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THOSE WHO ROB GOD:
A STUDY OF TITHE IN THE BOOK MALACHI (Concluded)

art II of this article was concluded upon indications that all the items required of God for tithes from the children of Israel were those created by God Himself. It also showed that all the items were products of the Promised Land given only and solely to the children of Israel to which no other people or nation has inheritance. It was therefore biblical that the children of Israel were faithful to a faithful God in their tithes and offerings. This is why the use of money as tithe in the church today is merely a tradition of man and not the requirement or expectation of God in accordance with His ordinances or commandment in the Bible.

Procedures for Tithing

The first tithes were given to the Levites because they had no inheritance in the Promised Land. These tithes were not to be taken to the Temple but to the Levites. They lived in the cities of the priests outside Jerusalem, which was not a Levitical city. The duties and responsibilities of the Levites included being assistants to priests, guards, singers, builders and craftsmen in the Temple on rotations. Outside the Temple they were teachers of the laws, judges and herdsmen. The Levites were divided into 24 classes and each class worked one course in 24 weeks. This means that 95% of the Levites and priests stay out of the Temple in the cities of the priests with 95% of the tithes at any given time (See 1Chro. 24, 25 and 26; 2Chro. 31: 15-19; Luke 1: 8).

"Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting" (Numbers 18: 21).

There was also what can be called the festival tithes. These were also not taken to the Temple but eaten at a designated point usually in Jerusalem during national holidays and celebrations. They provided opportunity for everybody to eat and be satisfied. Let us read together what the Good Book says:

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"You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always (Deuteronomy 12: 17-19 14:23).

There were other tithes for the needy which were not also taken to the Temple. They were gathered every three years. These were specifically used for the blessing of those less privileged in the society like homeless, fatherless, strangers, orphans and the single parents. If you want to read, let's read together:

At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. "When you have finished laying aside all the ntithe of your increase in the third year- the year of tithing-and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the LORD your God: 'I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them (Deuteronomy 14: 28-29; 26:12-13 ).

We have identified three different tithes that were not taken to the Temple according to the instructions, ordinances and commandments given by God Himself. These tithes were either given to the Levites directly or eaten by the tithers themselves. Tithes were also eaten with the needy including the Levites during national celebrations in Jerusalem. As a matter of digression, if I may ask, how many tithers in the churches have eaten or do eat out of their tithes today? Well, the answer is obvious as nobody can eat money which has replaced food or meat, which were the objects of tithes as required of God. However we can still ask: How many poor and the under privileged or even the tither ever spend out of the money paid to the churches as tithes as the Jews of the Old Testament ate of their own tithes? I know people who paid more than $5,000.00 to the church as tithes in a year without having $500 as their own savings for the same year. Who is being blessed here, the tither or the tithe collectors? Surely, it is the tithe collectors. This simply shows that the whole thing about tithe today in our churches is about serving man and not God.

Then the tax (tithe) collectors might be quick to ask the question: "Then what about where God says: "Bring the whole tithe into the store house so that there might be food in my house (Malachi 3:10)? My answer to them will be; yes, that is where tithe of the tithes comes to reckon. To discuss this, we shall need the original ordinance of God to Moses for the children of Israel. Also necessary of consideration is the writings of Governor Nehemiah the reformer who brought revival and restoration to the Temple and the life of the Israelites after returning from their captivity and exile in Babylon.

The Tithe of Tithes

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: 'When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the LORD, a tenth of the tithe. And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the LORD from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the LORD's heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the LORD, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them (Numbers 18: 26-29).

There was a reenactment of the above ordinance after the restoration of Nehemiah:

And we made ordinances to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD; to bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God; 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. And the priest, the descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes; and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms of the storehouse. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine and the oil, to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are; and we will not neglect the house of our God (Nehemiah 10: 35-39).

Please note that from the first part of the above scripture, God was talking about the first fruits going to the house of the LORD and not the tithes. I will write on firstfruits at another time especially for those who have written to know my views about what it means in the Church. We can see clearly that it was the Levites and the priests and NOT the people on the streets or Temple worshippers who brought tithes to the Temple. Dear readers, it is the same God who made the ordinances though Moses and Nehemiah who spoke through Malachi. Therefore, Malachi 3: 8-12 could not have been directed to the people BUT to the priests and Levites. They were the ones God directed to collect the tithes from the people and in turn bring the tithes to His storehouse so that there might be food in His house. They were the ones who robbed God by not fulfilling this obligation. The priests robbed God when they collected tithes from the Levites and failed to bring "the tithe of the tithes" through which food could be in God's temple. The food in the Temple was meant to feed the Temple workers. It was from the grains gathered that the showbread in the Temple were made.

Please let us all remember that the priests and Levites only worked part-time in the Temple just one of 24 weeks. Since they did not have homes in Jerusalem, they lived on the food in the store house of God for that one week. They lived outside the city of Jerusalem from where they came to serve in the Temple in weekly rotation. For the other 23 weeks they work in their rented lands as farmers and herdsmen and craftsmen.

Let us examine the Book of Nehemiah 13: 6-13 further:

"But during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Then after certain days I obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem and discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. And it grieved me bitterly; therefore I threw all the household goods of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded them to cleanse the rooms; and I brought back into them the articles of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. I also realized that the portions for the Levites had not been given them; for each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to his field. So I contended with the rulers, and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered them together and set them in their place. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse. And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouse Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah; and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered faithful and their task was to distribute to their brethren".

