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Melchizedek, Priests, and a More Perfect Tithe
Posted by Chris Johnson in Bible & Theology
The tithe has always been a consuming inspiration. Many men have spent countless lifetimes defending a small number of reasons for the existence of a tithe, and rightfully so, since the encouragement associated with the offering of a tithe will echo into eternity. So, today…is there an urgency of giving intrinsically echoed throughout the Body of Christ in the Spirit? In order to answer that question we must first understand “what a tithe is” … that we might see it urgently appear as necessary to Christ’s own body in this earth.
Israel deemed a tithe as the picture of worth springing forth from the hands of its people. The quality and definition of a tithe did not so much come to rest in the accumulation of a fixed number, even as this was the expression used by Moses to maintain a Levitical Priesthood…and this mechanism supplied a nation, as well as created support for the poor. Yet even as a tithe can be revealed in a numerical factor,…the essence of a tithe sprang forth as an expression from the hands. Hands, expressed by ten fingers, giving all and yielding a perfect work as spelled out by God. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s expression to Timothy….1 Timothy 2:8 “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension”…. Holy hands,..all ten fingers, representing full obedience to the effort of living a holy life in the midst of God’s people and the world. You can’t put a number on that….and more important to us, post Levitical, ten fingers not restricted by a Law that brings death, …but by a fulfilled Law through Christ that is lived out specifically by those born of the Holy Spirit into the family of God.
Romans 3:19-27 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; (20) because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (21) But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, (22) even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (24) being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; (25) whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; (26) for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (27) Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
Romans 8:2-4 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (3) For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (4) so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Why Is Understanding a Tithe So Important
First of all, the inspiration to tithe was born before the advent of the Levitical Priesthood. Tithing…. this expression of perfect giving from our hands, was expounded upon by Moses concerning Melchizedek. Abraham’s first impulse was to honor a higher Priest, as was Noah when he set foot outside the Ark, sacrificing from every clean animal and every clean bird…..
Genesis 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Giving honor to the Lord was established on the principle of “all”, not a portion. Only stiff necked people need to be reminded of apportioned giving. Only a stiff necked people would not understand that the spread of the Gospel and the formation of the body of Christ were from house to house. This of course does not mean that all meaningful fellowships were “house churches” (that’s only the newest American fad), only that this “unique” religion that we move along was something of a new covenant, eclipsing and doing away with an older one that had met its match with death. Uniquely, this new life was now an agreement with the Spirit, spawning like tongues of fire on the shoulders of all that see and hear ….those with true eyes that see and true ears that hear, echoing the news of a risen Christ in the midst of a dark and predictable world.
Why Is This Principle of Faithful Giving So Important Today
The Apostle Paul established his goal as love….not some temporal achievement. Over the years I have seen more goals set on giving campaigns….. not on love campaigns. Because you see… a giving goal is easy to set….with the red thermometer glaring out at the congregation,… slowing easing up the chart, where week over week the excitement builds as the new sanctuary project comes into focus. What could be any more exciting than spending millions on a new building? When will the church in America strive toward a more sincere faith and begin to shy away from building temples made with hands? And better yet, begin to move from house to house delivering the word of God to temples that God makes alive.
1 Timothy 1:5-14 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (6) For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, (7) wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (8) But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, (9) realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers (10) and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, (11) according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. (12) I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, (13) even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; (14) and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.
You see,…the art of building bigger temples most often forces a poor hermeneutic. The SBC was almost deceived by poor instruction from various leaders in 1895, as “storehouse” giving was brought to the floor of the convention. The convention came out better at the end of the day as she rejected an alluring contemporary hermeneutic of New Testament “storehouse” giving. She came out better, because she did not retreat into the death of the Law, but she pressed on, remaining faithful to honor her only Priest and King, Jesus Christ.
My question for you today…. What do you teach your congregation concerning a tithe? Do you retreat back into the Law just a little while you justify certain projects?
Share the solid principles you teach with respect to understanding a “tithe”.
Blessings,
Chris
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Chris: It would be interesting to see if Ken Ezell will invite you to the NAMB to share this conviction, these questions with his trustees; then later with the SBC Megachurch pastors who some say are now running the SBC.
