My friend, are you only a ten percent Christian? Now this starts of course, with tithing. But it goes far deeper than that. Years ago, a dear old lady in the church that I pastored came to me all upset. She said our preachers today are preaching the doctrine of tithing. But, she said, it is definitely not a New Testament doctrine. She said tithing was for the Jews.
I pointed out to her that in Hebrews 7:8 the Scripture says, “Here men that die receive tithes..” And this was long after the resurrection. We’re supposed to be the children of faithful Abraham. Well Abraham the father of the faithful paid tithes to Melchizedek. And Jacob imitated this piety of his grandfather when he vowed to the Lord the tithe of all the substance that he would acquire in Mesopotamia.
We turn to Deuteronomy 12, “And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the heave offerings of your hands and your vows and your free will offerings and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks.” Now that meant 40% of all that they earned.
We turn to Malachi 3, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But ye say, ‘Wherein have we robbed thee?’ In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse. For ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all of the tithes into the storehouse that there might be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Tithes, then, are not for our poor relatives. My wife has a friend who gives her so-called tithes to her poor relatives. No, no, no, no, no! Leviticus 27:30: “All the tithes of the land is holy H-O-L-Y unto the Lord.”
Numbers 18:24 tells us the tithe was given unto the Levites to inherit.