that tithing was a part of the law of Moses.

Although we also should understand that tithing preceded the law of Moses, even among Abraham's family and among other cultures, it wasn't an uncommon thing to give 1/10 of your possessions or something to somebody else.

But even though tithing is not something that we are responsible for in the covenant of Christ, I want to point out a few things about tithing here that I think will be helpful to us as we think about our giving to the Lord on the first day of the week in Leviticus 27 which you've probably read three times already while I babbled on in verse 30 the text says every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees is the Lord's.

It is holy to the Lord.

If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he will add 1/5 to it and every tithe of herds and flocks, every 10th animal of all that pass under the herdsman's staff shall be holy to the Lord.

I'm going to read a number of these passages with very few comments on the passages.

And then I'm going to make a series of about nine or 103 observations that will kind of summarize some of the facts that we learn from these passages.

But I can't help this.

We sometimes talk about, well, we need to give God first, but which animal was it that was given to the Lord?

Was it the first animal that went under the staff?

It was the 10th animal 1/10.

But the Lord gave a means a process by select for selecting which animal would actually be given as the tithe.

And I think it's interesting that it wasn't just left up to the Israelites say, well, I'm going to give the Lord this animal which was injured in a lion attack in the past, but rather it's the 10th animal.

And so whatever animal passed under the staff, another passage here in numbers, the 18th chapter.

And this is a, is a, an important in important passage.

And I have numbers 1821 through 24 up there.

I'm going to read a little bit longer.

I'm going to read all the way down through verse 32 to the levites.

I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance in return for their service that they do their service.

The tent of meeting so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting lest they bear sin and die.

But the levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting and they shall bear their iniquity.

It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations and among the people of Israel, they shall have no inheritance.

You remember of course that the levites weren't given land as the other tribes were given.

They were given some common lands around various cities that were apportioned throughout the area that Israel controlled verse 24 for the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord I have given to the levites for an inheritance.

Therefore, I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying moreover, you shall speak and say to the levites.

When you take from the people of Israel, the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord a tithe of the tithe.

And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the wine press.

So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tits which you receive from the people of Israel and from it, you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron, the priest out of all the gifts to you, you shall present each, every contribution due to the Lord from each its best part is to be dedicated.

Therefore, you shall say to them when you have offered from it, the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the levites as produce of the threshing floor and as produce of the wine press.

And you may eat it in any place you and your households for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting and you shall bear no sin by reason of it when you have contributed the best of it, but you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel lest you die and so very quickly of the tithe material that was given to the levites.

They in turn would give 103/10 that would be used to support the priests.

Let's move along into the book of Deuteronomy.

In chapter 12, Deuteronomy, of course, as you remember was written by Moses just prior to the Israelites coming into the land of Canaan to uh to take possession of it.

And so Deuteronomy anticipates some things that would happen in the future verse 12 verses five and six, chapter 12 verses five and six.

But you shall seek the place that the Lord, your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation.

There, there you shall go and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution that you present your vow offerings, your free will offerings and the first born of your herd and of your flock a little bit later in that same chapter verse 11.

Then to the place that the Lord, your God will choose to make his name dwell there.

There, you shall bring all that I command you your burn offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution that you present and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord.

In chapter 12.

Then moving to verses 17 and 18, you may not eat within your towns, the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock or any of your vow offerings that you vow or your free will offerings or the contribution that you present.

But you, I eat them before the Lord, your God in the place that the Lord, your God will choose you and your son and your daughter, your male servant, and your female servant and the Levite who is within your towns.

Don't miss that detail and you shall rejoice before the Lord, your God in all that you undertake in the 14th chapter of Deuteronomy, which I think again is a key passage in this study, Moses wrote, you shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.

Remember, one of the questions that we were asked in the beginning was, was a tithe given based on total current wealth at the time of giving or some other metric and Deuteronomy.

63 answers this question.

You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year and before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, make his name dwell there.

You shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine and of your oil and the first born of your herd and flock that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.

And if the way is too long for you so that you're not able to carry the tithe when the Lord, your God blesses you because the place is too far from you which the Lord your God chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money.

This is the passage that Troy read.

You can turn your tithe converted into money and bind up the money in your hand.

Go to the place that the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you crave, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves and you shall eat there before the Lord, your God and rejoice, you and your household.

I'm gonna come back to this passage to talk a little bit about this.

But I want you to notice that the idea of paying the tithe was the concept of taking them to the place that the Lord chose and eating them there, you could convert them to money if the distance was too far.

