Hebrews Lesson 81                                                                                                           March 8, 2007

 

NKJ Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

We are in Hebrews 7. Last time I pointed out that as we begin this section, the shift is to the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. The high priesthood of Christ is based analogously on the high priesthood of Melchizedek. The argument in this section on the part of the writer of Hebrews involves a group of Jewish believers who come out of Judaism. Many of them it seems came out of a background of the Levitical priesthood, a background of serving in the temple.  They are questioning the superiority of Christ and the superiority of Christianity over the ritual of Judaism. The main section that begins here in chapter 7 extends down through chapter 10 is the focal point of the whole epistle. This is where the largest doctrinal section is found - in chapters 7, 8, 9 up through 10:17. That is the largest doctrinal exposition in the passage. Everything in the book up to this point has been focusing on the idea of developing Christ’s high priestly ministry and the impact that it has on the individual life of the believer today. 

 

Now the question that would come into their minds is the question - how can Christ be a priest when He is not of the tribe of Levi and not a descendent of Aaron? Under the Mosaic Law, the high priest had to be to trace his genealogy all the way back to Aaron. The priest who served in the temple had to be of the tribe of Levi and had to be able to prove their genealogical link back to Levi. There were those who returned from captivity who came back from Babylon to Judea and were unable to do that. They were not allowed to serve in the Zerubbabel temple which is the first phase of the Second Temple. The second phase is the Herodian Temple.

 

So what the writer of Hebrews is doing is answering the question ahead of time. One of the things that marks a good teacher is that a good teacher understands his audience. A good teacher understands the kinds of questions that people may ask. He figures out what they are going to be ahead of time and tries to answer them. There are a lot of times when I as a pastor understand that there are people who come to this congregation who come from all manner of different backgrounds. We have new people who come to be a part of this body of believers. They come from many different backgrounds. Some come from Bible church backgrounds. Some come from Methodist backgrounds. Some come from who knows what background. They bring a load of questions with them. 

 

I remember one time when I was teaching through the spiritual life when I was at one church. There was a lady in the church who had grown up in a family that was seriously committed by multiple generations. By that I mean that their great grandparents where the original Charismatics in this country. So she had grown up in the entire environment of heavy charismatic teaching. Almost everything that I said as I was teaching through this even though she had been under my ministry and under another doctrinal pastor’s ministry for 5 or 6 years before that. The first time it was really coming together in her thinking.  There was a contrast between what she was hearing me teach and what she had always heard and always been taught coming out of that charismatic background. So I had to pay attention to that and in my teaching I had to make a point of contrasting what I was teaching with what Charismatics taught. 

 

Now that didn’t apply to most of the congregation. 

 

But you can’t over here on this side of the congregation and say, “This doesn’t really interest me.” 

 

You don’t know. There may be 5 people over here who are really wrestling with certain things. As part of our congregation here, I don’t spend a lot of time interacting with what Roman Catholic theology says. But, 90% of the people up in the congregation at Preston City came out of a Roman Catholic background. By contrasting truth with Roman Catholic teaching at times, it helped them get a clearer focus on what the Bible was saying as opposed to what they had always heard. That is how we learn – by seeing the truth in contrast with the close counterfeit. That brings out, puts into relief the differences so that we can learn it better. 

 

A good teacher anticipates the kind of questions that people either will ask or ought to ask. So that is what is going on here. He is anticipating the question: Why should Jesus have a priesthood and a high priesthood that is superior to or even legitimate? He is not a Levite and He is not a descendent of Aaron. So the writer argues that Christ’s priesthood is based on the order of Melchizedek.

 

NKJ Hebrews 7:1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

 

The first three verses explain that connection. We learned that he was the king of Salem. Salem was the ancient name for the city of Jerusalem. Melchizedek means king of righteousness. It was probably a dynastic title for the ruler of Salem. We don’t know who he was. There is nothing in the record of Scripture to identify Melchizedek as a historical individual. Now as I have pointed out in the past, there is an almost unanimous opinion among the rabbis in the Mishnah and the ancient texts that believed that Melchizedek was indeed Shem, the son of Noah. That is possible. But, scripturally there is no record of his family. That is unlike the Levitical priesthood which emphasizes familial connections. So the point of verse 2 and 3 is to emphasize that he does not have this kind of family connection. So he was the king of Salem. He was the priest of El Elyon from Genesis 17. He was the priest of the most High God. He met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and he blessed him. Melchizedek went out to bless him.

