Different Giving

Throughout His-story, God's Word tells us about people who give gifts and offerings to God. These gifts are not offered because they believe God needs anything. They are offered because they know that God owns everything, gives us everything, and they want to thank God for everything or ask God for forgiveness. In the Old Testament, God had set up a system for the Israelites to do this kind of giving and offering on a regular basis. It was a sacrificial system that helped the Israelites repent of their sins and an economic system that supported the sacrificial system.

Whenever someone would sin, that person was told to bring a sacrifice to the altar. It was usually an animal sacrifice to remind them that sin was serious and that the animal died because of their sin. This was a deterrent to stop them from sinning again, which is true repentance. The altar was locate in a central place for the Israelites. When they were nomads, it was located in a tent at the center of camp. This tent was called the Tabernacle. When they settled into the promised land, Solomon built a building in Jerusalem, a sort of central location, where these sacrifices would take place. This was the first Temple.

Israel had twelve tribes who were the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel). One of the tribes, Levi, was given the job of caring for the Tabernacle and, eventually, the Temple. A sub-group of the Levites, the descendants of Aaron, became the priests who performed the actual sacrifices on behalf of the people. Since they had full time jobs doing God's work, the other eleven tribes were told to bring in a tithe (10%) of their income to the temple. These tithes provided the food for the Levites to eat. It was an economic system that kept God's work happening on a day to day basis.

But it was more than an economic system. More than economic, it was an act of worship. We know this because the Levites were told to take 10% of what they received, a tithe of the tithe, and burn it up on the altar as an act of worship. It was a reminder to everyone that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Everything they had was provided by the hand of God.

Often times we will hear sermons enticing us to tithe today, but I don't think that gives fair credit to what God did in the New Testament age. When God poured out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, everything changed. People are now the temple of God. God dwells in them. Their lives become living sacrifices and acts of worship, holy and pleasing to God. Giving is not needed to support the Temple or the sacrificial system. Giving, in this new age, is only needed to accomplish God's new mission: go and make disciples of all nations. Elders who teach well are supported in this new system. Widows, orphans, and other economically oppressed people in the church are supported in this new system. Finances remove roadblocks from mission being accomplished. The giving looks different. Even the amounts are no longer the "corner of the fields" or "10%." The amount of giving becomes everything...

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. (Acts 4:31-35 NIV)

How about you? Have you ever looked at giving in this way? When you give, do you think of what God wants and give to God's mission? Do you give the way they did in the Old Testament? Do you give they way they did in the New? Is your giving based on the marketing ploys of our current day and age, or do you have different giving?