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NASB | Genesis 14:20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." He gave him a tenth of all. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 14:20 And blessed, praised, and glorified be God Most High, Who has given your enemies into your hand." And Abram gave him a tenth of all [the treasure he had taken in battle]. [Heb 7:1-10] |
Bible Question: A friend of mine asks the question - "if most pastors (christian faith) state that when Jesus came His coming in affect makes the old testament laws and rituals no longer valid - why do we still have to tithe 10 percent as stated in the old testatment?" |
Bible Answer: Best as I understand it, tithing was established long before the law. It is not a part of the law. Tithe was given to the King of Salem (Melchisedek) who was also a priest (before the Law established the Levites. The Levites (priests) then had to live off the tithe, as they had no direct income of their own) Numbers 18:21. Melchizedek, being King and Priest, is a 'type' of Jesus Himself. Therefore Jesus' fulfillment of the Law, did not abolish the tithe, which is established for three purposes: 1) Finance for ministry - God's work in the world must be financed somehow, this is the practice established by God for that purpose. 2) An act of trust, that God can trust you with income that is not your own, and 3) As a covenant agreement (such as we have with God) is a two-way thing, faithfulness on our part in paying the tithe, can them be responded to by God being faithful to His promises for provision, guidance, protection etc. a covenant says "If you do 'a' I will do 'b', but if you don't do 'a', I CAN'T do 'b'". That's how our relationship with God works. (CAN'T of course does NOT mean "not able to" but means "not allowed to under a binding agreement"). Can you imagine how much God's kingdom on Earth would have if every born again Christian tithed? How much could be done! How blessed those Christians would be! To my knowledge, only about 20 percent of born again Christians tithe; amongst the denominations, its LESS! And here I confess that I'm not consistent with my paying!! Lord, help us to be more honourable with Kingdom Finance!! By the way, what is there in GOD'S WORD to say that Jesus' coming makes laws and rituals no longer valid?? Was Jesus a Jew? Were the disciples Jewish? Were the first followers of Christ Jews? Did the Christians in Acts still keep the Sabbath? Go to the synagogue? Keep the Holidays in the Jewish Calendar? Yes they did! in Western culture we've all but lost the Jewishness of Christianity, a loss which I believe is on God's heart to restore! There's a wonderful guy called Michael Rood with a TV show called 'A Rood Awakening' all about that. But that's another thing, and I've gone on too much already! |