EXPLORE IT! - The Tithe

About 3500 years ago, several eastern kings joined forces and conquered the five great cities of the Jordan Valley, including the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Later, these five cities started a revolution that was quickly squelched after a great battle near the Dead Sea.

Many people were carried off to the north, including Abraham’s nephew, Lot.

When Abraham heard about this, he gathered up the Amorites who were allied with him at The Great Trees of Mamre and set out in pursuit of the invaders.

Abraham’s surprise campaign was successful, and they brought back all of the captives and their belongings, including Lot and his family.

After the victory, all of the kings came out to greet each other.

And King Melchizedek of Salem (which would later become Jerusalem) came out to greet Abraham and give him a blessing.

In response, Abraham gave a tenth of his possessions to Melchizedek.

This passage would later serve the Christians who wrote the New Testament as a precedent for tithing to God… with Melchizedek being a symbol of an eternal representative between God and his people.

The King of Sodom then tried to give all kinds of riches to Abraham in gratitude, but Abraham refused to accept them, saying that he did not want anyone to ever say that “Sodom made Abraham rich.”

But we’ll learn more about Sodom some other time.

Abraham’s grandson Jacob also promised to give God a tenth of all he had after God appeared to him and promised to protect him.

And the tithe was also a part of the covenant between God and his people Israel (the descendants of Abraham and Jacob) when he met with Moses on Mount Sinai and he promised to marry himself to his people. Back then, this was called “firstfruits.” And the people would offer God the very best they had to offer of their crops and herds.

Much later, the prophet Malachi accused God’s people of robbing God. And the people were like, “How can anyone rob God?”

And Malachi told them that one way was through their tithes and offerings. They were not giving God their best, but instead offering him the worst of their crops and offering animals that were diseased. Malachi told them that God didn’t want them to give at all if they were going to give him crap like that. And the people repented and renewed their covenant with God.

Around 2700 years after Abraham, the Early Church father Irenaeus wrote about whether or not Jesus did away with the tradition of tithing or if he continued it.

He says:

“Instead of the law enjoining the giving of tithes, he told us to share all our possessions with the poor.”

[…]

“[the Jews] did consecrate the tithes of their goods to him, but those who have received liberty [Christians] set aside all their possessions for the Lord’s purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely not the less valuable portions of their property, since they have the hope of better things.”

And so the Early Church believed in a tithe, however, the tithe they believed in was not just 10%, but 100%. And this was given willingly, and not by force! They loved the poor so much that they gave everything they had. All their belongings they had in common and they shared their income and their possessions with each other… because they loved each other and they loved their neighbors that much!