Sabbath: The Tithing Contract
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Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 14:18-20; Malachi 3:10; Deuteronomy 12:5-14; Leviticus 27:30; 1 Kings 17:9-16; 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.
Memory Text: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10, NKJV).
In Genesis 14:1-24, Abram had returned from a successful hostage rescue mission in which he had saved his nephew Lot, Lot’s family, and the other people taken from Sodom. The king of Sodom was so grateful for the rescue that he offered Abram all the spoils of the battle. Abram not only refused the offer but gave a tithe of all that he possessed to Melchizedek.
Immediately after Abram’s tithing experience, the Lord said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1, NKJV). In effect, the Lord was telling Abram, “Don’t worry. I will be your protector and provider.” Then, much later, Moses told Israel as they were about to enter Canaan, “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year … that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always” (Deuteronomy 14:22-23, , NKJV).
Ellen G. White wrote: “Men were required to offer to God gifts for religious purposes before the definite system was given to Moses, even as far back as the days of Adam.” — Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 393.
What does all this mean for us today?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 21.
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I am reminded of a story of a wheat farmer who faithfully paid his tithe but suffered catastrophic losses three years in a row due to natural disasters so in the end he gave up his faith. The contrast between his outcome and the promises of Malachi 3: 10 bothered me a lot for a long time. It was only when I read the full tithing story that I understood that tithing has a welfare component that if properly implemented could have had a full storehouse capable of supporting this farmer through his losses.
We often read the promises of Malachi concerning tithing with this idea in the back of our mind. "If I pay tithe, God will bless me". When perhaps we should have the approach, "If we return our tithe, the storehouses will be full and we will be able to help one another." That is the blessing that God wants to give us and maybe our selfishness gets in the way.
Hi, Maurice. Another possible explanation occurs to me. The Malachi 3 promise of blessing seems clear. The person, family, or community that faithfully returns the tithe should be able to count on it. However, God is far more interested in the condition and motives of our heart than in our going through the motions of giving. So, perhaps the immediate appearance of a curse rather than a blessing, in material things, might be a test, not only of our faith, but of our motives. I'd be interested to know what the longer-term outcome for that wheat farmer might have been, had he kept the faith.
It could also have been a test of the church community. Rather than asking the question: "What is wrong with them?", is it useful to put some of the onus back on ourselves: "Did we let God down here?".
Yes, Maurice, I agree. For me, it all depends on where I place myself in imagination, since I was neither that farmer nor a part of his church community (to my knowledge). If I imagine the latter, and we failed to support him, then yes, we should blame ourselves. If I were that farmer, then I should be counting on God alone for support. Trusting in man is a fool's game. Jeremiah 17:5
Good morning Maurice, I think you're making a strong point. Can you elaborate a little more on the last paragraph, please.
Scripture is full of metaphors - symbols we are more familiar with designed to help us progressively better understand the realities of God's Kingdom that we are less familiar with (Luke 13:18,20). But if we interpret the metaphors apart from the 'big picture' of God's Kingdom, we risk misunderstanding of what these metaphors are aiming to portray.
What is the 'big picture'? There is only one way that true life is actually possible (John 14:6). And that way is when absolutely all aspects of reality 'live to give'. This fosters and maintains a perpetually harmonious system/reality that constantly builds-up rather than running-down: a never-ending "circuit of beneficence" as Ellen White describes and explains it.
So what is the metaphor of "contract" attempting to portray within such a 'big picture' reality. Might it be an agreement between two parties who live to give - a Benefactor who lives to give to a beneficent recipient so that the beneficent recipient, in turn, only receives in order that they may give to benefit others? And might the tithing component be but one further metaphor designed to help preserve ongoing awareness of the above reality as the basis of true life - everyone and everything living to give?
Hi Brother Phil, I like your post.
I never give to "receive" it back; however, if God blesses me by giving it back to me, then I will take His blessings and be happy. I give because I want to help the church in finishing God's work, the commission that Jesus told His disciples to do before He ascended to His Father, in Matthew 28:18-20. I may not be able to do the work that His disciples did, but I can give to the church, who can then send other disciples out to do the work.
Also, I give to the poor because I want to help them in their situation. I can't solve their problems, or rescue them out of their poverty; but I can give an offering to the church to help them, or just give a nice offering to them personally. I try to give the homeless people in my community as much loose money as I can, hoping it will help to sustain them for a little while longer. And I don't worry that I am giving them money to support their bad habits; I leave that in the hands of the Lord and hope that His Holy Spirit is whispering God's word to them, as He does with me.
Also, I'm not bragging on myself, but I have always been a 10+10 giver. And I never worried (for 39 years now) about what I would do with the little that I have left; I want to make sure that the pastors, and my local church, have all that they needed to do God's work. I never think, "Is God going to bless me because I returned my tithe and offering?" My reason for giving my tithes and offering was not based on receiving God's blessings as a result, I always knew that God would bless me anyhow, and in the way He wants to bless me. I return my tithe and offering to support the church of God, and His workers. I don't want to ever hear my pastor, or anyone in my church, say "Well, we would be able to do this or that, but we don't have the funds". I will give as much as I can [to the point that my husband will threaten to leave me] in order for the church to do what it is called by God to do. And because of my attitude about tithe and offering, I have never had to worry about money problems, or how I would afford to pay for something. I'm not rich by any definition of the word or by the world standards, I'm just comfortable in the Lord; I have enough to be happy and blessed in the Lord.
Lastly, part of the "big picture" is our attitude and motives toward God. Are we going to continue to use God as a Santa Claus? Or do we love God and our community enough to do God's work (or give for the work to be done), and help prepare our communities for the Second Advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It's all about Jesus; it's all about our attitude toward Him.