 

NKJ Hebrews 7:2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace,"

 

To Melchizedek, Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything. The old English word for that (a tenth) is tithe. It is from this use of the word a tenth in the Bible that we get this idea of tithing. There are so many churches today that practice tithing and talk about tithing. You get a lot of confusion over the whole issue of Christian giving, the whole ministry of giving and what tithing is all about. So the thing that happens there in that one event is that Abraham gave a tenth part of everything (not just what he had taken) but all the spoils from the defeat of the four kings and he gave a tenth of it to Melchizedek. That is the point of a tithe. A tithe when you look at the Old Testament was that an individual was paying tribute to someone in authority over them in recognizing their superior position. We have historical examples under the reign of Hamurabi in Babylon and others where this was a pretty standard type of gift or tribute in the ancient world. It tended to be a round figure like 10%. 

 

The other night in Genesis in our study of Joseph, we talked about how Joseph at the end of 7 years of famine took the land, allowed the people to sell land to the government. The government bought it with grain so that the people were able to survive. Then it leased the land back out to the people as tenant farmers and they gave 20% of their produce back to the government.  

 

I pointed out from one example that I knew about anecdotally that that is a standard example for tenant farmers even today – to give 20% to the landlord and landowner. They keep the other 80% of that. 

 

Morgan came up after class and said that is pretty much the royalty fee to landowners where you have an oil well on the property. That is an oil lease. They get 20%. These kinds of numbers – 20%, 10% -- had a tremendous history because they were round numbers and easy to figure. The giving of a tithe from Abraham to Melchizedek was part of his recognition of the superior place, superior position of Melchizedek. That is the point that the writer of Hebrews is bringing out in this section.

 

Now in the second part of verse 2 it goes on to read…

 

Melchizedek means king of righteousness. Melki is a derivative of melek which is the Hebrew word for king. The “i” there puts it in a genitive of relationship. Zedek is the root for righteous. That makes the king of righteousness.  He is also the king of Salem. Salem derives from the Hebrew word shalom which means peace. As the king of Salem he would also be the king of peace. 

 

He goes on in verse 3 to explain…

 

NKJ Hebrews 7:3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

 

This means that there is no record of his family. It doesn’t mean that he didn’t have any father. It is not saying that. It does not say that he didn’t have a mother. There are people that come along and say that this must have been the pre-incarnate Christ because he didn’t have any parents. No, he was a human being. He had to be fully human to function as a priest. If he was the pre-incarnate Christ without being true humanity then he could not function as a priest. You can’t have the pre-incarnate Christ functioning as a priest because He isn’t incarnate yet. That is a real simple argument. There are always people who want to fight and die on that particular hill and they haven’t thought it through very well.

 

Genealogy is important if you are going to prove your Levitical and Aaronic connections. 

 

The Bible doesn’t reveal when he was born. The Bible doesn’t tell when he died for the purpose of setting him up to be an analogy, a type for the future ministry of Christ.  

 

But he resembles the Son of God. Now that very statement that I pointed out last time means that the prototype for the Melchizedekean priesthood is the Son of God, not the other way around. It is Melchizedek who resembles the Son of God, not ultimately the Son of God who resembles Melchizedek.

 

Then we come to verse 4.   

 

NKJ Hebrews 7:4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.

 

Now we are back to the word tithe. The word tithe is used several times in these verses. From verse 4 down through verse 10 the word tithe is used several times – 5 or 6 times as you go through that particular section. That tells us that this tithe is part of the focus of the writer.

 

So we need to stop and take a little time in our study of Hebrews to show what this is all about. There are many, many churches in America that emphasize tithing. Almost every group emphasizes tithing. It is completely inconsistent with an understanding of the distinctions between the Old Testament administration of God and the New Testament administration of God. It isn’t wrong because it doesn’t fit dispensationalism. It is wrong because it doesn’t fit the Bible. The Bible teaches dispensationalism. We start with the Bible, not with an abstract theology. 

 

We don’t start with dispensationalism and say, “That doesn’t fit our system.” 

 

No, the system comes from the Scriptures. Because the Scriptures draw these distinctions between the Old Testament and the New Testament between the law related to Israel. It was a national law and the Church Age, which is multinational and is not limited to a particular ethnic group and has no set law in the sense of a constitution. When you are in the Old Testament with Israel, the Law of Moses is their constitution. That is their body of law. That is comparable to the US Constitution. 

 

To come along and say, “We are going to take things out of this body of law that applies only to the nation Israel and we are going to say that it is mandatory for the Church Age” is like saying that citizens of the United States are held legally responsible for laws in the French constitution. 

 

We all know that there are people who seem to be headed that way. That is another story. You can’t take the laws of one national entity and apply them to another national entity even if their constitutions are extremely similarly. You can’t take the laws of Britain and make a United States citizen subordinate to those laws unless he is living in Britain. That is the same thing that happens with the church. You have too many people who don’t understand the distinction between the laws as a constitution for Israel. It is not just spiritual; it is their political base. It has to do with their whole civil, legal and spiritual structure.  

 

So we have tithing in the Mosaic Law. Wait a minute! The concept of tithing antedates or precedes the Mosaic Law. You have two references to tithing in Genesis. The first is given here in Genesis 14. 

 

  1. Prior to the Mosaic Law there are two instances where “tithe” is referenced. Abraham gives a tithe in Genesis 14:18-20 and then Jacob gives a tithe in Genesis 28:20-22.

 

In Genesis 28:20 we read:

 

NKJ Genesis 28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,

 

This is at Bethel. Jacob is coming back or is about to leave the land. He makes a vow. 

 

NKJ Genesis 28:21 "so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.

 

NKJ Genesis 28:22 "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."

 

Now this is at the ancient Canaanite city Luz. That is Bethel, which means the house of God. Now there wasn’t a house of God there. This is a place where Abraham had also set up an altar to sacrifice. We have studied this not that long ago in Genesis and the thought never occurred to me. I can’t tell you how many times I have taught this particular lesson and the thought never hit me until today. When Abraham paid tithes (gave his 10%) (It was a one time event as we will see) to Melchizedek, he had someone to give it to. There was a Gentile priest king that was worshipping the true God. Who did Jacob give it to? I never thought about that. It was something that just hit me. Jacob leaves and is gone for 20 years before he comes back. He goes up to Paran. God blesses him. He comes back with all of these sheep and all of these goats. He has several millions dollars worth of assets. Let’s just say he comes back with $10 million. When he comes back, he is going to give a tenth to God - $1 million. There is no structure for it. How did he do that? I don’t know. So I got on the phone to a couple of my more educated Old Testament scholar friends. 

 

They went, “Hmmmm.”  

 

Nobody had an answer. There is no structure there. So we don’t know how or to whom he gave it. How did he do this? What is the mechanic? We don’t know.  The only thing that is in the land at that time is the Canaanites… Now I could speculate and say that Melchizedek must have had an heir. Just as Melchizedek was the priest-king of Salem when Abraham was there, he would have an heir that would also be the priest-king of Salem in Jacobs’s generation. Perhaps Jacob gave it to him. Possibly. We don’t know. The Bible is completely silent. There is no temple. There is no tabernacle. There is no priesthood. There is no infrastructure. There is nothing. So we don’t know how he did this or to whom he gave it. But he did. These are the only two times in the Old Testament before the Mosaic Law that we have the mention of tithe – just these two times. What we observe in both of them is that number one they are voluntary. They are not mandatory. There is no legal mandate that Abraham should give a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek.  

 

There is no legal mandate saying, “Jacob, if you want to be blessed spiritually you need to give 10% to God.”

 

There is no legal mandate anywhere. There is no mandate in Scripture anywhere. Out of the blue they just do it as an act of gratitude and worship to God. It is purely a voluntary event that is a gracious response to God’s blessing in their lives. They are not discovering the law of tithing so that they can tap into God’s miracle spiritual ATM machine in the sky which is kind of how the health and wealth guys do it. If you give 10% God will bless you and He will return it 100-fold. You will get wealthy.

