Transcript

A church once hung a special offering box on the back wall of the building. As the people left the church, they would put their offering in it on their way out the door.

If someone put in $20.00 or more, the box would not make a sound. If you put in just $10.00, the box would whistle. If you put in $5.00, a horn would sound, and $1.00, a shot would be heard. But if someone walked past it without putting anything in it, the box would take their picture.

Like this box, tithing is a legalistic practice in the church today, which can bring guilt and shame upon believers.

God does not intend for giving to be that way for us. Giving is something done from the heart today and not by compulsion. We are free from the law under grace. As a result, we have been freed from the law’s commands concerning the tithe.

Giving is something that is carried out in our freedom in Christ under grace, and it is an issue that is between the believer and the Lord in our personal relationship with Him.

Numbers 18:20-28: “And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

“And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

“Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.

“But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

“But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

“And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

“Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD’S heave offering to Aaron the priest.”

Under the Law, tithing was part of God’s system to provide for the priests, the Levites, and the poor in Israel. But it was only one part of God’s financial program under the Law.

There were many other gifts, sacrifices, offerings, and financially oriented commandments that were included in the Mosaic system.

The general perception of tithing during the Law is much more simplistic than it really was. Tithing under the Law was not just a straight, blanket 10 percent. There were many more details, and it was more than 10 percent.

Thomas Schriener writes on the matter,

“Though we might assume that Old Testament Israel gave a total of 10 percent, it’s actually difficult to discern how much was given…some scholars think the Israelites gave 14 tithes over seven years, others believe they gave 12. Regardless, when we add the required tithes together, the amount certainly exceeded 10 percent. In fact, the number was probably somewhere around 20-30 percent per year.” Here in Numbers, God is giving the instructions concerning the tithe for the priests and Levites. The priests in Israel were a specific lineage of Levites. They were the direct descendants of Aaron, who himself was of the tribe of Levi.

The priests offered the sacrifices in the tabernacle and later in the Temple. They ensured the lamps of the golden lampstand were kept burning continually, maintained the altar of incense, and oversaw the Table of Showbread. The priesthood was a specialized, elevated role within the larger tribe of Levi.

The Levites were the descendants of the larger tribe of Levi and were assistants to the priests. They provided essential support services to help facilitate the priests’ work, such as preparing sacrifices, music, maintenance, guarding the sanctuary of the tabernacle or temple, and performing other non-priestly duties.

All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests.

Numbers chapter 18 details how the priests and Levites were supported by Israel under the law. The priests and Levites were not given an inheritance of land in Israel.

Instead, the Lord Himself and the tithes of the children of Israel were their inheritance. And when the Lord is one’s portion and inheritance, that is a rich inheritance, that is the best inheritance. He is everything we need.

The Lord told Aaron, “Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land…I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth [or tithes] in Israel for an inheritance…”

Tithes replaced all property inheritance rights. And for their service in the tabernacle, the other 11 tribes provided for the priests and Levites through a national, annual tithe.

They were totally dependent on the tithe and offerings from the other tribes. Not having land, the priests and Levites couldn’t work the land and provide food for themselves.

But they carried out the essential spiritual duties and priestly functions in the tabernacle, which were needed for the rest of Israel in their worship and relationship with God. Their entire lives were given in service to God, His tabernacle, and spiritual things. Thus, the other 11 tribes were called on by God to support them in their work.

Regarding the agricultural products that would be given to them in the tithe, the Lord told them later in this chapter, “And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.”

The word “reward” means wages. The tithe of produce was the pay or wages for the work of the priests and Levites in the Tabernacle.

And the tribe of the Levites was the one to whom the tithe was paid. ONLY the Levites were to receive it. It was unlawful for anyone outside the tribe of Levi to receive the tithe.

As verse 21 says again, “And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance.”

And Hebrews 7:5 also states, “And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren…”

The Levites received all the tithes from the people. Then, in turn, the Levites had a tithe to pay. The Levites who lived from the tithes of the people were themselves under obligation to give a tithe and to give a tenth of the tenth that was given to them.
This tenth part of the tithe was called a heave offering. And this tithe, or heave offering, was in turn given to the priests.

As verse 26 states, “Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.”

Priests received this heave offering tithe, and the beginning of this chapter shows that they were also provided for and fed by the portions of the offerings brought to God. And the priests did not tithe.

This tithe for supporting the Levites and priests was a yearly tithe, and it was mandatory for the Israelites. But this tithe, which is based in the law of Moses, is not for us today who are under grace.

The Apostle Paul makes it plain that if you put yourself under any part of the law, such as following the tithing requirements of the law, then you are under the whole Law and obligated to keep it all. And in doing so, you put yourself under the curse of the law, because nobody keeps the law perfectly.