If we don't have the right attitude toward God (and He is still working on my attitude), then we need to start there. We need to pray as King David prayed, "create in me a 'clean heart', O God, and renew the 'right spirit' within me", Psalms 51:10. God will do this for you. He is definitely working on me, to change my stony heart, and to change my desires to be in line with His desires.
Be blessed!!
Thanks for your contribution, Toni. Your experience reflects Matthew 6:33 - Jesus' invitation to join in the beneficent ways of God's Kingdom, and God will provide what is needed for us to do that. We are blessed via focusing on being a blessing to others, even though we are not being a blessing to others to get blessed ourselves. That's just how true life operates.
The returning of the tithe is our expression of who God is to us, and our faithfulness to Him.
We must be careful not to link tithing with who God is to us and our faithfulness to Him. Some people tithe because they have been taught to do so and are afraid that they will be "cursed with a curse" if they do not give and "showered with blessings" if they do. It becomes an if/then contract and they expect all things to go well if they tithe. It makes your statement true in a different sense. Depending on how a person sees God, or who God is to them, they can tithe faithfully out of fear or faith. We can perform religious duties and in the end have no real relationship with Christ. Love God first and seek His kingdom, and He will help us to honor His word in faith.
Reading through the Scripture passages for this week, I am again impressed about the deeper meaning of giving a tithe; to share the ‘increase’ God blesses us with. In the context of the bigger picture of giving and sharing, it appears that we are shown how to live with each other like a family, and to be a friend to the stranger. I am aware of the warning that a time will come when “the love of most will grow cold” - Matth.24:12; let us be prepared.
True sharing cannot be done without caring first. Its effect is multidimensional - having different aspects. How does it affect the giver, the receiver, the circumstances, the future of ourselves, others, and the community we live in, or the world?
The effects of an act of giving and sharing is like a pebble having been tossed into the still pond. We can watch the ripples spread out into all directions; even reaching the gates of heaven. We ought to care for one another, because this is how God's Love will spread - Matt.6:19-21.
Being aware that every act of kindness creates effects way beyond what the ‘giver’ may be able to observe, ‘giving’ becomes our way of life. If all who believe in the goodness and righteous ways of God would live according to “bringing all the tithes and offerings into the storehouse” - being generous and attentive, ready with a willing heart that wants to do what is good and right - who knows how our world would look today? Deut. 12:7-9
I have no struggle with returning of tithes to the Lord but I am still curious about one thing. Abraham returned tithes to Melchizedek in the one record we have of his tithing. Where or to who did tithe get returned to otherwise? The same can be asked regarding Jacob’s vow to return tithes. Again I have no issue of returning tithes to the storehouse in support of those who dedicated their lives to the ministry of the gospel.
Surely Abraham paid a once only tithe of what he had taken in battle to Melchizedek, the standard payment due a king for the spoils of war. “of all that he possessed” as stated in the lesson could be misleading. He also kept nothing for himself except what his men had eaten.
Jacob could have paid tithe by burnt offerings, probably following the example of his father and grandfather and may be as far back as Adam.
Good point—and one more detail that may be useful. He did not pay tithes to anyone else but to Melchizedek who was priest of the Most High God. And he also refused to accept gifts from the pagan king.
Nice, Clifford, and I got you. I also give tithes to an (very) organized church, but not because of the church. My tithes and offerings are given to God, Whom I believe to be the real owner of the church. I really do hope that the clergy can deal with the right sacredness of it, but even this is not really one of my worries. I give back because I'm the one who needs to get the right relationship with money/material gifts, and also because I have faith in my Lord's covenant. I do my part, as best as I can.
Remember that just more recently, degenerated mankind started to need the written word, because of its poor memory quality. Before writings became popular, things were transmitted through generations only by the spoken word, once said, memory recorded! That's why one of the best ways to remember a piece of information is to get it associated with other senses, like emotional, for example. "God longs for my heart", because what's 'written' on my heart is much more difficult to forget!
It is possible to return "the tithe," and yet be "a cold worshipper of God in His place of worship." And that was what Jesus said about the spiritual leaders of His day, that they did this very faithfully but lacked what was more important, "justice and mercy," and mentioned these as being "the weightier matters of the law."
Hi Brother Pete, I definitely understand what you are saying.
Jesus addressed your concern too. In Matthew 23:23 — King James Version (KJV 1900), He told them what He thought of their "self-righteous" attitudes:
So, Jesus is saying that He expects us to be faithful in our tithes and offerings, as well as being faithful in our covenant relationship with Him.
We need to pray for our brothers and sisters that God's Holy Spirit will touch your hearts to let go of their "self-righteousness". That's all we can do.
God's blessing to you and your family.
2 Corinthians 9,6-7:
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
Whatever we give 10%, more, or less, it counts for nought, if not given with a cheerful heart.
And yet, in Malachi 3:10-11 God challenges His people to "Prove Me (Him...".) With the 10% of our increase. And He Promises to open His Windows from Heaven and pour us out a blessing and to also rebuke the devourer for our sakes etc,. God has proved Himself very true to me in this Promise of His in Malachi, over and over and over---Praise His Holy Name for this!
I truly believe that King Melchizedek solidified to Abraham the paying of the tithe to (Him, King Melchizedek,) not just that one time recorded in Genesis but from that time on and on and on and Isaac probably did it too and so did Jacob and then all the "Faithful Tithe Paying Patriarchs" Joseph and Moses; and then, King David, etc. and etc. to the Sanctuary and to the Priests of the Tribe of Levi and their service to God as God's Salvational Work in that Sanctuary then.