Although
we have learned that God’s established tithe is edible, there were people that
did bring Cash, plus a fifth part penalty, in place of their tithe to God’s
Temple. Leviticus 27:31 reads, “If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add
a fifth of the value to it.”
The key word of the above verse is “redeem,”
which means to buy back, or to pay the price. For example, we are redeemed by
the Blood of Jesus. Galatians 3:13a reads, “Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law…” The Jewish farmers in the Promised Land could redeem, or buy back,
the tithes of their crops and cattle with cash, plus the added penalty of one
fifth of the value.
In other words, if a farmer wishes
to keep his tithe of grain worth $1,000, he can pay the cash amount of $1,200. A
fifth is equal to 20%; therefore, 20% of 1,000 is 200. God and Moses did not
want cash, currency, or money in any of its forms, but for those that insisted on
keeping the tithe, they could do so at a cost to them of a fifth part added onto
the monetary value of the tithe.
Therefore, it is highly unlikely
that any Israelite would want to bring cash to the Temple, no matter how rich he
or she was because it would cost a lot more for them to use cash as a tithe.
Nevertheless, because we see it in God’s Word, chances are that there were people
that preferred to pay the penalty and did so because cash was available to
them.
This penalty for keeping the tithe also
prevented many of the Israelites from substituting money for the tithe, which
was food! Leviticus 27:31 would make no sense if the tithe had been cash or a
form of currency. This Scripture also proves yet again that cash was available
enough to have a cash tithe if God wanted it that way.
But then why would Moses allow this
cash penalty if God didn’t want the tithe to be cash? This is because the
Israelites’ hearts were hardened. This same situation happened in the case of
divorce. Moses allowed the divorce that God never wanted. Matthew 19:8 reads,
“Jesus replied, ‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts
were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.’”
In the same way, many modern hearts
have become hardened due to a lack of faith in God’s Word.
17 comments:
Dear Rev, I truly was touched by your post. I pray that there will be more Churches that will follow your step i.e stop deceiving people in the name of tithe.
Thank you Aino.
I’m glad you and others are being blessed with God’s truth.
In a few months I plan to have a 10 minute video titled, “Jesus is Our Tithe.”
I hope you’ll be able to benefit from it too.
Regards,
Rev. Amós
Hello Aino,
Back in December you posted a comment on my church blog and I just wanted to thank you once again and invite you to view a video a recently posted on youtube.
Here's the link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6kOJsLuhBE
You can also view the video by searching, “Jesus is our Tithe” on youtube.
Your questions and comments are welcome.
Regards,
Rev. Amos Ortiz
Excellent.
Well gone are the days that majority of people use to be farmers and cattle owners. The tithe was for the priests to have food to eat, so they can always be willing to serve the people. In this modern day, people cannot farm and pay with produce as tithe to the priest. They need money to run the church. Farm products can't pay for electricity, Soul winning etc. Please let's not deceive ourselves, times have changed.
Hello Gloria Adotevi:
Thank you for your comment. You err because you assume the Israelites didn’t have money, and thus you think that a produce tithe was set in place of a money tithe. Please do not deceive yourself thinking the ancients didn’t have cash money.
Here’s some of the Bible truth about money…
• Genesis 17:12 Israelites had enough money to buy servants.
• Genesis 33:19 Abraham bought a field for a hundred pieces of silver.
• Genesis 37:28 Joseph was sold for twenty shekels.
• Genesis 42:35 Joseph’s brothers had pouches full of money.
• Exodus 38:26 over 600,000 men paid the atonement money while roaming in the desert.
• Leviticus 25:37 Israelites warned not to charge interest when lending money.
• Numbers 3:48 Israelites ordered to pay the money for the redemption.
• Joshua 24:32 speaks of the land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver.
• 2 Samuel 24:24 David bought a threshing floor and oxen with fifty silver shekels.
• 2 Kings 5:26 Elisha’s servant thought it was a good idea to accept money from Naaman.
• 2 Kings 12:4 speaks of money from offerings, census, personal vows and voluntary giving.