 

I remember some years ago I talked to an extremely discouraged individual who had given 6 figures to the church almost every dime he had because the pastor told him that God would give him a 100-fold return. There are hundreds of people who get duped by that. They are not discovering some law of tithing that is going to tap into God’s ATM machine. They are responding in gratitude to God. They are not expecting anything in return. It is simply an act of devotion to someone who is their superior. It was a cultural thing to do and they knew that God was their superior. 

 

The only giving amount that is specifically prescribed by God pertains to the famine in Egypt. In the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream, God commanded that a fifth or 20% of all the grain produced in Egypt should go into the storehouse during the 7 years of plenty in preparation for the 7 years of famine. So you have 20% there. That was like more of a tax – federally imposed, government imposed savings program in order to prepare for the future. So all you have prior to the Mosaic Law is one type of giving. It is voluntary, free will, grace-based gratitude oriented giving with nothing expected in return. 

 

Then we come to the Mosaic Law. 

 

  1. Mosaic Law Tithing is given. It is not just a tithing of money but which included all of their possessions – everything – not just money. Leviticus 27:30 says…

 

NKJ Leviticus 27:30 '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 to the LORD.

 

So 10% of your cows belong to the Lord - 10% of your sheep, 10% of your fruit, 10% of your grain, 10% of your money. Ten percent of everything belongs to the Lord and was holy to the Lord. That means it was set apart to the Lord. That is what the word holy means – to be set apart to the Lord. 

 

Now there were three different tithes in Israel. 

 

I often want to ask people. “Which tithe is this that you are talking about?” 

 

The first tithe under the Mosaic Law supported the bureaucracy of the theocracy. The priests and the Levites were the administrators of the theocracy. 

 

Theocracy is a word that means God rules. God was the head of the government. You might say God was the executive branch. God ruled. It was the priests and the Levites who carried out the administration of the kingdom and their center of focus was around the tabernacle initially and then later the temple. So the first tithe was designed to support the bureaucracy of the theocracy, the sons of Levi. Numbers 18:21-30. It was to the sons of Levi for an inheritance in return for their service which they performed the service of the tent of meeting.

 

This sets a precedent historically that those who serve the Lord in a full time capacity have a right to be supported by God’s people financially. That principle of course was carried over and in the pastorals. Paul talks to Timothy about the fact that the elder who teaches well and rules well is worthy of double honor. He talks about the fact that you shouldn’t muzzle. He uses the analogy of not muzzling the ox. In other words pastors and Christian workers should be well paid so that finances don’t become a distraction for them. I can’t tell you how many pastors have to work or they don’t make enough.

 

I commend people in this congregation. We are setting a precedent the way that we are handling the pastor’s conferences. We are supplying the financial resources for many of these men to come to subsidize their airfare for students in many cases. We subsidize their hotel rooms so they can come and stay without being a burden to them. Some of these men don’t get paid enough and their churches don’t have enough resources to fly them here and put them up in a hotel and to take care of them for the time that they are here. We are doing a tremendous job in subsidizing many of these men so that they are able to come and so that finances are not an issue. During the conference for those who are pastors, for those who are students, for those who are missionaries or full time Christian workers we provide lunch on Monday (just about everybody on Monday). On Tuesday we provide lunch for all the out-of-towners. We are taking them over to Goode Company for some Texas barbeque. Then on Wednesday we take them to Guadalajara and give them Mexican food. Their breakfast is next door at Aunt Pookie’s so that two meals get taken care of and some of their room and board. That is the generosity of this congregation because we are trying to establish a precedent of respect and honor for men who teach the Word and that they should be well taken care of and finances should not keep them from becoming better students of the Word and learning more about the Word. That is a tremendous thing that all of you are doing.  It makes me feel good when I hear about people who come out of the woodwork and say that there isn’t much they can do. Some give $100, $200, or $300 to help pay for the room of one of the guys at the hotel. That is just tremendous generosity and grace-orientation of the congregation. It makes me proud of the congregation. This is what it is all about - being able to do these kinds of things and support folks. That is a tremendous thing to do. 

 

So the first tithe was 10% that went to support the sons of Levi because of their work in the tabernacle and later in the temple. 

 

A second tithe (I find this interesting) was for a national celebration of the grace and generosity of God.  It is described in Deuteronomy 14: 22-24. There were tithes and offerings and sacrifices and free will offerings that are mentioned in Deuteronomy 14. This second 10% was used to support this national feast. 

