´¯`•. June 20, 2014

Tithe Talk

It’s not something that’s even crossed my mind. Not in YEARS. I wasn’t even thinking about it. And then this morning, a friend on FB posted a picture that stopped me right where I was, and sent me to go find answers. Here’s the picture from my feed.

It was the bullet about tithing that got to me. Because… I read a paper YEARS ago proving that the tithe was illegal, and now this is alluding to verses in Nehemiah that say we are commanded to tithe? What if what I read years ago was before I left christianity, and Torah really *does* command us to tithe? Maybe I should revisit it?

So I did. First I went to Nehemiah 10: 32. And hey, guess what? We’re commanded to tithe. So I went back to the paper about tithing being illegal, to see if it was a christian paper. It was.

BUT. Even so, it was against the tithe. Why? Here’s what it said:

Numbers 18:24-28, “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. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, 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. And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 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.”

According to the above Scriptures, could just anyone claim to be a representative of God and therefore have Israel pay tithes to him? Let’s read it again, “But the TITHES of the children of Israel … I have given to the Levites to inherit.“ Now in order to be a priest one not only had to be of the tribe of Levi, but he also had to be of the family of Aaron. In fact, if one could not trace his genealogy back to the family of Aaron, he could not be a priest of God. Because the Levites had no lands or inheritance, they were to receive the tithe. This is NOT the same as the modern tithe.

A warning to all charlatans and would-be tithe extractors and collectors: There is NO temple of God being officiated in Jerusalem today. There is NO Levitic priesthood to officiate at such a temple. There is NO NEED for such a temple or priesthood at this time. Only Levites could collect tithes at the temple. Therefore, EVERYONE collecting tithes today is a charlatan and a fake. If one cannot historically trace back his genealogy generation by generation with no lapses to the family of Aaron, he IS NOT and CANNOT be a priest authorized of God at this time to collect tithes for the temple services and sacrifices. (Of course Christ IS our Sacrifice, and therefore that whole system funded by the tithes of the law is no longer applicable.)

Additionally, the whole system changed under the New Covenant. Notice what happened:

1. “And, coming out, [Messiah] sent from the sanctuary. And His disciples approached to exhibit to Him the buildings of the sanctuary. Yet He, answering, said to them, ‘Are you not observing all these? Verily, I am saying to you, Under no circumstances may a stone here be left on a stone, which shall not be DEMOLISHED.’” (Matt. 24:1-2).
2. Under the New Covenant, God does not dwell in temples made with hands: “The God Who makes the world and all that is in it, He, the Lord inherent of heaven and earth, is NOT dwelling in temples made by hands…” (Acts 17:24).
3. The true believers under the New Covenant are now God’s temple: “For YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD, according as God said, that I will be making My home and will be walking in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (II Cor. 6:16).See also, (I Cor. 3:15 and I Cor. 1:19).
4. All theologians know that when the temple ceased, the priesthood officiating at the temple ceased!
5. Each individual believer under the New Covenant forms a NEW priesthood,“Yet you are a chosen race, a ‘ROYAL PRIESTHOOD’…” (I Peter 2:9).

How then, under the New Covenant, does a believer give a tenth, when he is supposed to give his all (Rom. 12:1), to a priesthood that does not exist, but now he himself is part of a priesthood (I Peter 2:9), at a temple that does not exist (Mat. 24:1-2), but rather he himself is the temple wherein God dwells? No longer do we have priests with spiritual infirmities interceding for us, but rather we have Christ as our perfect intercessor and High Priest seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens (Heb. 7:28-8:1).

So! My questions about tithing are once and for all taken care of. The tithe WAS part of the Law. It was so that the Levites would be taken care of, since they had no lands, no livestock, and no inheritance. It was for the temple and those who maintained it. But the temple is gone, the Levites no longer function in a priestly capacity, Yeshua declared all of His followers to be the new temple of God and the royal priesthood, so THERE IS NO TITHE, ANYMORE.