But basically, you're gonna take your tithe and you're gonna enjoy the use of your tithe and you're going to rejoice.

How many of you when April 15th comes around and you're filling out those forms, or if you just take it to the tax accountant.

And the tax accountant says, well, Mr Devore, here's what you owe the government this year and I just rejoice.

I just love sending money to the government to pay my taxes, what I'm due or what the government is due for my income.

Well, a lot of people think of the tithe in a sense as a tax, but this passage says that when you go and take that tithe and you eat it in the place that God has chosen, you rejoice as you do.

So and you do it so that you will remember to fear the Lord in Deuteronomy 14th chapter continuing on here in verse 27.

You shall not neglect the levi who is within your towns for He has no portion or inheritance with you at the end of every three years, you shall bring out all the time of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.

Does that sound different than what's been said already in passages like numbers 18 and the Levite because he has no portion or inheritance with you and the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are within your towns shall come and eat and be filled that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do in the 26th chapter of Deuteronomy.

In verses 12 through 14, stay with me.

We're making good progress in verse 12.

When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving to the Levite, the sojourned or the fatherless and the widow so that they may eat within your towns and be filled.

Then you shall say before the Lord, your God.

And this is essentially a statement, an honesty statement.

I have removed the sacred portion out of my house.

You remember the tithe was sacred to the Lord.

It was holy to the Lord.

That's what he's talking about.

I've removed the sacred portion out of house.

And moreover, I've given it to the Levite, the sojourn of the fatherless and the widow according to all your commandment that you've commanded me, I've not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.

I've not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning.

Why would you need to say that because you're supposed to rejoice as you eat the tithe on at least the other occasions I've not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning or removed any of it while I was unclean or offered any of it to the dead.

I've obeyed the voice of the Lord, my God.

I've done according to all that you have commanded me a couple of other things there that I won't take time to comment on.

Let's move on to second chronicles.

Second chronicles is talking about the time of Hezekiah and ties were being brought to the temple.

As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance.

The first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey and of all the produce of the field.

What did they give a tithe of?

Well?

Sounds like everything and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.

And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep and the tithe of the dedicated things that have been dedicated to the Lord, their God and laid them in heaps and they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes and the dedicated things the chief officer in charge of them was Kania, the Levite with shame his brother.

As second, they're bringing them to Jerusalem, all these ties and they're being stored.

Nehemiah of course brings us to the time after the return of the remnant of Jewish exiles who come back to Judah and they've been there for some time.

And one of the problems during Nehemiah's time was a lack of tithing.

And we'll look at Malachi also.

It'll uh vindicate that statement.

Here's Nehemiah 10 verses 83 to 38.

The people say we obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree year by year to the house of the Lord.

Also to bring to the house of our God to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the first born of our sons and of our cattle as it is written in the law and the first born of our herds and of our flocks.

And to bring the first of our dough and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil to the priest, to the chambers of the house of God.

And to bring to the levites, the tithes from our ground.

For it is the levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor and the priest, the son of Aaron shall be with the levites when the levites receive the tithes and the levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes, the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the store house.

Now you may remember that the temple as it was constructed, had storehouses on the outside of the sanctuary rooms, the holy place and the most holy place.

And these places, these rooms are being filled, are being used as storehouses for these tides.

Uh in New Nehemiah 13 and verse five and in verse 12, we find that they're bringing all these tithes into these storehouses.

Now Malachi is about the same time as Nehemiah about 400 plus years, a few more years before the time of Jesus and Malachi convicts the people of failing to bring their ties as they should, will will man rob God.

Malachi asks yet you are robbing me.

But you say, how have we robbed you?

Malachi's answer.

The Lord's answer is in your tithes and contributions.

You are cursed with the curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you, bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to.

The test says, the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Well, I want to take a few moments just to make some observations if we can perhaps kind of collate some of the facts uh that we've read about in these passages.

First of all, the Lord indicates that he's going to choose a place to make his name dwell there to put his name there.

Of course, in the wilderness, wandering, the place of worship was the Tabernacle.

But it would not be until the time of Solomon that there would be a different place.

It would be the temple where God would uh place his name.

If you were to look in first kings.

The eighth chapter verses 19 and 27 to 29 I'm not gonna read those for reason of time, But in those passages, those verses, the Lord says, Solomon says that the Lord has placed his name in the temple that the house that Solomon had built for the Lord tithes were to be brought to that place and eaten there.

We read about that in more than one place.

