Tithing - Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy mentions the tithe in three separate portions. The first section in Deuteronomy 12 is the longest passage found anywhere in the Bible regarding this command. Many of the previous directives are restated, as much of Deuteronomy restates previous issues, hence it’s meaning “second law.” Immediately apparent in this passage is the food issue. Tithing again only refers to food or, more broadly stated, agricultural produce. Much can be learned from this passage.


Deuteronomy 12:5-19


12:5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: 


12:6 And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave
offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: 


12:7 And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.


12:8 Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.


12:9 For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you.


12:10 But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; 


12:11 Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD: 


12:12 And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.


12:13 Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: 


12:14 But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.


12:15 Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.


12:16 Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.


12:17 Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand: 


12:18 But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.


12:19 Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.


Deuteronomy 14:22-29


14:22 Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.


14:23 And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the
place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.


14:24 And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: 


14:25 Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: 


14:26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, 


14:27 And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.


14:28 At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: 


14:29 And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.




Deuteronomy 26:12-15
26:12 When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; 


26:13 Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them.


26:14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.


26:15 Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.


1. Apparently Israel still did not get it. The tithe was a specific command by God based upon blessing. If you’ve been blessed to have ten, then tithe. If you’ve not been blessed to have ten, then don’t worry about tithing.


2. Another reason God instituted the tithe was to feed those who could not feed themselves. Levites could not feed themselves, therefore, Jewish farmers provided for
them. Destitute could not feed themselves, therefore, Jewish farmers provided for them, and so on. This was an Old Testament welfare of  sorts, which illustrates God’s immense planning and provision to take care of the Jews.


3. Again, and it will be stated again because God knows mankind’s foolishness, God shows that this is food to be eaten. In this passage, God is commanding the farmer to eat of his own tithe, as well as the servants and Levites.


4. Notice Deuteronomy 12:12, 18. There is rejoicing to be taking place! Because it’s Deuteronomy, I will restate. There is rejoicing to be taking place! I do not want to seem flippant, but this is a family gathering, a party. It is to be a joyous time, because God had supplied physical need. Does this sound like a stark contrast to modern “tithing” practices? It should. Verse 15 further illustrates the eating because of the blessing. Jews could even eat of unclean during this time, because God supplied it! They still could not eat blood. While on this point, when was the last time you saw a dollar bill, quarter, dime, nickel or penny bleed?


For those who assert that food was the ancient monetary method, please refer to the next Deuteronomic tithing passage in chapter 14.


Again, the field is bringing forth the tithing substance, that is food. Fields do not grow money. Haven’t you ever heard money does not grow on trees? It never has. This passage reiterates that only those who have fields and produce the required food level (10) can tithe. A lawyer who owns no field cannot tithe, nor was he required to do so. Only farmers tithed, as they are the only ones who could meet the tithing prerequisites. Other things should be mentioned as they are illustrated and expounded
upon.


1. Tithing came from the increase. This is not the firstfruits, which was a separate offering altogether, and represented a picture of Christ at the Resurrection, and then completed by the Holy Spirit during the other Jewish festival, Pentecost. Christ is not our tithe, He is much more than our tenth. He is our all, and He certainly demands much more than our tenth, as wonderfully illustrated by the widow with her mites.


2. Tithing was a yearly issue. It could only be completed after the harvest was done. Only then could a farmer know if he met the 10 standard or not. It was only based on blessing, and was never meant as a burden. Again, if you were prosperous, you tithed, if you were not prosperous, God did not impress any further burdens.


3. Verse 23 mentions no money, only food.


4. Verse 24, however, does mention money, but for a specific purpose. There was a tithe to be eaten at home “within thy gates” according to earlier passages, but this tithe was to be eaten in the place that God designated, that is where He placed his name. Jews would have to travel to that designated place and rejoice and eat the tithe upon arrival. Sometimes this journey was too difficult to travel with herds or great abundance. God foresaw this issue, as Israel is a mountainous region, and allowed for the produce to be sold only if the money received would be used to buy further produce upon arriving at the designation place. When a Jew arrived, God gave him carte blanche to buy whatever he wanted to eat. Money was not the tithe, it only represented what was to be tithed. God did not want money. He wanted rejoicing and eating. God did not tell the Jew to eat money, but He did 
command that food would be eaten.


5. This passage clearly answers the assertion that “food was the money of ancient times” argument. It was not, because money and produce are mentioned together in this passage. They were separate entities.


6. There was a three year tithe. Verse 29 mentions when the tithe could be eaten at home, every three years. The other tithes were to be at God’s designated place every year. Notice that this is not the temple. Each tribe had their own designated places to eat the tithe. If this was, as is often asserted, the church, then the Jew would always go to the Temple to eat his tithe, but he did not go there.


7. Blessing is mentioned in verse 29 also. This is implied in other passages, but stated here. God provided the initial blessing, and then the Jewish farmer was to praise God for receiving that blessing. In turn, God would bless again. This is how God works. He provides, we praise, and He further provides. The Tithe festival was based upon the initial blessing. The Jewish farmer did nothing to merit that blessing. His extra blessing was merited once he acknowledged God’s provision. Today’s method is do this to receive that. God nowhere in the Bible operated on this basis. He always provided the blessing first, and then added to that blessing based upon how mankind reacted either to life or to death. To bottom line this thought – Jews tithed because they were blessed. They did not tithe to get that initial blessing. If all of the tithing passages are read as a whole, even including Abraham especially, this will be coherently seen.


The final Deuteronomic mention of tithing comes in chapter 26. It again restates the fact that tithing was –


1. Food – Verses 12 and 14.


2. Given not in mourning – Verse 14. The tithe was always a rejoicing time.


3. Tithes were provided for those who could not produce a tithe, that is Levite, Stranger, fatherless, widow – Verse 12.


4. The blessing mentioned in verse 15 applies to Israel, and it is not because of the tithe, but it is because of God's unconditional covenant established with Abraham in Genesis 12. That covenant was reestablished throughout the first five books of the Old Testament, and then throughout the remaining 34 books of the Old Testament. That blessing was not monetary, however, it was spiritual as will be seen once Malachi’s prophecy is understood.
To this point in the Old Testament, God established the tithe as part of the Law. He had clear dictates regarding who, what, where, when, and how the tithe was to be done. None of those commands fits today’s modern method of tithing. What changed? The Bible? Or Man? If you have read this far in my posts, please continue until the end. Certainly there are still many questions such as “But I tithe and see that God blesses me because I tithe.” As well as many other common statements. Please, do not disregard the Biblical tithing statements and practices. Apply them to contemporary situations and discern truth. Your premises may be faulty.