• 2 Kings 12:11 money to pay carpenters, builders, masons and stonecutters.
• 2 Kings 12:16 the money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings belonged to the priest.
• 2 Kings 15:20 each wealthy person had to give fifty shekels to the king of Assyria.
• 1 Kings 16:24 the hill of Samaria was bought for two talents of silver
• 2 Chronicles 24:5 Israel paid annual money dues to the temple.
• Ezra 3:7 money given to the masons and carpenters so that they would bring cedar logs by sea.
• Ezra 7:17 money to buy bulls, rams and male lambs.
• Nehemiah 5:4 borrowing money to pay the king’s tax on fields and vineyards.
• Esther 4:7 money to pay for the destruction of the Jews.
• Micah 3:11 prophets tell fortunes for money.
• Matthew 17:27 Peter finds the tax money in the mouth of a fish.
• Matthew 21:12 tables full of money.
• Matthew 22:21 the money for paying taxes had Caesar’s image on it.
• Matthew 25:27 money on deposit with the bankers.
• Matthew 26:9 perfume can be sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.
• Matthew 27:3 Judas sells Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
• Matthew 28:12 they gave the soldiers a large sum of [bribe] money.
• Mark 12:41 a whole crowd of people putting their money into the temple treasury.
• Luke 16:14 the Pharisees loved money.
• Luke 19:2 Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector.
• Luke 21:2 Even the widow had two mites.
• John 2:14 a money exchange.
• John 12:6 the keeper of the money bag helps himself to what was put into it.
• Acts 3:3 people begged for money.
• Acts 4:34 houses being sold and the money used to support church members.
• Acts 5:3 like today’s money-loving pastors, Ananias and Sapphira lied about money.
• Acts 8:18 the Spirit was given at the laying of hands, but someone offered money for it.
• Acts 16:16 girl earns a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
• Acts 22:28 a lot of money was paid for citizenships.
I pray that through God’s Word you will be able to see that the tithe and money are two very different things.
God bless you.
I am currently writing on a series called should we pay tithes? and i would like to say that I found your post very valuable. Thanks, and would also love you to check out mine to make your contributions as God leads you. Thank you
Thank you for your comment, Messenger.
Although not edited, please feel free to use the information on this blog. You might also get some insights from the sermons I have on YouTube at www.youtube.com/channel/UC-K8Ke5OHzLRL8sjXlIk2PQ
God bless you.
I love you Sir. Its been bordering me for long how they've been destroying Christianity. Christians don't tithe. Jesus is Enough!
Thank you so much Rev. Sir. I have learnt something new today
I show the truth in the word of God..
Wait but scripture tells us that someone came to Jesus trying to get him to say they didn't have to pay taxes, then Jesus responds who's face is on that coin and the man says caesar and Jesus speaks "then give to caesar what is caesar's and give to God what is God's....Jesus definitely meant money
Hello Jacob. Thank you for your comment. Just because the Pharisees and Herodians were talking about tax money doesn't mean that Jesus answered that money should be given to God. To find out what should be given to God all we have to do is read what Jesus said God is seeking from man. Now, if you’re not sure of what it is God is seeking from mankind, let me know and I’ll tell you. In the meantime, keep in mind that the question Jesus asked the hypocrites is still applicable today. In other words, show me the currency from which you say tithes should be given. What image is on the currency? Certainly not God’s image. Thus, to paraphrase Jesus, “give to the IRS what belongs to the IRS, etc.…” God bless you.
Yes it's
a truth
Praise the Lord, Thanks for all your teachings,now my question, should Christians pay Tithe on not? In respect to Malachi 3
Thank you for your question. The answer is… Absolutely not. Christians’ have no business paying tithes. Tithing is not for Christians and Christians should not pay tithes. The book of Malachi was written for the Jews. Malachi 1:1 is very clear, “the word of the LORD to Israel…” Verses 2-3 make it all the clearer that even those that are related to the Jews have NO part in what Malachi has to say, “Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau…”
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