A CLOSER LOOK AT TITHING
EXPOSING THE ERRORS
By: Victor T. Stephens
"People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up."
~ George R.R. Martin
OLD TESTAMENT TITHING DURING THE MOSAIC LAW (continued)
Firstfruits and Tithes
Many false teachers in the church employ coding tactics to various scriptures to secure an incessant cash flow. Another aspect of their monetary control agenda involves the interchangeable use of firstfruits and tithes. They attempt to correlate a link between the two terms to extricate the first ten percent of one's gross financial income. Their beloved verse is:
"Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; ...." (Proverbs 3:9)
Reading into the verse what it does not say, tithing advocates render Proverbs 3:9 as:
"Honor the Lord with your money, with the first ten percent of your gross financial income." (Twisted Version)
Although we can classify money as wealth, the meaning of wealth from a biblical perspective includes "all possessions of value." In addition to paying tithes from herds, flocks, and produce as required by law, the Israelites honored God by giving Him an array of various offerings. Thus, to show honor to the Lord with one's possessions are separate deeds apart from the Mosaic tithing laws. Similarly, the concepts and statutes regarding firstfruits are distinct from the legislation of Mosaic tithing. For example:
a. In Israel, firstfruits were some of the choicest first ripened crops and fruits offered to the Levitical priests. There were no specific percentages attached to the giving of firstfruits. (Deut. 26:2).
b. Israel was required to pay tithes to the Levites, the fatherless, the stranger, and the widow. But firstfruits were to be paid to the Levitical priests. The Levites who received tithes paid a tithe to the Levitical priests and the Levitical temple workers.
The only similarity between firstfruits and tithes is that they are both food substances. In the New Testament, firstfruits metaphorically alluded to certain people. Likened to monetary tithing, the Bible does not illustrate money paid in the form of firstfruits. Let's examine the following passage:
And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, 'I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.' Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God." (Deut. 26:1-4)
Take note that Deuteronomy 26:2 says, "some of the firstfruits" rather than "a tithe" or "a tenth." And it was the priest, not the Levites, who received firstfruits.
“… to bring the firstfruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God; and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities.” (Neh. 10:37)
“The best of all firstfruits of any kind, and every sacrifice of any kind from all your sacrifices, shall be the priest’s; also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.” (Ezekiel 44:30)
The two verses above demonstrate additional examples of firstfruits given to the priests, not the Levites.
Let us now look at Nehemiah and 2 Chronicles.
"And at the same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered." (Neh. 12:44)
"Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the Law of the Lord. As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the Lord their God they laid in heaps." (2 Chr. 31:4-6)
Notice that Nehemiah 12:44 makes a distinction between tithes and firstfruits. If firstfruits were already synonymic with tithes, there would be no need to allude to tithes in this verse. Appropriately, the Israelites were to bring their firstfruits to the priests, whereas their tithes were payable to the Levites, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (Deut. 14:28-29; Deut. 26:12-13). Similarly, in 2 Chronicles 31:4-5, the portions due to the priests and Levites were the firstfruits and tithes, respectively. The Israelites gave their firstfruits to the priests and their tithes to the Levites.
As aforementioned, the Levites were to pay a tithe to the Levitical priests and the Levitical temple workers. Thus, according to Numbers 18:29, it was the tithe given to the priests and temple workers by the local Levites that was considered the best of the tithe. And the best of the tithe was not referred to as firstfruits.
Next: A Closer Look at Malachi 3
