[b][/b] Deut 26:12 When you have made an end of
tithing all the tithes of your increase the
third year, which is the year of tithing, and
have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the
fatherless, and the widow, that they may
eat within your gates, and be filled, Deut. 26:13 Then you shall say before the
LORD your God, I have brought away the
hallowed things out of my house, and also
have given them to the Levite, and to the
stranger, to the fatherless, and to the
widow, according to all your commandments which you have
commanded me; I have not transgressed
your commandments, neither have I
forgotten them. [See also 14:28-29.] Mal. 3:5 And I will come near to you [priests]
to judgment [against]. . . those who oppress
the hireling in his wages, the widow, and
the fatherless, and that turn aside the
stranger from his right, and do not fear me,
says the LORD of hosts. 1 Tim. 5:8 But if any does not provide for his
own, and especially for those of his own
house, he has denied the faith, and is worse
than an infidel.The Old Covenant does not
command the poor to tithe! As a matter of
biblical fact, just the opposite is true! The Mosaic Law commanded the people of
Israel, especially the priests, to feed and
care for the poor, widows, fatherless,
strangers, and Levites from the tithe. The
poor received from the tithes, offerings,
gleanings, and Israel’s bounty. The Code of Jewish Law says, "He who has barely sufficient for his own needs, is not
obligated to give charity, for his own
sustenance takes precedence over
another’s." The Jewish Mishnah contains
other exemptions of poor persons.
Unfortunately, it is all too common to find large churches with many poor who give
above and beyond their means out of fear
of the Old Covenant curse of Malachi 3:9.
Expecting the poor to pay tithes from
welfare and Social Security checks is a
disgrace. Many poor who tithe are then forced to depend even more on welfare
because the church does not give more
back to the poor than it receives from them.
Such treatment is oppression of the poor
and is a modern scandal. In his book, Stewards Shaped by Grace, Rhodes Thompson writes, "Some disagree
that people are ever too poor to tithe. But
my experience in the Third World [India]
and inner-city St. Louis exposed me to
people whose poverty I had wittingly or
unwittingly helped to create and whose liberation from it still receives too little of
my time and resources. Luke’s biting words
to first century scribes and Pharisees jump
across the centuries: ‘Woe to you twentieth-
century religious leaders! For you load
people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with
one of your fingers (Luke 11:46).’ Watching
poor folks in St. Louis facing the winter
choice between ‘meat’ and ‘heat,’ I could
not lay on them the burden of tithing that
would have forced them to forego both at the risk of health and life." At least concerning the poor, Dr. James Kennedy has it right. In an undated widely distributed four page article entitled
"Tithing" from Coral Ridge Ministries, he
writes "2. Those who are poor do not give
tithes, but receive them either directly from
loving neighbors and friends or through the
ministry of the clergy. Any gift given by a poor person would be a free-will offering,
not a tithe. The tithe is God’s tax, required
for those who make a profit from their
labor. It is not required from those who are
on welfare or who are living from their
savings. 3. Our first economic duty is to allow for the essential food, clothing and
housing for our families. The tithe was not
intended to prohibit us from providing
essential, physical support for those who
are members of our household (1 Tim.
5:1-8; Matt. 15:3-9)."The Ordinance of Gleaning Deut. 24:19 When you cut down your
harvest in your field, and have forgotten a
sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to
get it; it shall be for the stranger, for the
fatherless, and for the widow, that the LORD
your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Deut. 24:20 When you beat your olive tree,
you shall not go over the boughs again; it
shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless,
and for the widow. Deut. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of
your vineyard, you shall not glean it
afterward; it shall be for the stranger, for
the fatherless, and for the widow.The tithe
of the land did not include all of the land.
God commanded landowners not to harvest the corners and not to pick up what had
fallen after being harvested. These holy
gleanings were for the poor. Concerning the
gleaning law, Edersheim wrote, "Bicurim,
terumoth, and what was to be left in the
corners of the fields for the poor were always set apart before the tithing was
made." He added that a poor person with
less than five sheep was not required to
bring the firstfruits of the fleece. Certainly
the poor did not tithe from gleanings! Because the Levite was intended to be a
poor servant of God with no land
inheritance or personal wealth, he was
often placed at the beginning of the list of
the needy and poor. As such he and his
household received tithes (Deut. 14:29; 16:11, 14; 26:11-13). However, the list of
qualified tithe-receivers also included other
non-landowners such as the stranger, the
fatherless, the orphan, and the widow. As
mentioned earlier, the stranger, the
fatherless, the orphan and the widow are part of a recurring theme found in the
Pentateuch and the major prophets. As poor
non-landowners they received tithes, but
were not exempt from certain offerings.
