We see within this
chapter two striking concepts. First, we
see the issue of tithe. But we’ll come
back to that one because it is the most obvious within the passage. The other topic that we see is the Lord
setting up measures to protect the sanctity of the tabernacle and the space
within.
Joyous Consequences
Numbers 18:1-7 is
clear about one thing. The Levites are a
gift to Aaron, his family, and Moses for the sake of keeping the tabernacle
free from ritual uncleanly behavior. I
find this extraordinarily interesting for one giant reason. It was Korah and many of the Levites that led
the revolt back in Numbers 16 that started this whole mess! So it seems like God is looking to those who
started the rebellion and saying, “You all are now in charge of making sure
that doesn’t happen again.”
I think this is a
pretty neat tie into the New Testament.
While we were yet sinners, God sent Jesus to us. While we were enemies of God, God planned our
salvation. Now God has looked upon us –
His enemies – and called us to protect His Word and His worship. As God calls the Levites here to protect the
sanctity of the tabernacle and the proceedings therein, so God also calls
us. We – originally His enemies – are
now those who are called to keep watch while Jesus our Great High Priest makes
atonement for us. I find that truth absolutely
striking today.
Tithing: Gratitude
That leads us now
into the concept of tithing. As payment
for their devotion, God institutes a tithe from the people to support the
Levites. Out of this tithe, God calls
the Levites to also tithe in order to support Aaron and His family.
The Hebrew people
were to give out of their first fruits of the land. They were also called to redeem any unclean
womb that was opened.
I’m going to digress
here for a second. Do you also notice
that we are to redeem every human womb opened in addition to the wombs of
unclean animals – but God specifically says of the animals that are clean that their
opened wombs need not be redeemed? It
makes me wonder if humanity doesn’t have more in common with unclean animals
than clean ones. But as I said earlier,
I digress…
The point of all of
this is that the holy people of God should desire to give of their best to God. They should desire to remember all that God has
done for them and thus desire to come to Him with thankful hearts. When we speak about tithing and giving to
God, it first goes to the point of gratitude and thankfulness.
Tithing: Support
I’m not going to
argue about numbers and percentages – although remember that tithe literally
does mean 10%. But out of our tithe to
God comes the support for His worship.
That’s the system, and it is a pretty cut and dry system. God’s holy people give of their first fruits
to support His worship.
As I look at this
passage, something neat jumps out at me.
The tithe is meant to support the worship of God. The tithe is meant to support the work of the
tabernacle (or in the future, the temple).
That’s it. It is a pretty narrow
focus. God doesn’t want to burden the
people by huge taxes to support all kinds of social service and care for the
poor, etc. The tithe is for the support
of the worship. The people are charged to
remember the poor and the downtrodden and the orphan and the widow out of the
rest of their money or food stores or whatever.
But the tithe supports the worship of God.
Beyond Support
Here’s actually the
really neat thing about understanding this concept. In every congregation that I have been a part
of, the average percent given by the average worshipper was far less than a
tithe. Yet the churches still
functioned! Sure, there were some people
that gave way over their tithe. Of
course there was, some people are blessed and called to give over and above
because God continues to bless their generosity. Yet in reality the church is able to be
supported on an average percentage that is less than a tithe. This causes me to look forward rather
hopefully. Here’s why:
Imagine if everyone
in the church were able to actually tithe.
We’d have a surplus. In fact,
we’d have a surplus of close to 4 times more than we currently have. The average Christian in America gives 2.5%
to God in one form or another. Now
imagine a God-following body that understands this concept but is still devoted
to tithing. Imagine a group of people
who do give graciously enough to support the church. But these people don’t need to offer the
pastor a larger-than-necessary salary to keep him or her around. And they don’t do building projects to
impress the community around them. And they
don’t suddenly buy all the latest programmatic activities for the church. Rather, imagine a congregation that understands
how blessed they have been to support their congregation with what is needed
and still have excess to do ministry.
These are people who take their money and rather than funneling into the
glory of the church they funnel it into ministries that they themselves create
to reach the poor, the orphan, the widow, the lonely, the downtrodden, the
sick, the forgotten, the homeless, the lost, the searching …
Imagine a church
where people are committed to supporting the church to the level that it needs
in order to worship God – but the rest is funneled through families on mission
for God with each other.
See, what I am
reminded in this passage is that here in America we are so blessed that our
“tabernacle support” doesn’t even require a full tithe. If we could open peoples’ eyes to a vision of
families on mission for God and mobilize the portion of the “tithe” that the
church doesn’t need … we could actually glorify God by changing the world through
proclaiming God’s Word to the ends of the earth.
Now, I don’t want
this to be about money. Adding money
never actually solves problems, it just creates more. What I am really talking about here is
followers of God who truly desire to follow God’s ways, listen to God’s Word,
and do what God asks of them. If we had
churches where everyone within them had this perspective, then we could do some
amazing things.
I hope this doesn’t
come across as a whiney talk about money.
Because, well, it isn’t meant to be.
What I hope it comes across is a talk about how we as a community of
followers of God have a long way to go in understanding what God is calling us
to be in our world.
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