As believers, we are called by God to follow after Jesus in all our actions and attitudes. How we relate to money in included in our following after Him.
As mentioned in my introduction to this series, my family and I have been impacted a number of times in our church attendance by what appears to be the pull of money on church leadership. During our Christian pilgrimage, a number of churches, through thier leadership, have made decisions that directly impacted our status within the body of believers.
Some of these instances provided us reason to dig into the Word, to find correction in our own personal relationship to money, to try to understand the wisdom of a church leader’s decision, and in the end to apply God’s will for our own finances.
Little did we know the tremendously corrosive power the love of money has over our own hearts, and by extrapolation, the church as a whole. This should not surprise the believer for Paul provided a harsh truth on this topic.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Alternately, the writer of Hebrews also provided no better command, (and for some believer’s no harder command) than found in Hebrews 13.
Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Many of our experiences have included the topic of tithing in the church. Personally, our denominational background considers tithing to be Biblically mandated on the New Testament believer. I understand many denominations consider tithing to be an important commmittment of the believers relationship to the church body.
Let’s take a look at this topic, and consider each passage that contains a reference to tithing.
This post will consider Numbers 18:21
Numbers 18:21 – “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting,
Our last post was concerned with what was to be tithed, and hinted at the recipients of the tithe.
Our passage this morning is explicit as to the proper recipients of the tithe. The tithe was for the Levites. Full stop. No other recipient is included per the Law of God. All tithes were to be directed to the Levite, as an inheritance. Only the tribe of Levi was to receive the tithe instead of a land allotment.
Deuteronomy 18:1 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their inheritance.
Deuteronomy 18:2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
Now I could close this post, having provided the obvious recipients of the tithe, but let me consider the ramifications of this specific identification of the recipients of the tithe.
Throughout the age of the Law, through Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah and Malachi this command for directing tithes to the tribe of Levi was valid and was to be obeyed to comply with the covenant Israel had entered into. Heck, even as the Lord Himself, born under the Law, walked this earth, the command to tithe to the Levites was to be obeyed. We shall eventually get to passages addressing His teaching on tithing, but let’s focus on our verse this morning. To comply with this command, the Levite was to belong to the tribe of Levi. Again, I am stating the obvious, but bear with me.
Consider the situation of a disgruntled Israelite, who questioned everything. You know the type! If one of those Israelites from another tribe were to question a specific Levite’s qualifications for receiving a tithe, the Levite could easily answer the challenge by taking that troubling Israelite to the temple, entering the library of records and showing the lineage from Levi that he claimed to be of.
To be a Levite was a recordable fact in the nation of Israel. The priest did not resort to a dream or vision to justify his recieving tithes, or of claiming a calling to serve as a Levite, though he may be of another tribe. Nothing was subjective in this command to provide tithing to a recipient.
And no other tribe was to receive the tithe. No matter how spiritual, or important, or “called” a man of Judah or Issachar felt, tithes were not to be received by him.
Now my poor reader must be saying to himself by now, what is your point Carl? Why are you laboring over what is an obvious point of the verse?
Thanks for the question, for I was just about to get to it.
To those who claim the Old Testament justifies the collection of tithing for the support of a ministry, I would ask if this verse is of the same authority as those passages that speak of tithing generally.
If so, and I can’t imagine any that would deny this claim, I request the qualifications of any who receive a tithe. Are they Levites? Can any provide proof of lineage, that they are in the blood line of a son of Jacob named Levi?
Of course not, for all the records they would require were set to fire as the Temple was plundered in AD 70. No man (or woman) can claim a lineage that would justify the receiving of tithes.
Now of course, if we want to generally understand this teaching as a guideline or principle to provide for the ministry of the church, that is still problematic, for taking from the Old Testament and applying to the New Covenant (Testament) is the purview of the apostles, and they spoke nothing of applying this command of tithing to the Body of Christ. Nothing!
But some may say, tithing is generally a method sort of, kinda like, a way God provided for His priests in days of old, and we can generally apply it today for the local church.
I say that would be fine as long as we agree to forget about the establishment of a New Covenant, the abolishment of the Old Covenant, the destruction of the old temple, the raising of a New Temple (Jesus Christ Himself) and the utter silence on tithing per the apostolic teaching. Yes – that should be all we need to do to justify the reception of tithing by any man (or woman) for the sake of ministry.
May I humbly submit that if that is the way the Body of Christ finds God’s will for the church, we are in a heap of trouble! (By the way, we are in a heap of trouble!)
Thanks for joining and Considering The Bible with me. Your thoughts are always welcome, and I look forward to hearing of the faithfulness of God in your lives.
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