Ask them if this Principle carries over to CP giving; especially for a group of churches that articulate bloggers like Howell Scott of FromLaw2Grace blog are discussing. Howell thinks it could be the unraveling of the SBC.
My point is you have put it out there strongly for individuals and congregations. Now take it to the Denominational hierarchy and do it boldly.
Brother Stephen,
Most of the leaders within the SBC movement will find it hard to disagree with the biblical context of tithing. It is finding the context that is important. In the current American landscape,…the problems arise when the enticement of larger complexes mix with personal aspirations of a single pastor. Then as I have stated,…the hermeneutic from clear biblical doctrines become abandoned for a jaunt down yet another path. A teacher and fellow church member many years ago in Texas, Daniel Vestal, has been enticed to abandon a clear hermeneutic for overseers (God’s responsibility for the man) in the church in much the same way that tithing is bantered about by some in the SBC.
Fortunately, the SBC did not succumb to the enticement brought about by leaders in 1895, and have been held at bay now for over 100 years. So …on the record of what “tithing” means, at least in their young history…the SBC has not faltered. My encouragement is that she continue to press on toward a more meaningful commitment to giving with respect to “all”, not a portion.
Blessings,
Chris
Chris:
You invoked the name of Dan Vestal. Maybe we can take that up in a thread you would like to devote to him, but as Peace Committee Members go, I imagine Laura Bush for one, if you ask her the right questions would be more on board and satisfied with Vestal’s hermeneutic than she would be with Peace Committee Member Charles Pickering of the Alliance Defense Fund.
Vestal was down the street at FBC Midland when George W. accepted Jesus as his Saviour. Jim Lacy, big fan of both George W and Dan Vestal, a leading Deacon at FBC Midland at the time, never had a problem with Vestal’s hermeneutic best I know.
Maybe we can pick that aspect of all this up later.
In the meantime, thanks for engaging my comment in the exchanges here.
FTR I did not find much at all in your Intro piece here that my Baptist preacher Dad would have disagreed with on tithing.
Chris,
You have piqued my interest. Do you want to give a summary of what happened in 1895, and save me the time of doing the “Google” research?
I really like this post! I was wondering if you had any additional sources that comment on the 10-fingered aspect? The tithe did obviously exist before the Law, but as a linguist I can’t help but favor the origin of our word “tithe” as being “a tenth”.
That being said, I think we are to give all, not just a tenth (which is why I liked your post). The New Testament believers demonstrated a total change in the course of their lives, and clearly showed total commitment both in the giving of their properties and of their lives.
I often imagine how ridiculous it would be to try to sit down with Jesus and explain a football game to him and tell him why you enjoy it, or to try to encourage him to take a break and kick his feet up and watch a game. 100% commitment, not just 10%.
David,
The New York Times reported this concerning the convention in 1895 which can be found at http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0D15FC3C5811738DDDAB0994DD405B8585F0D3
Of course I’m sure that there is more to the story…..
Blessings,
Chris
Brother Stephen,
Yes, I was only using Daniel as an example. He was my pastor at FBC Midland many years ago and when I approached him about the change in hermenuetic a few years back,…it was way after his departure from West Texas. He was honest in his response to me about his change in thinking….albeit inconsistent to the hermenuetic he employs to teach other doctrines. But, your right….another story, another day. And I still consider him a real friend and brother in Christ, despite his wayward thinking concerning overseers. He is a Godly man IMHO!
Blessings,
Chris
Brother Jeremy,
I think you hit on the salient point that I was trying to make in the article. Resources like Kittel’s Unabridged Greek and other historical reference works reveal to us some fascinating information about how Israel used “hands” to qualify completeness, as well as a system of counting. So, the nation settled on ten’s represented by the fingers on the hands, etc. while other nations and languages settled on other forms for quantifying like the cuneiform tablet system or the duodecimal systems.
In other words,…it was about objects and numbers in these other languages, where in counter distinction we see an interesting and new quality with the perfection of the hands and Israel, making the definition of tithing more than a simple quantifying act…so that tithing is an act of love that is expressed as we use these hands, bringing all that we have to God and to those we serve. That concept of the tithe was there before Israel existed,…but because of their continual failings they were simply given a reminder to follow as an apportionment, where all along they could have given all.