 

I like to have fun with this. God in the Old Testament was very physical, very graphic, and very literal in the way He handled things. In the process of revelation as you go from the very beginning to the New Testament God teaches doctrine in very concrete terms and illustrations and examples. You have the visual training aids of the tabernacle. You have the bronze laver. You have the tent of meeting. You have the table of showbread. You have the candlestick. You have the altar of incense. Inside you have the Ark of the Covenant. All of these things are designed to visually teach very abstract doctrine. So God sets up with these concrete images and you have historical events that are used to teach specific things. So we come to this particular event and its purpose was to give the nation a barometer to evaluate their spirituality. Let’s say they go through a period of 10 or 20 years and they are tremendously obedient. They follow the Sabbath, the sabbatical year law. They are very obedient. The people are responsive to doctrine. They are very positive. God is going to bless them materially because that is what He promised them in the contract of the Mosaic Law.

 

“If you will obey Me I will bless you abundantly. You will be extremely fruitful. There will be rain, not too much and not too little. It will be the right amount. Your crops will be abundant. There will be an overabundance of food and resources. Everything will be taken care of.” 

 

So 20 years goes by and you come to your annual feast. You take 10% of the gross national product. You have got all kinds of money. You can go out and you can get the finest caviar and you can buy the finest prime beef for steaks and roasts. You can get the highest quality vegetables – not like the stuff you can get at the grocery store. 

 

I remember when I was a kid our next door neighbor was a fruit wholesaler. His name was also Fruit. I thought that was fun. He would bring us these avocadoes that were like small melons. They were enormous. You couldn’t buy them at the grocery store. They were restaurant quality produce. That was when I first learned that there was a quality of produce that is much better than what you get in the grocery store. So they could buy the highest quality of produce and the highest quality of meat. If they had beer, they had microbrews. They didn’t have Budweiser and Schlitz. They were getting good micro brewed beer. And they had beer. That is what a strong drink offering was in the Old Testament. They didn’t know how to distill beverages so they weren’t bringing single malt Scotch. They had good beer. That is the Hebrew word for a strong drink offering.   

 

I often used to kid a friend of mine who enjoyed wine. 

 

He said, “When Jesus catered to the plebian tastes of the people at the wedding of Cana He gave them wine. But when God wanted something to drink in the Old Testament He wanted a beer. 

 

Strong drink offering! So they would bring the finest micro brewed beer and the finest of everything. They would have a tremendous party. Let’s imagine that 20 years goes by and we have a time of spiritual regression – a time of spiritual apostasy. They worked through the sabbatical year. They never take the Sabbath Day off. God begins to discipline them. The rain begins to disappear. They go through a time of drought and a time of famine.

 

 The next thing you know, twenty years later they are going to have their feast and they think, “Remember when we were kids – back in the good old days?  We used to have these great parties and now we are stuck here with Buckhorn beer and Lone Star and all we can afford is Texas caviar. We can’t get the good Persian or Black Sea caviar.”

 

Do you know what Texas caviar is? It is made with black-eyed peas. 

 

“That is all we can afford. We can’t have very much. All we can do is go to Luby’s and get some carry out from there, but that is the best that we can do. I wonder what happened.” 

 

See this is a very visual, very material barometer of spirituality. All of a sudden, maybe we aren’t doing what the Lord wants us to do. That is what it was designed to show. So every year there was a second tithe of 10% for a national celebration sort of like the 4th of July with fireworks and everything else. It was a celebration of the grace and generosity of God. So that means 20% now for you national income tax. It was mandatory taxation. 

 

Then each third year there was another 10% was to be given for use in supporting the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow. That is those who were destitute, those who couldn’t take care of themselves, those who were older, those who couldn’t work, and those who didn’t have any parents. It was a social safety net. There was a level of welfare in a sense to provide for those who were less fortunate. So, there was 10% every third year. That meant that you have 23-1/3 % taxation. That was mandatory. So when you talk about tithing, which 10% are you talking about? If you are going to do one, you have to do all three. That is the basis from the Old Testament. 

 

But you see the Mosaic Law also recognized freewill or grace giving. You had mandatory giving and you had freewill voluntary grace giving. Remember before the Mosaic Law there were two tithes that were voluntary grace-based gifts. Just because they were 10% doesn’t mean that they were establishing a hard and fast precedent. Now you also have within the Mosaic Law freewill and grace giving. So you are going to give 23-1/3 to the government in order to take care of all of these other things and to the temple as part of your ordinary taxation. But now you are expected to give above that a freewill or grace offering to express your personal gratitude toward God and thanks that all has He had done. This could take you up to 30 -35- 40-50 % of you income.  Some of it was under mandatory principles and some under freewill or grace giving. 

 

NKJ Proverbs 3:9 Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;

 

NKJ Proverbs 3:10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.

 

This has to be understood within the context of the Mosaic Law and God’s promise of blessing related to their giving.

 

NKJ Proverbs 11:24 There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty.

 

This is a person who gives, a person who is grace oriented, a person who doesn’t hold on in a miserly fashion to every dime that comes in. He shares it to help others. 

 

He avoids his responsibility. He is too tight to do what is right. 

 

In other words, he may keep the money but there is no happiness in his life.

 

Moses raised money for the building of the tabernacle and to provide all of the gold and all of the jewels and all of the silver and everything that was used in the construction of the tabernacle through a freewill offering. Exodus 25:1-2 in comparison with 35:5, 21.

 

NKJ Exodus 35:5 'Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze;

 

The emphasis here is on personal volition. It is up the individual to make a decision to understand what the issues are to make a decision that they are going to give at whatever level they choose. It is comparable to the New Testament principle. 

 

NKJ 2 Corinthians 9:7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

 

It is an individual decision and not a mandatory contribution. Then there are  other passage such as Leviticus 22:28, 23:38, 27:30, 31, Numbers 15:3, Deut 12:6, Ezra 1:4, 3:5. These passages all emphasize freewill on grace giving.

 

So you had required giving which is analogous to national taxation. The state has a right to tax the citizens. Jesus supported this. When He was asked about the drachma tax He took the thing and said…

 

NKJ Matthew 22:21 They said to Him, "Caesar's." And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

 

Jesus authenticated the validity of a national entity to tax its people for the support of the government. So that is required giving. Freewill giving was to be a matter of independent individual choice and decision. The amount is left up to the worshipper.

 

Now we come in the Old Testament to a particular passage that is frequently quoted by preachers when they want to manipulate people into giving more.  This is in Malachi 3. Now there has to be a little background understanding or isagogics on Malachi.

 

Malachi is probably the last book written in the Old Testament. Malachi is a prophet. He is coming to the people who are in apostasy and challenging them with their spiritual apostasy because they are failing to obey God in completing the building of the temple and fulfilling the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Malachi is about the same time as Nehemiah. Nehemiah returned to finish the building of the walls and complete the reestablishment of the nation as it was before the Babylonian captivity. Part of the problem was the people quit applying the law in a number of areas including the area of tithing. In Malachi 3:8-10 there is a condemnation for failure to pay the required taxes, those three tithes that I mentioned already from the Mosaic Law. Here is the challenge.

 

NKJ Malachi 3:7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," Says the LORD of hosts. "But you said, 'In what way shall we return?'

 

NKJ Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.

 

God responds, “In your tithes and contributions.”

 

There are your two categories – mandatory tithing and contributions of freewill offerings. 

 

“You are robbing God by not applying the law and giving.”

 

NKJ Malachi 3:9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.

 

NKJ Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

 

What does God mean “to put Him to the test”? 

 

That is exactly what the next verse says. 

 

You can’t understand that verse if you don’t understand the Levitical laws and mandates. In Leviticus and Deuteronomy God said that if they obeyed the law He would bless them and prosper them materially and physically with the abundance of produce. It was an agricultural society. God uses this extremely concrete, graphic way to demonstrate how He will bless them if they are obedient. 

 

God is saying, “Why don’t you test it? You know what the law says to do. Test me and I will pour out blessing from the windows of heaven. They are going to open. But, where do you understand that?”

 

The principle is found in the Mosaic Law. God is not talking to the Assyrians here. He is not talking to the Romans. He is not talking to the Greeks. He is not talking to the Egyptians. He can only say this to the Jews because only the Jews have a contract with God which stipulates that “If you obey Me, I will pour out blessings on you.”

