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Lev. 27:30 (God's commandment to the Israelites) "And
all the tithe of the land, whether of
the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. IT IS HOLY
TO THE LORD."
Lev. 27:32-33 (God's commandment to the Israelites) "And
concerning the tithe of the herd
or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be HOLY
TO THE
LORD. He shall not inquire whether it is GOOD OR BAD..." |
Firstly, there were several types of tithes, according
to the source of Israelites' income: the tithes
from the land (seed and fruit) and the tithes from the domestic animals (flock
and herd). In other
words, God expected His people to set aside one tenth of ALL "increase"
(income).
The second point worth remembering is the fact that tithes
were SELECTED AT RANDOM. They
were not supposed to come from the "best portion" or the "fat portion" as
you may have often
heard, but it was a randomly selected portion "whether it is good or
bad".
The third and a very important point is: the tithes were
HOLY TO THE LORD. What does this
mean? It simply means that they were to be used ACCORDING TO GOD'S INSTRUCTION
and
not for any other purpose, no matter how 'godly' that purpose may
appear.
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Deu. 14:27-29 (God's commandment to the Israelites) "You
shall not forsake the Levite...
at the end of EVERY THIRD YEAR you shall BRING THE TITHE of your produce
of
THAT YEAR and store it up WITHIN YOUR GATES. And the LEVITE, and the
FATHERLESS and the WIDOW... may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord
your
God may BLESS YOU in all the work of your hand which you do." |
As you can see, God has not forgotten those whom He has
called into His ministry, He has
allocated them a just portion - on average, about ONE THIRD OF 10% of an
ordinary Israelite's
income. The Israelites were to leave one tenth of their income of every THIRD
year "within your
gates" (this is the storehouse!) from which the Levites and those in need
were to get their food.
This "storehouse" is mentioned in Malachi 3, and mind you, it is to be accessed
not only by the
Levites, but by the poor as well.
Levites were allocated cities within each tribal land
("within your gates") in which they were to live
with their families and, apart from houses, they were allocated "pasture
land". This pasture land
was a part of the storehouse in which the tithes were deposited: some of
the tithes were in the form
of grain, seed, wine, oil and other farm produce, and some were actually
live domestic animals,
rather than killed meat. These animals which were received as a tithe were
to be pastured till they
were taken and killed for food, either by the Levites, or by those in need.
Therefore, the
storehouse mentioned in Malachi 3 is not the place of worship, but rather
a place within each tribal
land, easily accessible to the local Levites, the poor and the strangers
on their journey.
God mentions the third year - "the year of tithing"
again:
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Deu. 26:12 (God's commandment to the Israelites) "When
you have finished laying aside
all the tithe of your increase IN THE THIRD YEAR - THE YEAR OF TITHING -
and
have given it to the LEVITE, the STRANGER, the FATHERLESS and the WIDOW,
so
that they may eat within your gates and be filled..." |
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