Tithing - Numbers

Numbers further elaborates a tithing pattern that Genesis and Leviticus already illustrated, namely that tithing had to deal with food. Numbers also exemplifies who collected tithes, that is the Levites only. In context, let’s study this passage.


Numbers 18:23-32


18:23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.


18:24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.


18:25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,


18:26 Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.


18:27 And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.


18:28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD's heave offering to Aaron the priest.


18:29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.


18:30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.


18:31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.


18:32 And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.




1. Numbers 18 is detailing a list of Levitical duties. Note that Levites were not always priests (I Chronicles 23:2-6, I Chronicles 24:1-19, I Chronicles 25:7-31, I Chronicles 26:1-19, I Chronicles 26:20-28, I Chronicles 26:29-31, I Chronicles 28:11-13), but priests were always Levites – except for the gross sin taking place in Judges. All of this is stated for an emphatic denial that today’s pastors are yesterday’s Levites. They are not equal. The Levites were the only group that God specifically ordained to collect any portion of the tithe. Yes, the Levite only collected a portion of the tithe, not all, which this passage, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy collectively state. Further, Levites were Levites by birth, not by schooling or training. No one can train to be a Levite if he was born a German, Russian, Australian, Gadite, Reubenite, or anything else.


2. Of the tithe that was received by the Levites, one tenth of that was to be offered in a separate offering, the “Heave Offering”, which is further outlined in Exodus 29:27-28; Leviticus 7:14, 32; Numbers 15:17-21; Numbers 18:8-32; Numbers 31:25-41; Deuteronomy 12:5-19. In each instance, this heave offering was food from the tithe, which was also food. In each instance of the tithe and heave offering, eating was involved as a direct command from God see Numbers 18:31. Both commands were to demonstrate how God had provided, and the festival was one of joy for that provision. Which was further clarified in Deuteronomy.


3. The place to enjoy the tithe was neither the temple nor the church, it was in the home with the household. Much has been made of “bring your tithes into the storehouse”, and the storehouse’s being viewed as modern churches. Refer to the initial Biblical explanation of a storehouse, it was not the temple, but something separate, and for food
storage. Levites would not eat of the heave offering from the tithe in the storehouse, they enjoyed it at home. They also did not use the tithe’s proceeds to pay bills or build bigger buildings. This was viewed as pollution by God in Numbers 18:32b, and the Bible reader has an example of how God punished such pollution by Eli’s sons who used this as well as other offerings improperly in I Samuel 2:1-4:22. Understandably, most balk at such an assertion, because after all, “how then does one pay for the things of the church? Buildings, bills, busses, etc…?” This question, oddly enough, was never asked in the Old or New Testaments. Why? Could it be because God had another method that He used for the “necessities”? These questions will be dealt with much more fully in the Why Go to Church? as well as further Tithing chapters. For now, one must ask, what is absolute need(s) for any gathering of believers? 


When answering the question, apply Ockham’s Razor, and cut away everything but what is necessary. What do you have left? Is money still needed in order to meet as a body of believers? Or can meetings still occur without money? Why or why not? These questions should reveal some perspective as to both how and why  a “church” operates.


The final mentions of the tithe in the Pentateuch are in Deuteronomy, and they are the most explicit. Moses, through the Holy Spirit, is covering all of his bases, so to speak, before he dies. Because of this approach, the tithe is fully comprehended, whereas, Genesis through Numbers may seem to leave holes. Deuteronomy fills in those holes leaving no doubt as to what the tithe was/is.