We should never settle for apportionment in our teachings. God’s people have all things in common….as they choose to follow Christ.
Blessings,
Chris
Thank you! Ever since I started seminary I’ve been asking, “Why can’t they teach us this stuff in Sunday School?” Things like this help put the Bible back into its original context and add new light and deeper meaning.
I know how hot the debate can get when you talk about contextualizing the Scripture, but the more I learn, the more I realize just how much of that we’ve already done.
I thought last night, as my tithing paradigm was shifting, that having a commonly understood straightforward teaching turned on its head like this must be what the Pharisees experienced with Jesus.
Now I don’t suppose you have anything on “trees” in Mark 8:24? That one has been bothering me for a few years and I can’t find anything reputable that doesn’t write it off as “he lacked faith to get healed all the way the first time”. Thank you again for the excellent teaching, and as a not-pastor I’m begging pastors to teach this! It will be more easily accepted than the 10% sermon (harder to do though…). But hey, if people shoot for 10% and hit 2%, imagine where they’d land if they aim at 100%. Maybe that’s where that 80/20 rule comes from…
Brother Jeremy,
Thank you for the kind words….
The episode with Jesus and the blind man is a great one. Think about the culture and what happened when someone is blind. Typically the blind will keep their eyes shut and most often the eyelids become somewhat matted or glued together. Look at the text to see what occurs….
Mark 8:23-25 “Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” (24) And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.” (25) Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.”
Jesus takes the blind man by the hand and spits on his hands messaging the eyes so as to get the eyelids apart. That is the reason for the spit….it is a good lubricator. Jesus simply asked… after this process of exposing the eyes…”do you see anything?” This blind man could only see men as trees (objects going to and fro..without any meaning), and yet could not make out anything else….so he simply was testifying to the fact that he was still blind.
Look what happens next in the text….. Jesus again laid his hands on his eyes (no need to expose the eyes as he had done previously) and the blind man then was healed. Certainly he knew then, that Jesus healed him from blindness….since by his previous testimony, even with his eyes being exposed he remained blind (only seeing men as trees)…. But when Jesus touch him again…his sight was clear.
The passage is not so much about faith. It is about the work of Christ. The context of the previous passages also teaches us that Jesus was instructing the disciples concerning “less to more” of the Masters actions. So after the fish was changed from little to much…. He demonstrates the same effect with the blind man…. He could only make out little (men like trees), but now he sees clearly!
Hope this helps….
Blessings,
Chris
Chris: On Dan Vestal and Midland Texas. It was the fall of 87 wasn’t it when they brought little Jessica out of the Well in Midland, wasn’t it. My Mother’s last fall on the Earth.
Now in Chile,–I haven’t seen the Morning News yet, but they were coming up as I retired last night–the 33 Miners from the Bowels of the Earth.
Stay with me here. On Monday night in a rivetting reenactment on PBS God in America, for me at least it was further confirmed that Dan Vestal’s hermeneutical Pilgrimage went in a better direction than yours did, and by Grace and the Holy Spirit exitted the bowels, the belly of Fundamentalism toward greater Freedom in Christ where he is Free Indeed.
Anne Hutchinson and John Winthrop. Watch it and think Molly Marshall and Schaeffer disciple Al Mohler.
You’re a bright fellow, you’ll get my point.
Tonight is the grand finale of 400 years of God’s work on our Blessed Land. Paige Patterson comes on the stage at the Dallas Roundtable of 80. I hope you will be watching.
Vestal flourishes in the Holy Work of a tradition that in our time, we’ll take Texas for instance, has grand tradition of Moyers, Dunn, Truett, Jimmy Allen, the better lights of LBJ’s legacy and I know he made some tragic turns, but his lights were good guided by Marney’s witness in Austin in 56, while you are bogged in the legacy of Coke Stevenson, the Texas Regulars, Gary North, Karl Rove, Pressler and Paige Patterson.
I thank God with all my shortcomings I found I better community to Pilgrim through with.
PS, Chandler Davidson’s Race and Class in Texas Politics and Marilynne Robinson’s Absence of Mind are two great sources for you to further consider your “Hermeneutic.”
Hey, I can’t view your site properly within Opera, I actually hope you look into fixing this.