As Galatians 3:10 states, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

And interestingly, Pastor Ken Lawson points out this: “Even the Jews do not practice tithing today because there are no Levites, priests, or temple worship in Jerusalem. Jewish rabbis know biblical law well enough to know that tithing under the present circumstances is unlawful.

“According to them, when the temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem with a consecrated altar with priests and Levites officiating, all Jews living within the biblical tithing zones will tithe.”

Leviticus 27:30-33: “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD. And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.

“And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.

“He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

These closing verses in Leviticus explain the contents of the tithe in Israel under the law and the rules concerning it.

First, the law states that the tithe comes from the land, or the promised land. Verse 30 states, “And all the tithe of THE LAND.”

In Leviticus 25:23, the Lord states this concerning the promised land, “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.”

Though promised to Abraham, God made it clear that the Israelites would live in a land that was not their own. The promised land belonged to God.

And then the tithe of all produce from the land was declared to be “the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.” Ten percent of all of their produce wasn’t even theirs; it belonged to the Lord. This ten percent was sacred and separated unto God.

God claimed as His possession one-tenth of the crops, fruit, and livestock of the Israelites. And the tithe was regarded as the offering, or literally the rent, due from the people, or the tenants, to the true Owner of the promised land, and in acknowledgment of that truth.

Notably, only products grown and produced within the land of Israel were a part of the tithe. It is the tithe of the land of Israel, not the land of the United States, or Canada, or any other land. Jews not living in Israel, who lived in other lands and nations, were exempt from the tithe, because it was “the tithe of THE LAND,” the promised land.

Concerning the tithe of the land that was to be given yearly to the Levites, verse 30 states that it was “of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree.”

Only agricultural products and goods were tithed under the law. First, we learn that a tithe had to be given of the seed of the land. This refers not to the seed that was sown, but to what was yielded, the produce of the seed, the harvest that was reaped.

As Deuteronomy 14:22 adds, “Thou shalt truly tithe all the INCREASE of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.”

The tithe was to come from the promised land. It was taken from the increase of its fields, vineyards, trees, flocks, and herds.

The majority of the people in Israel were farmers and ranchers. Agricultural products dominated Israel’s economy, and the tithe came out of the products of that economy and from the land that belonged to God.

Thus, they were to give 10 percent of the harvest of their crops, which included wheat and barley. And they were also to give 10 percent “of the fruit of the tree,” which included olives, grapes, dates, figs, nuts, pomegranates, and so on.

The Lord Jesus lived and ministered under the law. In Matthew 23, following His triumphal entry, the Lord challenged and pronounced woes upon the hypocritical Pharisees and scribes in Jerusalem. And in one of the “woes,” Christ showed the extent to which they tithed from the seed of the land and the fruit of the tree in Israel.

He said to them, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

The mint, anise (or dill), and cumin here are all garden herbs and herbs of little value.

The religious leaders in Christ’s day so rigidly tithed and strictly followed the law that they even meticulously weighed out a tenth of the herbs that they grew, even counting individual tiny seeds in separating out a tenth of them.

The Lord said that they were so precise in doing small matters with tithing things of little value, which was not really the kind of farm produce that the tithe pertained to.

They did this while they failed to be obedient in weightier and more significant matters of the law, such as ensuring that their actions were governed by justice, mercy, and faith.

The Pharisees were majoring in minors; they were doing outward religious things like counting out tiny seeds, but inwardly their hearts were not right.

The Pharisees exaggerated the Law and made it an even greater burden, but what this shows, however, is that they understood from the Scriptures that the tithe was about seeds and things grown from the earth in Israel.

Speaking of their crops and the fruit of the tree, Leviticus 27:31 adds, “And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.”

The farmers in Israel, under the law, were permitted to keep their tithe of crops and fruit if they so desired, instead of giving them to the Levites. But they had to pay to do so.

Tithes could be redeemed or “bought back” from the LORD to Whom the tithe belonged.

The penalty was “he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof,” or he would pay money and add 20 percent, or pay 120 percent of its value.

Thus, using our money, if a farmer wished to keep his tithe of olives worth $5,000, he could pay the cash equivalent and add 20 percent, or $1,000, and pay the redemption price of $6,000 in total. And then the Levites would receive the money from the redemption of the produce.

The redemption money was not the tithe; the tithe was the crops. The money was given in lieu of the tithe of crops. Redeeming the tithe for money only pertained to the tithe of the crops and fruits and not of livestock.

In verse 32, the tithe of livestock is explained: “And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.” One in ten livestock belonged to the Lord and was “holy unto the Lord.”

Every year, Israel’s farmers and ranchers had to bring a tithe of their herds and flocks and give them to the Lord by giving them to the Levites.

“The tithe of the herd” was from domesticated cattle and oxen. “The tithe…of the flock” was from domesticated sheep and goats.