 

So you can’t take this out of context and apply it to the Greeks or the Romans or the Babylonians or the Egyptians or Americans in a Baptist church in the South or in a Methodist church in the North or the Episcopal or Anglican church in England because they are not Jews living in the land under the Mosaic Law. It is a total fragmentation of Scripture to try to interpret it that way. 

 

When we come to the word storehouse, the word storehouse is the Hebrew word that refers to the temple. That was in the ancient world the local bank. They didn’t have a Comerica or Wells Fargo or Wachovia or whatever. You didn’t have that in the ancient world. You had the temple. That often served as a place of banking because the priest served as the guards. So the temple was the treasury. When people brought their money to the house of the Lord, they were not building a church. There is no application there. They are taking it to the temple because that is where the tithes were to be taken in terms of the Mosaic Law. You can’t interpret this any other way. If you don’t understand Leviticus and Deuteronomy you can’t properly interpret this. That is what we have today. People take this completely out of context. 

 

So the national bank for storing tithes was the house of God which is referred to by the term the house or in this case the storehouse. God had chastised them already because they had failed to bring their tithes to the storehouse. 

 

In the Church Age we are no longer under the Mosaic Law. Romans 16. Christ is the end of the law. The Old Covenant (which we will see in Hebrews 8) has been superseded or replaced by the New Covenant. Hebrews 8:13ff. When he said a new covenant, he made the first obsolete. It doesn’t mean he made the first in reference to sacrifices obsolete because Christ has now died on the cross. It doesn’t say that he made the first obsolete in reference to the ritual in the temple because Christ has come and replaced that. It is the whole law. It is all or nothing. 

 

If you go down to your mortgage company or to another mortgage company or a bank and you redo your mortgage, are they going to take pages 1 and 2 and keep those in affect, and just modify 3 and 4? Is that how it works? No, they write a whole new contract. You replace the old one with a new one. Since you bought that house 20 or 30 years ago, the laws have probably changed. You are going to have to get a whole new contract. You can’t just replace two paragraphs. That is what is happening here. 

 

You can’t go back into the Old Testament and say, “Well, part of the Mosaic Law continues and part of it doesn’t.” 

 

It is an all or nothing proposition. So let’s look at some key principles. 

 

First of all, giving even und the Mosaic Law was not a part of the spiritual life or the means of spiritual growth. That is how that should be understood. Even under the Mosaic Law it was not part of, or a means to, spiritual growth. It was a result of spiritual growth. I don’t give to grow. I grow and I realize what God has done for me and express my gratitude to Him. It is the outworking of genuine grace orientation and gratitude in the soul for everything that God has provided. Giving isn’t a means to grow. It is the result of growth.

 

Second, grace does not mean you don’t have an obligation or responsibility to give. I understand this. People who come out of a legalistic, tithing-based church go to the other extreme when they go to a grace oriented church. 

 

“They never talk about money. Isn’t that great? I don’t have to give anything. I go to this church. They have a box in the back and if I come in the side door I never have to deal with the fact. I can keep all of my money now. Isn’t that great?” 

 

Grace doesn’t mean that you don’t have an obligation. Grace doesn’t mean it is free either. Salvation is free to you, but it cost God something. There is no free lunch. It is always amazing. Most of you are conservatives. You believe that there is no such thing as a free lunch. How many Christians are conservatives? There is no such thing as a free lunch. Let’s get rid of welfare. Let’s emphasize personal responsibility. Then they go to church and think it is a free lunch. There is no such thing. Grace isn’t free. It is free to you. There is obligation. There is no mandatory payment. You don’t have to come in and pay $10, $20, $100, $500 in order to get the Word. It is free. But that doesn’t mean that there is no obligation or responsibility as God has prospered you to participate in the financial responsibilities of local church and missions and various ministries so that you can have a sense of personal blessing and promise. You are involved in that ministry. You are part of God’s means of letting that happen. Grace doesn’t mean it is free - just that there is no obligation.   

