UNDERSTANDING TITHES AND OFFERINGS
Religionists usually overlook the fact that the first Biblical reference to giving something to God appears in Genesis 14:1-7 where the items given are called offerings, not tithes, but they convey the introduce the idea of paying/giving something to God.
When we investigate tithes and offerings further, we find that the distinctions between tithes and offerings blurred to the point of confusion about what a tithe is, who receives it, and what is done with it after it is received:
Numbers 18:8-32, 8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, “Now behold, I Myself have given you charge of My offerings, even all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual allotment.
COMMENTARY: Here we find offerings also called by several other terms: holy gifts; portion; perpetual allotment. We conclude from these different names that tithes and offerings are not so simple that a conversion to money will accurately satisfy God’s intentions.
It is instructive to notice that the Hebrew word “kol” which is translated as “perpetual” in verse 8 is the same word which is translated as “whole” in Malachi 3:9-10. These verses are without a doubt the scriptures which are most often quoted by religious leaders who are trying to motivate their followers to pay some kind of tithe or offering to support their ministries. Thus it can be said that a perpetual allotment is the same thing as a whole tithe.
It is also instructive to notice that the Aaron, the high priest, has charge over the offerings, portions, tithes, or allotments. This observation raises the question about the recipient of the offerings: Is it God or is it the high priest?
9 “This shall be yours from the most holy gifts reserved from the fire; every offering of theirs, even every grain offering and every sin offering and every guilt offering, which they shall render to Me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. 10 “As the most holy gifts you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. 11 “This also is yours, the offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel; I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual allotment. Everyone of your household who is clean may eat it. 12 “All the best of the fresh oil and all the best of the fresh wine and of the grain, the first fruits of those which they give to the LORD, I give them to you. 13 “The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours; everyone of your household who is clean may eat it. 14 “Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.
COMMENTARY: The issue becomes even more confusing here where we find that all of several kinds of offerings (e.g. gifts, wine, first fruits, sin, guilt, etc.) rendered to God belong to the high priest and his sons and that they are to eat those offerings. We can visualize eating wine, fruit, grain and oil, because these are natural products associated with food. But we are greatly challenged to visualize eating invisible, intangible things like sin and guilt. We might also rightly wonder how these things can be called holy. It all adds to the confusion about the nature of tithes and offerings that can only be understood after we first understand Bread, Food and Wine as spiritual commodities.
Despite the mystery of tithes an offerings, religious leaders have effectively and selectively used scripture to convince and deceive followers into believing that it is reasonable to convert grain and animal offerings to money needed to support religious organizations and pay their salaries. But, they conveniently skip over the sin and guilt offerings because neither they nor their followers understand Biblical symbolism. If they did understand and apply symbolism, the entire religious system would fall apart for lack of financial support. And that is exactly what God had in mind when he gave us the story of Jesus and the money-changers.
15 “Every first issue of the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer to the LORD, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.
COMMENTARY: The mystery deepens here where we see that God gives the firstborn of both men and unclean animals to the high priest. But, the command that these should be redeemed strongly suggests that they are not to be kept and eaten by the high priest.
16 “As to their redemption price, from a month old you shall redeem them, by your valuation, five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. 17 “But the firstborn of an ox or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall offer up their fat in smoke as an offering by fire, for a soothing aroma to the LORD. 18 “Their meat shall be yours; it shall be yours like the breast of a wave offering and like the right thigh. 19 “All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you.” 20 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.
21 “To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting. 22 “The sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting again, or they will bear sin and die. 23 “Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 “For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore * I have said concerning them, ‘They shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’ ” 25 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
26 “Moreover, you shall speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you take from the sons of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. 27 ‘Your offering shall be reckoned to you as the grain from the threshing floor or the full produce from the wine vat. 28 ‘So you shall also present an offering to the LORD from your tithes, which you receive from the sons of Israel; and from it you shall give the LORD’S offering to Aaron the priest. 29 ‘Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the LORD, from all the best of them, the sacred part from them.’ 30 “You shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor, and as the product of the wine vat. 31 ‘You may eat it anywhere *, you and your households, for it is your compensation in return for your service in the tent of meeting.
32 ‘You will bear no sin by reason of it when you have offered the best of it. But you shall not profane the sacred gifts of the sons of Israel, or you will die.’ “
COMMENTARY: Serving God is symbolically equated with war. We first saw this with Abraham, then with Moses and now with Joshua. When Abraham was successful in war, the spoils of war were people and his kinsmen. Immediately after the war, Abraham gave the tithe to Melchizadek, king of Salem. Melchizadek is a type of God. Thus, in giving the tithe to Melchizadek, Abraham gave the people and the kinsmen he had rescued to God. He did not consider that the people were his to keep even though he had won them in battle. He refused to give up the people to the King of Sodom because keeping the people was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Adam that he would be the father of many nations.
In Genesis 14:17-20 , Abraham gives a tithe to Melchizadek. But the tithe here is not of agricultural produce but of the spoils of war with pagan kings. This is of no help, however, unless we understand what God means by the spoils of war.
The spoils of war is one of the most tricky and nuanced symbolic topics in the Bible. In fact the concept of spoils of war cannot be understood without first understanding the concepts discussed in the following pages: