There are few subjects on which the Lord's own people are more astray than on the subject of giving. They profess to take the Bible as their own rule of faith and practice, and yet in the matter of Christian finance, the vast majority have utterly ignored its plain teachings and have tried every substitute the carnal mind could devise; therefore it is no wonder that the majority of Christian enterprises in the world today are handicapped and crippled through the lack of funds. Is our giving to be regulated by sentiment and impulse, or by principle and conscience? That is only another way of asking, Does God leave us to the spirit of gratitude and generosity, or has He definitely specified His own mind and particularized what portion of His gifts to us are due to Him in return? Surely God has not left this important matter without fully making known His will! The Bible is given to be a lamp unto our feet and therefore He cannot have left us in darkness regarding any obligation or privilege in our dealings with Him or His with us.
At a very early date in the history of our race God made it
known that a definite proportion of the saint's income should be
devoted to Him who is the Giver of all. There was a period of
twenty-five centuries from Adam until the time that God gave the
law to Israel at Sinai, but it is a great mistake to suppose that
the saints of God in those early centuries were left without a
definite revelation, without a knowledge of God's will regarding
their obligations to Him, and of the great blessings which resulted
from a faithful performance of their duties. As we study carefully
the book of Genesis we find clear traces of a primitive revelation,
an indication of God's mind to His people long before the system of
legislation that was given at Sinai (see
While it is perfectly true that today we are unable to take the
Bible and place our finger upon any positive enactment or
commandment from God that His people, in those early days, should
either offer sacrifices to Him or keep the Sabbath or give the
tithe (there is no definite "Thus saith the Lord" recorded
concerning any one of these three things), nevertheless, from what
is recorded we are compelled to assume that there must have been
such a commandment given: compare
Take first of all the presenting of sacrifices to God. Is it
thinkable that man would ever have presented blood to Deity if he
had never first received a command to so do? Do you imagine it
would ever have occurred to the human mind itself to have brought a
bleeding animal to the great Creator? And yet we
Take again the Sabbath. There is little in the early pages of
Scripture to directly show us that God Himself appointed one day in
seven, and that He made it a law that all of His creatures should
so observe it; and yet there are clear indications that such must
have been the case, or otherwise we cannot explain what follows.
When God gave the ten commandments to Israel at Sinai, in the
fourth commandment He did not tell Israel to keep the Sabbath; He
commanded them to remember the Sabbath day, which clearly implies
two things: that at an earlier date the mind of God concerning the
Sabbath had been revealed, but, that their forefathers had
forgotten: see
The same is true in connection with the tithe. At this day we are unable to go back to the earliest pages of Scripture and put our finger upon a "Thus saith the Lord," a definite commandment where Jehovah specified His will and demanded that His people should render a tenth of all their increase unto Him; and yet as we take up the book of Genesis we cannot account for what is there, unless we presuppose a previous revelation of God's mind and a manifestation of His will upon the point.
In
We will begin at verse 19 to get the context: "And he called the name of that place Bethel." You remember the circumstances. This was the night when Jacob was fleeing from Esau, a fugitive from home, starting out to Laban's; and that night while he was asleep he had the vision. "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee." Here again we have the tithe. Jacob vowed that in return for the Lord's temporal blessings upon him, he would render a tenth in return unto the Lord. We are not told why he selected that percentage; we are not told why he should give a tenth; but the fact that he did determine so to do, intimates there had previously been a revelation of God's mind to His creatures, and particularly to His people, that one-tenth of their income should be devoted to the Giver of all.
When we come to the Mosaic law, we find that the tithe was
definitely and clearly incorporated into it. "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 unto the Lord. And if a man will at
all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto a fifth part
thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock,
even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy
unto the Lord" (
This anticipates a point which may have been exercising some
minds. When we say that one-tenth of our gross income belongs to
the Lord doubtless some are inclined to say that all of our income
belongs to Him; that everything we have has been given us by God;
that nothing is our own in the full sense of the word, it is all
His. This is perfectly true in one sense, but not so in another. In
one sense it is true that all of our time belongs to God, that it
is not ours, and we shall yet have to give an account of every idle
moment; but in another real sense it is also true that God has set
apart one-seventh of our time as being holy unto Him. That is to
say, it has been set apart for a sacred use; it is not ours to do
with as we please. The Sabbath is not a day for doing our own
pleasure, it is a day that has been appointed and singled out by
God as being peculiarly His—holy unto Him—one-seventh
of our time spent in His service. And here in
"And the Lord spake 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" (
Those who have read through the historical books of Scripture
know full well how miserably Israel failed to obey this law after
they had settled down in the land, how that almost every
fundamental precept and statute of the legislation that Jehovah
gave to Moses was disregarded by them. But what is very significant
is this, that in each great revival of godliness that Jehovah sent
unto
First of all let us turn to
The same thing is true again in the tenth chapter of Nehemiah.
It will be remembered that Nehemiah brings us to a later period in
the history of Israel. Nehemiah records the return of a small
remnant of the people after the nation had been carried away into
captivity, after the seventy years in Babylon was over. Then God
raised up Cyrus to make a decree permitting those who desired to go
back to their own land. In this chapter we find that in the revival
of his day, the tithe is also mentioned: "And we cast the lots
among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood
offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses
of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the
altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law: And to
bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all
fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord: Also
the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in
the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to
bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in
the house of our God: And that we should bring the firstfruits of
our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of
Now turn to the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi brings
us to a point still later, and shows us how the remnant that had
returned in the days of Nehemiah had also degenerated and
deteriorated and had departed from the word of the law of the Lord;
and, among other things, note the charges that God brings against
Israel in
Only God has the right to say how much of our income shall be set aside and set apart unto Him. And He has so said clearly, repeatedly, in the Old Testament Scriptures, and there is nothing in the New Testament that introduces any change or that sets aside the teaching of the Old Testament on this important subject.
Christ Himself has placed His approval and set His imprimatur
upon the tithe. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (
The second passage to be noted is
Referring next to
There is one other passage to be looked at, namely
The reference in
But not only was Melchizedek there a type of Christ, but Abraham
was also a typical character, a representative character, seen
there as the father of the faithful; and we find he acknowledged
the priesthood of Melchizedek by giving him a tenth of the spoils
which the Lord had enabled him to secure in vanquishing those
kings, and as that is referred to in Hebrews, where the priesthood
of Christ and our blessings from our relations to it and our
obligation to it are set forth, the fact that Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek as mentioned there, indicates that as Abraham is the
father of the faithful, so he left an example for us, his children,
to follow—in rendering tithes unto Him of whom Melchizedek
was the type. And the beautiful thing in connection with the
Scripture is that the last time the tithe is mentioned in the Bible
(here in
In the above we have only introduced the Scriptures that present God's mind on this matter. In the following section we will deal with the subject in an expository and in an argumentative way.
One evil ever leads to another. God's appointed method for the
financing of the work which He has been pleased to place in our
hands, is that of tithing—the strict setting aside one-tenth
of all we receive, to be devoted to His cause. Where the Lord's
people faithfully do this, there is never any shortage or going
into debt. Where tithing is ignored there is almost always a
deficit, and then the
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may 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"
(
Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been appropriated. Both are correct. Possibly there are some who soothe themselves by saying, Well, other Christians do not tithe. And maybe there are others who say, But if tithing be obligatory in this present dispensation why are the preachers silent upon the subject? My friends, they are silent on a good many subjects today: that does not prove anything.
In the previous section of this article the attempt was made to show three things: first, that tithing existed among the people of God long before the law was given at Sinai and that in the brief record we have of that early history we learn that Abraham, the father of the faithful, gave tithes unto Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, and that Jacob, when he had that revelation from the Lord on his way out to Padan-aram, promised to give a tenth unto God. Second, we saw that when the law was given the tithe was definitely and clearly incorporated in it, but, like almost everything else in that law, Israel neglected it, until, in the days of Malachi, we find Jehovah expressly telling His people that they had robbed Him. In the third place, we found that in the New Testament itself we have both hints and plain teaching that God requires His people to tithe even now, for tithing is not a part of the ceremonial law, it is a part of the moral law. It is not something that has a dispensational limitation, but is something that is binding on God's people in all ages.
Now let us go a step farther. Tithing is even more obligatory on
the saints of the New Testament than it was upon God's people in
Old Testament days—not equally binding, but more binding, and
that for two reasons: first, on the principle of "unto whomsoever
much is given, of him shall be much required" (
Again, in proportion as the priesthood of Christ is superior to
the priesthood of Aaron, so are our obligations to render tithes to
Him. The Aaronic priesthood was recognized and owned by Israel
through their payment of the tithe to them. In the seventh chapter
of Hebrews the Holy Spirit has argued the superiority of the
priesthood of Christ, which is after the order of Melchizedek, on
the fact, or on the basis of the fact rather, that Melchizedek
himself received tithes from Abraham. That is the very argument the
Holy Spirit uses there to establish the superiority of the
Melchizedec order of Christ's priesthood. He appeals to the fact as
recorded in
In the next place we wish to suggest a few reasons why God has appointed tithing. In the first place, as a constant recognition of the Creator's rights. As our Maker He desires that we should honor Him with one-tenth of our income. In other words, the tenth is the recognition of His temporal mercies and the owning that He is the Giver of them. It is the acknowledgment that temporal blessings come from Him and are held in trust for Him.
Again. We believe that God has appointed tithing as the solution of all financial covetousness, for by nature we are full of covetousness. That is why in the ten commandments God incorporates "Thou shalt not covet." That is why Christ said to His disciples, "Beware of covetousness." And tithing has been appointed by God to deliver us from the spirit of greed, to counteract our innate selfishness; therefore, it has been designed for our blessing for, like all of His commandments, none of them is grievous, but appointed for our own good.
Again. I believe that God has appointed tithing as the solution
of every financial problem that can arise in connection with His
work. While the children of Israel practiced tithing there was no
difficulty in maintaining the system of worship that God had
appointed. And if God's people today practiced tithing, there would
be an end of all financial straits that are crippling so many
Christian enterprises. No church could possibly be embarrassed
financially where its members tithed. And I believe that that is
the solution of rural church work in thinly populated districts.
Wherever you have ten male Christians you have sufficient to
support a
Now then in the fourth place, God has appointed tithing as a test of our faith, and for the nourishing and developing of our faith—especially of the young Christians. Here is a young man who has just started housekeeping. He professes to trust God with the enormous matter of his eternal future. He professes to have confidently left his immortal interests in the hands of God. Well now, dare he trust God with one-tenth of his income for a year? My friends, tithing develops in young Christians the spirit of trusting the Lord in their temporal affairs.
Before coming to the next point let us just anticipate two objections. When the subject of tithing is brought before the Lord's people, there are usually a few who are ready to say, Well, I think it is a man's duty to provide for his own household, for his own family. Yes, so do I. Scripture says so. There is nothing wrong in that. I go further. I believe it is perfectly proper for a young Christian man to desire and to seek after an increasing income with which to properly support his growing family, but if he is not a tither he has no guarantee from God that his present income will even be maintained, let alone enlarged. But the tither has that guarantee from God, as we shall yet see, unless our eyes are shut.
And then perhaps there are some who say, I cannot afford to
tithe, for I have made some investments which have turned out very
badly. Yes, and you are likely to meet with some worse ones if you
continue to rob God! My friends, you need Divine guidance in the
matter of investing, and God won't give that guidance while you are
walking contrary to His revealed will in the matter of church
finance. I am fully persuaded that in the vast majority of cases,
if not all (this may sound harsh: God's Word is piercing and
condemning and rebuking and humbling) that where you have children
of God in middle life or in old age, who are in financial straits,
it is because they robbed God in their earlier years.
Now let us come at closer grips with the text itself. There are
three things I wish you to notice carefully. "Bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house,
and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts" (
Now coming again to the text. Notice the expression, "Prove Me
now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the
windows of heaven." What does He mean by that? "And see if I will
not open the windows of heaven." What does He mean? Now Scripture
always interprets Scripture. If you will go back to the seventh
chapter of Genesis, verses 11 and 12, you will find that identical
It is very obvious the translators did not know what to do with
this text, if you will notice the words they have put in italics.
Look at it as it reads (the last part of
In closing I want to give you a few practical suggestions. They are very important and they are very simple. In the matter of tithing, Christian friends, be just as strict, and careful and systematic as you are in business matters, in fact, even more so, for it is not the world's money and it is not your own, but it is the Lord's money which is involved. Now do not trust to memory. There are some Christians who say, Well, I have never bothered to keep any records, but I am quite sure that if I had done so, I should find that I had given at least a tenth to the Lord. Some of you might be surprised to find—if you did keep a record and looked it up—how much short of the tenth you had given!
In the first place I would suggest this. Form the habit of
taking out one-tenth from all the money that you receive either as
wages or gifts. Subtract one-tenth and put it into a separate bag,
or box, or purse. That is what it means when it says in
In the second place, get a small book, a cheap notebook, and on one page put down all your receipts (it will not take some of you very long—one entry, I suppose, at the end of the week) and on the other page put down the disbursement of God's "tithe."
And then in the third place make it a matter of definite prayer to God to guide you in the disbursement as to where He would have you use the money that belongs to Him. It is not yours; it is His; for remember you have not even begun to give at all until you have first paid your tithe. Giving comes in afterwards. The tithe is the Lord's. That is His. That is not yours to give at all; that belongs to the Creator. You have not begun to give until you have done your tithing.
Now in the last place I just want to quote an extract clipped from a religious magazine published in England. In that magazine there has been going on for some time a correspondence, a number of letters, and the subject has been the unemployment in England among the Lord's people. Here is the testimony of one who has written to that paper:
"Twenty-five years ago, being influenced by reading the life of George Muller, I was led to give a tenth of my income to the Lord. I think I was earning 6£ ($1.50) a week at the time. The first few years I found it sometimes a sacrifice. One shilling out of ten seemed a lot. But it became such a habit with me to divide at once and put away the Lord's tenth that for years it has been no sacrifice. Now what is the result? This: I have proved the truth that Him that honoreth Me I will honor. All through the war, and since, I have experienced no poverty. Though a shop assistant and now over forty (it is a woman that is writing) I have been away ill only one week in twenty-five years. What makes it even more wonderful is that after twenty I became slightly deaf and this has increased (and they do not want deaf assistants to wait on people in a shop, do they?) and yet, praise the Lord, I am still holding my situation. When I read of so many other sad cases of unemployment I praise the Lord for His mercy to me."
One testimony like that is worth twenty arguments. And, my friends, I want to bear my own witness that after twenty years' experience and observation I have proven the truth of our text that God does open the windows of heaven and that He does give more than enough in response to simple obedience to Him.
"Prove Me now herewith." That is God's challenge to you. God dares you to test Him out in the financial realm. You profess to have faith in Him, to trust your soul into His keeping; now He challenges you to see whether you have faith enough to just trust Him with one-tenth of your income for a year, for mind you, in the case of the children of Israel it was a matter of waiting very nearly twelve months for any returns. They were farmers. You test the Lord out for twelve months. You wait a reasonable length of time, and then see whether He lets you be the loser or not. "Prove Me now herewith." That is God's challenge to your faith. O brethren and sisters, do so and see if He will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out such a blessing that there shall be "enough and more than enough."