Law Ordinances Legislated Smaller Sacrifices
from the Poor Lev. 14:21 And if he is poor, and cannot get
so much [two lambs], then he shall take
[only] one lamb for a trespass offering to
be waved, to make an atonement for him,
and one tenth deal of fine flour mingled
with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil. Lev. 27:8 But if he is poorer than your
estimation, then he shall present himself
before the priest, and the priest shall value
him; according to his ability that vowed
shall the priest value him. In addition to
receiving from the tithes, the poor were also allowed to bring smaller required
offerings and were allowed to pay less
redemption money. The poor had many
other special laws protecting them. They
were always allowed to recover property
(Lev. 25:25-28); equal justice was demanded for them (Exod. 23:6; Prov. 31:9); Israel was
to open its doors for them and freely lend
to them without interest (Deut. 15:7-8, 11;
Lev. 25:35-36); clothing given as pledges for
loans must be returned before sunset (Deut.
24:12); and wages were to be paid daily before sunset (Deut. 24:15; Matt. 29:8; Jas.
5:4). These laws applied to both Israelite
and strangers (Deut. 24:14). Israel was commanded to give special gifts
to the poor during festival days (Esth. 9:22)
and every seventh year all farmland lay un-
tilled and was available to the poor (Lev.
25:6). The same was true of every fiftieth
Jubilee Year; the great Jubilee festival was especially for the poor and needy (Lev.
25:8-16, 23-35; 27:16-25; Num. 36:4; Ezek.
46:17). God honors the amount of sacrifice in
giving more than the value of the things
given (Mark 12:42-44). He makes it clear that
oppressing the poor is sin (Deut. 10:19; Prov.
14:31; Jer. 22:16-17; Ezek. 16:49; Amos 2:6-7;
4:1; 5:12; 6:4; Zech. 7:9-10; Mal. 3:5-6). God will certainly punish those who oppress the
poor (Isa. 3:14-15; 10:1-2; 11:4), and the
righteous will be known according to their
treatment of the poor (Deut. 12:13; 15:11;
Ps. 140:12-13; Prov. 19:17; 31:20; Jer. 22:16). How will the rich religious leader escape
Isaiah 3:14, "The LORD will enter into
judgment with the elders of His people and
His princes:’For you have eaten up the
vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your
houses’" (NKJV)?Joseph and Mary Paid the Smaller Offering of the Poor Luke 2:22 And when the days of her [Mary’s]
purification [from child-birth] according to
the law of Moses were accomplished, they
brought him [Jesus] to Jerusalem, to
present him to the Lord Luke 2:23 (As it is written in the law of the
Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall
be called holy to the Lord); [Lev. 12:6-8] Luke 2:24 And to offer a sacrifice according
to that which is said in the law of the Lord,
A pair of turtledoves, or two young
pigeons.Jesus’ parents did not qualify to
pay tithes. They were poor carpenters which
were not required to tithe land increase if they did not own land. When presenting the
baby Jesus at the temple, the customary
offering of a first-year lamb was not
required because of their poverty.Jesus Did
Not Tithe Jesus did not pay tithe! Blasphemy? Not at all. The titles of this chapter come as a real
surprise to most tithe-advocates. The simple
reason for these true statements is found in
the biblical definition of the tithe as
explained in chapter one. The Bible clearly
teaches that only Israelite landowners and Israelite herdsmen inside Israel were
required to tithe their increase. This very
narrow, but true, definition eliminates all
non-landowners, all tradesmen, and all who
were too unfortunate to afford raising stock
animals for a living in Israel. Neither was this narrow definition of tithing ever
changed among Jews for over a thousand
years; it was still the definition during the
time of Jesus.Jesus Did Not Pay Tithes with
His Disciples; Matthew 12:1-2; Mark 2:23-24;
Luke 6:1-2Matt. 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain; and
his disciples were hungry, and began to
pluck the heads of grain, and to eat. Matt. 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw it,
they said to him, Behold, your disciples do
that which is not lawful to do upon the
Sabbath day.Jesus did not qualify as a
person required to pay tithes! Jesus had
been a carpenter and many of his disciples had been fishermen. If none of his twelve
disciples were farmers or herdsmen, then
none were required by the law to pay tithes
-- only freewill offerings. In addition, the
above incident of the gleaning is
noteworthy. First, since this was neither a sabbatical year nor a Jubilee year, this
incident must have reference to the
gleaning laws. Second, gleaning laws were
specifically for the poor. Third, the Pharisees
did not rebuke Jesus and his disciples for
not being too poor to glean. Fourth, the Pharisees did not rebuke Jesus and his
disciples for not paying tithe on their
harvest! The only accusation is that they
performed work on the Sabbath day. In conclusion, since the poor were not in
possession of land, and, since the poor
actually received tithes, God did not
request, or require, the poor in the Old
Testament to tithe. They neither owned
farmland nor (substantially) raised herds, and, since God is full of grace and mercy, it
is not within the scope of his divine holy
character to ask a poor person to tithe and
deprive himself and his family of the basic
necessities of life. There is not a single Old
Covenant text which commands the poor to tithe. God was satisfied to accept their
freewill offering