The phrase, “even of whatsoever passeth under the rod,” refers to the practice of shepherds having their sheep pass single file, one by one, under the staff of the shepherd as he counted them.

Jeremiah 33:13 states of this practice, “…in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth [or counts] them, saith the LORD.”

Of the sheep, goats, cattle, and oxen that “passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord,” Leviticus tells us here.

This means that if a farmer was poorer and counted his sheep and he only had 9 sheep, he did not have to tithe, because “the tenth” was holy and belonged to the Lord.

And because “the tenth” was holy, if a farmer had 29 sheep, he only had to tithe and give two sheep. If he had 85 sheep, he gave eight sheep, because every “tenth” sheep was the Lord’s and was the tithe sheep.

When counting the tenth out for the tithe, verse 33 explains that “He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

As the farmer or herdsman counted the livestock, he was not allowed to search among them to find which ones were bad or which ones were good. This means that if the animal to be tithed was sickly or injured, it could not be changed for a healthier animal. And vice versa, if the tithed animal was good and healthy, it could not be changed for a sickly animal. The farmer was not permitted to substitute or exchange one for another.

If he did this, then the law stated that both the tithe animal and the one for which it was exchanged were holy. In other words, he had to forfeit both the tenth animal as well as its substitute, and both were then to be given to the Lord as a tithe.

The end of verse 33 states of the livestock that “it shall not be redeemed.”

In other words, while a farmer could redeem the tithe of the crops and fruit and give money in exchange for them, the animals HAD to be given. The tithes of the herds and flocks could not be redeemed for money and bought back.

This tenth part of Israel’s crops and livestock was the tithe that was paid to the Levites by the other 11 tribes to sustain the work of the tabernacle and the lives of those who worked there. However, along with this tithe, there are two other tithes taught in Deuteronomy.

This first tithe was called the Levites’ tithe, the second one was called the Feast Tithe, and the third one was called the Poor Tithe. We’ll look at the two other tithes in our next message.

The contents of every recorded tithe found in the Law of Moses concerned only the products of the agricultural community in Israel. The tithe came from the grains, fruits, nuts, sheep, goats, cattle, and oxen ONLY.

And the Israelites who earned a livelihood from farming and ranching inside the land were the ONLY ones who tithed under the Mosaic Law.

People did hold other occupations in Israel under the law. Not all were farmers and ranchers. There were carpenters, bakers, tailors, fishermen, soldiers, tanners, physicians, tentmakers, loggers, miners, weavers, potters, and so on, also.

Yet NONE of these professions or products from their professions are included in any list of tithes and tithing. This means that all those who worked in these roles were exempt from the tithe under the law.

The only way in which it was right to tithe was that you had to be a Jew who lived during the 1500 years or so when the law of Moses was in effect.

You had to be a farmer or rancher at that time who owned land in the promised land, and who planted and harvested crops or raised livestock on that land. Then it was required that you give a tithe of your agricultural products of grain, barley, fruit, and livestock.

The problem with the subject of tithing is that it is about following man-made tradition, and not the teaching of Scripture concerning the true nature of the tithe.

It is wrong to take Scriptures that were given to Israel under the Law of Moses and use them to teach and require tithing of believers under grace. This brings spiritual confusion and error into the church.

That is what is being done when someone declares that the tithe “is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord” (Lev. 27:30) for the purpose of compelling people to give, when that passage is talking about the crops and fruit from the promised land that belong to the Lord.

Tithing is an example of the church proclaiming doctrines that are based on the Word but are ripped from their dispensational context and forcefully and mistakenly applied to the Church. We are free from the law today, and we are not called to tithe.

We learn from the message of grace given to Paul for the Church, for how we are to give today.

Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 11:20 is pertinent in regard to tithing today, “For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.”

Paul marveled at the Corinthians here about what they were willing to “suffer,” or tolerate, put up with, and allow to take place in their lives.

He told the Corinthians, “if a man bring you into bondage,” or that they tolerated being brought into bondage and made a slave.

Tithing puts one under the law and it is a legalistic practice that has no place under grace today. To be under the law is to be a slave and in bondage. But Paul tells us to “be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” of the law, and to stand fast in our liberty in Christ. We are to give in light of our freedom in grace today.

Paul said they tolerated, “if a man devour you,” or preys upon you for financial support and makes heavy financial demands of you. And tithing is a way to prey upon the church to gain people’s money through guilt and shame.

Paul added, “if a man take of you,” or take advantage of you. The teaching and requirement of tithing takes advantage of people’s sincere desire to please the Lord.

And Paul said, “if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face,” which refers to one who lords it over people and treats others with disrespect.

Often, tithing is the result of a charismatic man who wields influence, asserting his authority through bad doctrine and forcing believers to give.

But when it comes to tithing and giving, may we take our stand in grace and truth. Today, we are not under the law that requires tithing; we are under grace, which does not demand it.