 

We have come to tithing in the New Testament. Tithing is mentioned in the gospels only in reference to the legalistic practice of the Pharisees. That is the only time you have the word tithe. They were legalistic. Now when you and I look at the Pharisees, we look at the Pharisees through the lens of the negative critique of the New Testament. But if you were a Jew living in the first century, nobody was better. No one was more moral, righteous, or upright than the Pharisees. 

 

That is why when Jesus said, “If you are going to get into the Kingdom of God, your righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees.” 

 

It wasn’t condemning them for their legalism in that statement. 

 

He was saying, “You think of them as the best that human beings can be. You have got to be a whole lot better to get into heaven.”

 

They had a reputation for morality and for being spiritually mature. But in Luke 11:42 and in 18:12 God condemns the legalistic way in which they are handling tithing. It is not that tithing was wrong. That was in the law. Paul said the law was holy, just, and righteousness. There is nothing wrong with tithing in the Mosaic Law. What they did with it though was they made it a sign of spirituality. That’s when it became a work and that’s when it became wrong and legalistic. It became a means of getting God’s blessing. That is when it shifted. Giving 10% was the same, but their motivation was by tithing God would bless them. 

 

The Lord taught in contrast that giving was to be a private matter, between the believer and God. Once that dollar, once that check for $1,000 or $10,000 leaves your hand, you don’t have any right to talk about it anymore. You are giving it to the Lord. How this church uses it, how this ministry uses it, how that ministry uses it, whatever they do with it, you turn a blind eye to it and walk away. It is amazing how many people - especially people who have more money to give - can’t get passed that.

 

They will give $10,000 or $50,000 or $100,000 then if that ministry or the church doesn’t do what they think they ought to do and they say, “Well, you know I gave you that money and I have some say in it.” 

 

You may look at it and say, “Well, you are changing your philosophy of ministry. You are not doing the things you used to so I am not going to give any more.” 

 

That is your responsibility. But the person who gives doesn’t have a string attached to that money so that they can come in with the money and dictate policy and procedure. That happens a lot. 

 

I know of a case recently where someone who was extremely generous and large giver was challenged on that particular point and went ballistic. He didn’t understand it. When you give as unto the Lord that means that once it leaves your hand, it is gone. 

 

I remember a church that I attended for many years, had a split back in the 70’s. There was a man that sat in front of me.

 

I remember my mother asking him, “Are you leaving?”

 

He said, “No. I have given so much money to the church I have got to stay here and make sure it is used right.”

 

I was about 19. I thought, “Hum. That is not grace giving.” 

 

NKJ Matthew 6:2 "Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

 

This is why I personally do not think that it is a good idea to have name-plates. This is a good time at the beginning of a church to talk about this. You go to a lot of churches and they say you have a plate on the back of a pew. This was given in memorial to so-and-so or this is Miss Sally Wainright Sunday School room. They have plaques around the church when people give money. 

 

The first church I ever pastured in got in a hole financially in the depression. They had the church about half built and they ran out of money. There was one couple in the church. Her husband had died. She said, “I will come in and I will pay for the rest of the building of the church. The only requirement is I want you to name the church after my husband.”

 

I am just glad the guy’s name wasn’t something like Adolph or Frank. The guy’s name was Paul so it sounded biblical. Nobody really knew that. They thought the church was named after the Apostle Paul. But, it wasn’t. It was named after Paul Naskey down the street. Just imagine what his name could have been. It could have been Claude Union Church. You never know. So, people do these things. There should be a policy from the beginning that you don’t do any of that. Giving is supposed to be between the individual and the Lord. There shouldn’t be any mark or any plaque or any recognition. The only recognition that matters is from the Lord. According to this passage is that if you get your reward from people, that’s it. The Lord is not going to give it to you. I would rather get my recognition to the Lord rather than people.   

 

NKJ Matthew 6:3 "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

 

NKJ Matthew 6:4 "that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

 

I make it a policy. I have no clue what anybody gives. I don’t ever look at anything. I don’t know what anybody gives to the ministry. I don’t know what anybody gives to the church. It is none of my business. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to ever know. I don’t have a clue. But I know pastors who know exactly, to the penny, how much (It is on their computer at church) every person in the church gives. That is standard operating procedure in many, many churches

 

We will stop there and come back to it next time. We will come back to the New Testament teaching on tithing. There is no tithing in the New Testament. It is all grace.   

 

Illustrations