Published by Notice that this verse from Genesis says Abel brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock. It’s not clear if Cain’s offering was not from the best of his harvest, or just discards or leftovers, but he knew he’d done something wrong. God gently reminds him of this as Cain becomes jealous and resentful. When God confronts him with his displeasure about the offering, he says, but if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, Cain makes no attempt to defend himself.
And it does say that Abel offered the best from his flock. Cain knew he was in the wrong, yet could not master his resentment, and took his brother out in the field and killed him. The book of Job is now thought to predate the books written by Moses, so he wouldn’t have been under the law, when he was offering daily sacrifices for his children.
His sons loved to party and Job was worried that in their drunkenness, they might curse God and die. His daily prayers and sacrifices built a hedge around his children. Job 1:10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.
It says that making these sacrifices for his children was part of his regular custom, along with having them purified after one of their feasts. And it says he was considered blameless and upright.
And Abram built an altar to the Lord at Shechem on his first trip to Canaan, although his first tithe didn’t occur until after he and his nephew Lot , returned from Egypt. Their wealth increased greatly while in Egypt and some of it was the direct result of a lie Abram told Pharaoh. He told him that Sharai was his sister, not his wife. Pharaoh gave Abram cattle, donkeys, camels and sheep, to encourage him to allow Sharai to marry him. After Pharaoh and everyone in his household got sick, he begged Abram to leave and did not take back the livestock that was basically a bride price.
But it was their wealth that caused a lot of arguments and strife between Lot and Abram’s herdsmen. The land could not support the entire herd. As they parted company, Abram gave Lot first choice as to the best land on which to graze the livestock. Lot went East of the Jordan, as the lush valley seemed to be the best place for the herd. He made the mistake of pitching his tent near Sodom. When the king of Sodom went to war, Lot was carried off along with all his possessions. Abram and his allies went after Lot and were victorious. They recovered all of Lot “s possessions and some of the wealth of the kings allied to the king of Sodom.
In celebration of the victory, Abram not only refused any part of the spoils of the war for himself, he gave the king of Salem, Melchisadek, a tenth of his rightful share. He had been told that none of his wealth should come from that war.
But when the Mosaic Law was written, the tithe was income scaled. The only part of the prescribed sacrifices for the Lord that wasn’t income scaled was the atonement offering, which was one half of a temple shekel in silver. For the tithe a tenth of the livestock was to be brought to the temple at harvest time. It was to be part of a feast of thanksgiving to God.
Part of the grain offering was stored in the temple, reflecting the system Joseph had set up in Egypt as a hedge against drought and starvation.
The tithe was not required while the Israelites were in the wilderness, because they were still eating manna on a daily basis. The Lord did not require the tithe until after the Hebrew children had conquered the promised land and had constructed a permanent temple.
The Lord was merciful and fair in establishing the tithe. So much so that, every three years, widows, fatherless children and aliens got the bulk of it. as a recognition of how much more difficult their lives were than those that could afford to sacrifice sheep and cattle. This seems to have been conveniently forgotten by some protestant sects as they raise funds for various missions of their churches.
And that’s not the only thing that’s been conveniently forgotten when it comes to the tithe. God was very fair in setting up this obligation. It was not collected until there was a permanent temple in Jerusalem. That was almost five hundred years after it was written in Leviticus.
And the tithe was really a minor part of that financial system, which was very fair to poor people. Every seven years, everyone got free from all their debts. Everyone, even foreigners, uncircumcised neighbors. Also, interest on loans was not compounded, and there was a limit as to how much could be charged.
Then there was the jubilee – a 50 year anniversary in which all sales of property could be reversed. That concludes part one of our discussion about the tithe. Please join us next week
for part two that discusses the tithe and other aspects of the Hebrew financial system that benefited the poor.
Another provision for poor people under Mosaic law was gleaning the fields. This is more clearly explained in the Book of Ruth. Naomi and her husband went to Moab during a famine, leaving their land in Jerusalem , untended. While there, their two daughters married.
Naomi had massive grief as her story opens in the book named for one of her daughter’s in law. Not only has her husband just died, but also both of her son’s in law. Naomi urges both of her daughter’s in law to return to their families, but Ruth refuses to abandon her mother-in-law, and returns to Jerusalem with Naomi. Several verses describe Ruth while gleaning the fields.
Think about that while you listen to this music. Then I’ll return to discuss it further. Jesus and his disciples were confronted about gleaning the fields on the Sabbath. This is another challenge to some television preachers who now say Jesus and his disciples were not poor. You didn’t glean the fields if you had another source of income. Matt 12:1-8
Working on the Sabbath was a capital offense under Mosaic Law. To keep it holy, it had to be a special day of thanks. But Jesus reminded the Pharisees that David had defiled the tabernacle when evading King Saul, by eating the show bread that was holy. He said that David was not punished because he and his men were hungry. Now, if Jesus was rich, why were they all so hungry that they defiled the Sabbath?
In several places in the book of Isaiah, it basically says that nations that oppress the poor shall lose God’s blessing. IS 30:5-8 In the last decade, the distance between the rich and poor has grown by leaps and bounds in America. So much so that America is beginning to resemble a Banana Republic, in my opinion. When Katrina battered New Orleans and so many were too poor to evacuate ground zero, our hypocrisy as a nation was exposed to the rest of the world. Yet a rich television preacher from New Orleans thought he deserved a third personal jet, to “take the gospel to the world.”
Protestant churches that focus so much of their attention on tithes and offerings often take things out of context when it comes to the tithe. It’s quite certain that members of these churches who are single mothers do not receive the bulk of donations every three years as they would have under the Mosaic system. Remember that part of that third year distribution went to fatherless children, so single mothers were much more well taken care of in ancient Israel than in twenty first century America .
And since wealth was measured by how much livestock and grain you owned, the poor were not required to pay the tithe at all. The landowner paid the tithe: his servants did not owe a tithe.
It seems that they fared better in the early church also, if you remember why the office of the
deacon was established. It was because some of the Greek widows complained that they were not getting a fair share of the distribution. But I’m not going to discuss it at great length here.
Now the church staff is much more likely to use tough love to determine whether it might be enabling the addictions of household members, when single mothers ask for help. Is tough love Biblical? Jesus demonstrated a special love for children. In Luke 9:48 Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name, welcomes me and the one that sent me. For he who is least among you – he is the greatest.”
The tithe seems to be the only part of the ancient financial rules under Mosaic Law that is ever mentioned in certain protestant churches when it’s fund raising time. Wouldn’t it be lovely if the amount of interest charged on credit cards was honest and not above 12 percent. And even more to the point, wouldn’t everyone be thrilled if all of their debts could be forgiven every seven years
At fund raising time, the widow who got Jesus’ attention by putting her three small coins into the box for the temple treasury is also brought up. He reminded everyone that her giving was more meaningful, as she gave out of her poverty. Luke 21: 1-7
It seems almost criminal to focus attention on the widow who gave everything she had, without mentioning that she did not face potential starvation by so doing. Was Jesus attempting to make poor people feel guilty about not being able to give as much as those who can afford to keep up with the Joneses?
He spent most of his time with the poor, so he might have been saying that the poor are more generous with the little they have, than those who have money. That’s consistent with what Jesus told the rich young ruler – sell everything and give it to the poor.