However, if the journey was a far journey, rather than carrying a bunch of grain or animals that would constitute part of your time, you could sell them, you could convert them into money, you took the money, you went with you.

And when you came to Jerusalem, when you came to the temple to enjoy the use of your tithe, you could convert that money back into food stuffs or as the text says, anything that you crave what your appetite craves tithes as we said could be converted to money.

Somebody just said that tithes of the seed of the land could be redeemed.

But if you did redeem it, you had to add 1/5 of the value to that tithe when you finally gave your tithe redeeming meant you could keep it for yourself, but you had to give 11113 and 20% of the value of what you are redeeming.

And then finally, obviously, the levites were to be supported by these tithes of Israel.

The levites didn't get a big portion of land like the other tribes did.

They were given cities 48 of them scattered throughout the tribal areas.

And there were common lands around those cities that were to be used by the Levites.

But the levites didn't get any inheritance like the rest of Israel did.

And so the tithes were the way that levites were supported.

Now, sometimes as we read about in the prophets, sometimes Israel didn't bring the tithes in.

And if you're a Levite, what do you do?

Well, you stop serving the temple and you go out and try to make a living for yourself.

And we see that in various, on various occasions in Israel's history where tits were not being brought in, the levites were to also tithe.

They gave 1/216 of what they received and their tithe went to the priests specifically to support them.

Not all the levites obviously were priests, Aaron's family, the descendants of Aaron constituted the priesthood.

Israelites were to give a tithe of all that they produced year by year.

My understanding and in answer to at least one of the questions was that it wasn't every year, I took my total wealth and gave 211/210 of that.

But that rather, I gave 210/26 of what I had produced that year, the the seed of the land, the crops that came in, the beasts that had been born and all of those things, things that I had gained over that year.

I think that is the answer to one of the questions.

I think it's possible that the tithe of Deuteronomy 28 which mentions a third year, every third year, that that was actually an extra tithe that the Israelites may have been giving a normal tie of 113% but then gave an additional 211%.

I'm going to share a large quote, a lengthy quote with you that talks about what the practice of Jews was say, for instance, in the first century.

So it's possible that Deuteronomy 225 is talking about another kind of tithe or it may simply be that it was an annual tithe that was handled differently that every third year something different was done with the tithe rather than carrying it all to Jerusalem and eating it there.

Say more about that in just a moment.

It seems that every third year, something different was done with the tithe from the other two years.

That's the view that I would suggest is the case.

You probably noticed when we were reading these passages that some of the passages seem to say that the tithes, all the tithes go to the Levis.

But then some of the passages talk about the tithes being carried by the giver of the tithe to Jerusalem.

The place where God put his name and eaten there.

And then passages like Deuteronomy 226 and 14 talk about every third year.

The third year tithe was to be eaten in the town where the person lived, who was giving the tithe.

So you've got different instructions and that has puzzled people.

I'm not sure I can give you the best description of how that is to be resolved.

But I am gonna share with you this quote which is gonna be difficult to read.

But uh since I can be tedious, I'm going to read it for you.

Uh This is from the International Standard Bible encyclopedia and they're dealing with this very, very issue.

It seems like there's some contradictions here and how the ties were to be used.

So here's what they say.

There is thus an obvious apparent discrepancy between the legislation, legislation in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

It's harmonized in Jewish tradition, not only theoretically, but in practice by considering the tithes as three different t which are named the first tithe, the second tithe and the poor tithe, which is also called the third tithe.

And there are some rabbinic sources sided there according to this explanation.

After the tithe, the first tithe was given to the levites of which they had to give the tithe to the priests.

A second tithe of the remaining nine tens had to be set apart and consumed in Jerusalem.

So the first tithe went to the levites, then you tithe again of the 90% that was left after the first tithe.

And that's what you carried to Jerusalem and consumed in Jerusalem.

Those who live far from Jerusalem could change the second tithe in the money with the addition of 1/5 part of its value.

Is that what we read?

No, that's not an explanation.

The scripture, that's an adjustment.

OK. But we won't pursue that.

Only food, drink or ointment could be bought for the money.

Again, not according to the scriptures, the tithe of cattle belonged to the second tithe and was to be used for the feast in Jerusalem.

In the third year, the second tithe was to be given entirely to the levites and the poor.

So you tithe one time for the levites.

And every third year you gave everything to the levites and the poor.

It was eaten, not in Jerusalem, but in the towns where you lived.

But according to Josephus, the poor tithe was actually a third one, a third time, the priests and the levites, if Landover landowners were also obliged to give the poor tithe.

