You owed God a tithe then Psalm 24 says that the entire earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Psalm 50 says that the cattle on a thousand hills all belong to him. God brought that concept home to his minor children in Old Testament times by “taxing” them 10% of their income. That 10% was called the tithe. “30 A tenth of all crops belongs to the Lord. This means the crops from fields and the fruit from trees—a tenth belongs to the Lord. 31 So if you want to get back your tenth, you must add one-fifth to its price and then buy it back. 32 The priests will take every tenth animal from a person’s cattle or sheep. Every tenth animal will belong to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30-32). There were various opportunities for the Israelites to give freewill offerings of livestock, produce, or money to the Lord, but those would have to be given on top of the base tithe, which they were not free to ignore. Christians today, and especially Christian ministry leaders, need to be very careful in their use of the term tithe. A return of 10% to the Lord, if freely chosen, is a wonderful thing. But the law of the tithe belongs to the Old Covenant, and God’s people today must feel free to choose their gifts to the Lord, even if church leaders are nervous about making their budgets.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 13:15:15 +0000
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