Transcript of YouTube video: http://youtu.be/zsYdZJi74zc
Hello, my name is Rev. Amos Ortiz, and this is the study,
Jesus and the Tithe.
We hear so much about the tithe today. Wouldn’t it be great
to have Jesus’ thoughts on the tithe? Well, His thoughts on the tithe can be
obtained by studying His words on the subject of the tithe. Let’s start with
Matthew 23:23. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected
the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You
should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
The Scribes and Pharisees were well-off. So why did Jesus
say it was okay for them to tithe spices? Did the Temple really need spices
from rich men? Shouldn’t Jesus have told them to tithe cash money from their
riches? The truth is, Jesus was not confused about His Father’s tithe, and He
clearly identifies it here as being edible and not a form of hard currency,
even when the tither is a rich person.
Why were these rich men tithing spices? Why not bigger foods
like pumpkins, corn, and tomatoes? Well, the Scribes and the Pharisees were not
about to give up their prestigious careers and take on farming, just to tithe. To
tithe, all they had to do was plant an herb garden in their backyards and bring
10% of the spices to the Temple.
Here’s some food for thought. God established a food tithe
in a time when there were no refrigerators or cans to preserve the foods. Yet
today, while we have many ways of preserving food which the world of antiquity
would never have dreamed of, many ministers insist on and even demand a cash tithe.
Like the Scribes and Pharisees, today’s money-loving ministers, in their own
defiant ways, are emphasizing the less important matters of the Law and
neglecting the more important matters of our faith, like honesty in God’s Word,
respect for God’s holy tithe, and love for those God has placed in our care.
We all know that Christians are not under the law. Because
of this, money-loving ministers claim that the tithe was not a matter of the
Law. However, we’ve just read where Jesus said, “you tithe spices, but you have
neglected the more important matters of the law.” Therefore, as per Jesus, the
tithe is a matter of the Law.
We should also be asking ourselves, “Being that our Lord
Jesus referred to tithing as one of the less important matters; why is it
constantly being mentioned in our churches?” Today’s money-loving ministers
also claim that the tithe used to be food because there was no cash currency, and
this too is a lie! See John 2:15b, “Jesus scattered the coins of the money
changers and overturned their tables.” There was so much money that men had
established currency exchange businesses within the Temple area!
According to the Law of Moses, if you lived too far to carry
your tithes and sacrifices to the Temple, you could travel with cash money. Upon
arriving, you would not offer a money tithe because that would be a
sacrilege and could get you expelled from the Temple! Instead, you would use
the money to repurchase your tithes and sacrifices, and then worship God.
However, many Jews had been scattered throughout the known world. So, the
currency they had was from other countries. These worshipers would have to
first exchange their foreign currency into shekels, and then use the shekels to
buy their locally grown tithes and sacrifices. Unfortunately, they were being
robbed in both transactions. And worst of all, God’s priests were just standing
by getting their cut of the proceeds. This is why Jesus was so upset.
Anyway, for those that insist on a cash tithe, Jesus tells
us exactly what happens when people tithe their money: they exalt themselves. In
Luke 18, Jesus tells a Parable of a super tither. On verse 12, the tither says,
“I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” And on verse 14, Jesus
makes it clear; “all those who exalt themselves will be humbled.” The all
tither exalted himself in many ways, but according to the Law of Moses, he
exalted himself through his tithing, because tithing was only from the produce
of the Promised Land. See Leviticus 27:30: “A tithe of everything from the
land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord;
it is holy to the Lord.” But this man claimed to tithe of all he received. This
would include things that were not holy to the Lord!
When Aaron’s sons offered a “strange fire,” God killed them.
Then the Lord gave us this warning: “you must distinguish between holy and
common things.” Therefore, any tithe
offering outside of God’s specifications is a strange tithe and, at minimal,
will cause our faith to weaken, because if we can ignore what Jesus said about
the tithe, we will also ignore other things He has said.
And this my friends, I’ve witnessed firsthand, so called “Christians”
that send a cash tithe to the church and are nowhere to be found near the
church. I’ve seen churches full of adulterers that have claimed irreconcilable
differences as grounds to divorce and remarry and are allowed to function as
directors and overseers within the church, simply because they pay a money tithe.
They have exalted themselves by means of a strange tithe, just like the man in
Jesus’ parable. Dear friends, there is a better way, for God loves you, not
your money. When Jesus was asked “What must we do to do the works God
requires?” the answer was very simple: “believe in the one God has sent.”
To learn more about God’s tithe, please view the other short
studies on my YouTube Channel or visit tithedeception.blogspot.com.
Thank you for listening.
God bless.
