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 2 Chronicles 31:5-6
2 Chronicles 31:5 – As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.
2 Chronicles 31:6 – 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 had been dedicated to the LORD their God, and laid them in heaps.
From the time of Moses, which we considered in our last post, until the time of Hezekiah, as we read in our passage this morning, we do not find any reference to the tithe in the life of the nation of Israel.
Even during the times of David, the tithe is conspicuously absent in any description of the nations life, or any reiteration of the command to tithe. Out of this general observation, it would be unfair to think the tithe completely disappeared out of the life of the faithful Israelite. After all, it is a common truth that the Lord has continued a remnant throughout the ages, even in the most dire apostacy of the surrounding culture.
But the fact remains, the Scripture does not provide any teaching regarding tithing between Deuteronomy and 2 Chronicles. That is an astounding thousand years between Moses to Hezekiah. One thousand years!
And when we next see the topic of the tithe come up in the Scripture, it is during Hezekiah’s re-establishment of the Passover, and the restoration of the priestly support through the tithe. (Maybe some of the faithful were not as faithful as required for supporting the priests.)
Hezekiah couldn’t wait to reestablish the Passover, for as soon as he ascended to the throne, he sent out invitations to the norther tribes to join in the celebrations. He provided 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for the celebrations. In his fervor to obey the Lord in keeping the Passover, he allowed the celebration to occur one month after the defined time commanded, instead of waiting the required 11 months. And when those of the northern tribes arrived, they did not have time to perform the ritual cleansing to partake. Hezekiah prayed for them, and they were forgiven.
I provide this quick snapshot of Hezekiah to describe the spiritual health of this king. He was seeking God with a passion, and his passion initiated a response from the people.
- the people of Israel gave in abundance
- they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.
- Those who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep,
- Those who lived in the cities of Judah brought in the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the LORD their God,
Amazing.
Hezekiah’s command to obey the Passover brought a religious system that was suffering from a lack of priestly support, to a vibrantly supported system, even to the point where the goods brought in were “laid in heaps”. The image I see in my mind is that so much was brought in by the people, that an orderly receiving of the goods were abandoned, and the people simply shoved the goods into piles!
The people tithed. Abundantly. Piling up goods that could not be contained.
It is instructive that each of the tithes were livestock or the fruit of the field. Even those in the cities of Judah brought the tithe of cattle and dedicated things to the celebration. And it is also good to see that this expression of worship to the God of Israel included goods beyond the tithe. The passage speaks of the people giving in abundance, and then speaks of the tithe. These people were ripe for revival, and the giving of tithes was the outgrowth of the three following experiences.
The experience of Joy in Obedience
2 Chronicles 30:23 Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with gladness.
2 Chronicles 30:26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.
Hezekiah oversaw a people who came together in obeying the Lord’s command of keeping the Passover. Upon this obedience, great joy broke out, and the people didn’t want it to end.
The Experience of Tearing down idols
After this Passover celebration, the nation entered a period of idol destruction. This is the natural outgrowth of meeting the true God. After worshipping the true God, all idols appear repulsive, for they truly are worthless waste of time, effort and devotion, false gods who destroy a those committed to them.
The people spread out and destroyed the idols.
2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, every man to his possession.
The experience of Listening to a Godly Leader
After the celebration of the Passover, remembering the goodness of God in their deliverance, and after the pulling down of the idols, proving they had understood the goodness and mercy of the Lord, at that time, the people listened to the command of the godly King in relation to tithing. The result? They gladly gave, even in abundance, in their tithing and in their offerings, as an expression of their worship of the God of Israel.
This is as it should be. Any giving to the Lord is to be an expression of how we understand the Lord of Glory, and not be degraded to a religious act of compulsion, or the reluctant sacrifice of a soul seeking to pay off a deity.
He is so much more than some god we can pay off. He is the Lord of Glory who suffered for our salvation. He is worthy of our devotion, even in the manner of our giving.
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.