So what they're suggesting is that the practice of Jews was not to give 10% not even 20%.

But that occasionally their tie ran between 6 30%.

That's a pretty big amount Now, I will tell you, I'm not sure that this is necessary that this practice was necessary to harmonize these passages that we've been looking at.

In fact, and I didn't want to do that.

In fact, I would say to you that there are two other suggestions for harmonizing Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

One of them is that the tithe was divided between the giver and the levites.

And when you talk about what's being done with the tithe, it's the same 10%.

It's the same tithe, but some of it's used for the levites.

Some of it's used for the person who's given the tithe.

I don't think there's anything in the text that really supports that.

Um I don't think there's any reason that we would need to assume that I think a better way of talking about it is that we're talking about different ways of using a single tithe each year.

I think that's what the scriptures are actually suggesting.

Some years it was went to the Levite entirely every third year.

Some years it went to the Levite and the Levite and the giver of the tithe ate together in Jerusalem.

That's why I mentioned the Levite goes with the giver of the tithe and eats in Jerusalem.

So here's my answer.

Some tithes were consumed by the giver, levites or the poor and unfortunate others were provided to the levites who offered a tithe of the tithe.

It appears that the tithe was calculated by the current year's yield rather than total assets, tithes were an annual matter.

Although perhaps more than one type of tithe was given in a single year.

That's one suggestion that's made to harmonize these passages.

So what do we take away from all this?

Well, in our studies of Second Corinthians, sometimes what we do and, and I did this to some extent in our study is we tend to want to contrast the tithing system with the system of free will giving.

And there are some differences, some substantial differences, tithing of course, mandated a certain percentage of your, your income, your your yield for the year 10%.

Whereas uh first Corinthians 16 says each one gives as he's prospered.

And Paul describes it as a test of our love this giving that we do on the first day of the week.

But here's where I think we've messed up.

I think sometimes we look at the tithe as being an exaction as being some sort of a tax tax as in tax.

But they weren't to view it that way.

They were to eat their tithe, at least some of it with joy and rejoice.

And the tithe also constituted a way of taking care of the unfortunate, the poor, the widow, the stranger.

And so every third year, at least, rather than consuming my tithe, it was dedicated entirely to people who were less fortunate in the town where I lived.

So the tithe wasn't just to support the levites entirely, but it also was used to help those who had need.

Well, there's some similarities there with the, the contribution that we give on the first day of the week.

In fact, I would argue that every specific example of a congregation giving had to do with benevolence, had to do with need.

Now, we know that some money was sent to Paul for evangelism.

He was supported by churches.

We talked about that in Second Corinthians chapter 11.

But benevolence was a big part of the reason that Christians were giving of their means as they had been prospered.

And I see that also in the, in the tithing.

Well, I have about six minutes to take care of the other question and I got to be honest with you, I can't do it justice in six minutes.

So I'm going to stop and I'm going to save that question for when we have a little bit more time and I can do it greater justice.

But I do want to talk a little bit about that 10th plague again, even though we didn't get a chance to talk about the Passover with reference to the Lord's Supper.

But in that 10th plague, you recall that the way that the firstborn could be preserved from death was the application of the Passover lamb's blood on the door posts in the lintel of the home of the Israelite.

The blood preserved the life of the firstborn from death.

We would have looked at first Corinthians, the fifth chapter verses 6 to 8, had we dealt with the second question where Paul describes Christ as our Passover lamb.

His argument just very briefly is that there shouldn't be any 1111 of sin and, and malice, et cetera in us.

Because when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, all the 11 was supposed to have already been removed from the house.

Jesus is our Passover lamb and it is through his blood that we are preserved from death.

But I would point out to you that just like the blood of the Passover lamb wasn't just shed, it had to be applied to the door post and lintel.

So the blood of Jesus Christ has to be applied as well.

I wish I could go to my app my uh invitation slide and I'm uncertain how to do that.

So I'm going to say in Romans the third chapter in verses 25 and 26 that Paul says that Jesus was put forth as a propitiation by the father through his blood that is received by faith.

And so there's something we have to do in order for that blood to be applied to us, wash away our sins.

And so this evening, if you're not a Christian, if you've not been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, if you've not been forgiven of your sins through that, that cleansing blood and we want to encourage you to think seriously about making yourself uh available to God, accepting his invitation for the forgiveness of your sins, for eternal life.

If you need to respond to the gospel this evening, to be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins and thus washed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We want to invite you to do that tonight while you have the opportunity and we stand to encourage you as we sing.