Governor Nehemiah had briefly returned to Babylon and in his absence High Priest Eliashib compromised his priestly position. He brought into the Temple one of the enemies of Nehemiah and Israel, Tobiah the Amorites. The High Priest prepared a room for him in the very store house where the tithes and offerings were kept. This was the same man who opposed the reconstruction of Jerusalem. Through out the time that Nehemiah was away from Jerusalem, the Levites and other workers in the Temple were not fed or given their portions of the tithes and offerings in the store house of God, which had been emptied by the High Priest Eliashib to make room for his friend Tobiah. Since the Levites did not have homes and families to live on in Jerusalem, they left the Temple and moved to there homes.

Nehemiah described the actions of the priest as evil. In anger and grief Nehemiah threw the decadent priest and his guest out and reorganized the Temple. He appointed a new keeper of the store house of God and ordered new tithes and offerings, a new priest and a new scribe. This was the robbery referred to by Malachi. God was robbed because the portions for the Levites who were workers in the Temple were not given to them. God was robbed because the priests denied the workers of the Temple their rights which came from the tithes and offering of the people. Bible scholars have agreed that Malachi and Nehemiah were contemporaries during the Postexilic Period of the Bible.

Let me repeat myself here again. I have never said and will never say that churches or ministries do not need funding. Like any other organization, they need money to serve and meet their administrative and physical obligations to the society. However, let these monies be collected without deceiving the people. Let us call them what they are; gift from willing hearts of the members towards the work of the Gospel. Let us not hide under the name and laws of God to do what God does require of us. Any qualified and competent pastor of leader in the church should know that there are many sources and ways by which churches and ministries can be funded without putting unnecessary yoke or burden on the members.

Tithes and offerings are correct words used incorrectly either ignorantly or mischievously to achieve a well pre-conceived motive of making money for the Church. Tithes and offering were required of the Jewish people in accordance with laws, rules and procedures for the purpose of worshipping God. Unfortunately today, most churches believe in tithes and offering and disobeying the biblical laws, rules and regulations guiding tithes and offering. In my very candid opinion, this smirks and sparks ungodliness. For God's sake if anyone wants to collect tithes and offering in the name of the God of the Old Covenant, he or she should be ready to obey the laws, rules and regulations of tithes and offering given by the same God. They must however be super people as the Jews don't even obey those laws, collect tithes or make offerings any more.

God who never required or expected tithes and offerings in money or 10% of anybody's income cannot feel robbed if and when it is not given. The same good God cannot curse anybody for disobeying a law that was not binding on him or her. The main purpose of going into "the lions' den" which writing these articles can literarily been described is to afford Christians the opportunity and knowledge of what God said about tithes and offering and to whom. It is to encourage Christians to read the Bible and be the doers of the Word. During the course of my research for these articles I discovered that about 90% of those who pay tithes in the Church today do so not because they are convinced about what they personally read and studied in the Bible. It is because it has become a tradition. It is because they saw people paying tithe. Many tithe because the pastors say they should pay. Then there is another group who pays because they don't want to be cursed by God for robbing Him. Yet another pays because they want God to bless them. Some pastors and church leaders see tithe and offering as the only way the Church can generate money. Fellow believers, in my very candid opinion, these are very wrong reasons why God instituted the ordinances of tithing for the children of Israel. To pay and collect tithes because of these reasons is to serve God in a very wrong or ungodly way.

I have NOT written to discourage giving towards the work of God. If anybody feels that by giving a certain percentage of his/her income is the only disciplined way to give money to the Church please for God's sake go ahead BUT never live under guilty or condemnation of the Old Testament laws again. Anytime you cannot give, don't feel guilty or cursed. Be prayerful and ask God to bless you so that you can give, like Jacob did. The Old Covenant and its laws ended the very moment the New Covenant and its grace started when the blood of Jesus Christ was shed on Calvary. Today, even in Jerusalem, the Temple is no longer there, the High Priest and the Levites are no longer in office, all tithes and offerings have stopped and become obsolete. As Christians, our body has become the Temple of the Living God. Jesus has become our High Priest who paid in full all our debts and made the last and final offering for us. All the curses and condemnations of the laws ended when Christ died under the law and became a curse when He was hung on that tree - The Cross. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree") (Galatians 3: 13).

The Church is not the only worthy place to sow our generous seed. There are many sources where we can show our benevolence - the poor and homeless, many innocent people in prison because they are too poor to hire good lawyers, hungry children, church members struggling to pay their bills, students who are brilliant but too poor to be in schools, orphanage and the strangers especially new immigrants who don't now where to start. Giving to these people is as good if not better than giving to the Church without accountability. Jesus our Great Teacher teaches us this same principle. "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' (Matt. 25: 35-40).

I can never deemphasize the place of finance in any human organization; and the Church or ministry in particular. What I detest is the replacement of the worship of God with the worship of money or man and materialism in our churches today. Many pastors and church leaders are no longer seeking the lost sheep or souls but the lost dollars and cents, pounds and pennies, naira and kobo (if anybody ever touches kobo again in Nigeria). They have substituted the Holy Spirit with Self. They have dethroned Christ in their churches and enthrone themselves. Look around in our cities today you'll see Bill Boards advertising Pastors and not Christ, then you'll know what I am talking about. It is no longer about what God can do; it is what they can do. Go to some of our churches today where if you don't address pastors as mommies and daddies you don't get attention; whereas only those professionals with big or mega pays that get greeted by the pastors because they can pay big tithes. Other poor people have to virtually crawl before the 'lords' of the pulpit to be recognized.

The fear of God is gone from our churches today especially with those who think that they own the churches. Sometime I say to myself, how I wish Jesus will just disguise as a poor homeless man and sit at the last seat in our churches today to see what has become His Church, which He bought with His Blood. Then I realize that He sees all and knows all things, including what goes on in His Church. Often times I ask the question: Where is God in our churches today? Then suddenly His Word of assurance, strong and powerful will come again streaming into my ears saying:

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last"(Revelation 22:12 and 13.)

And then I will say MANARATHA: COME NOW, LORD JESUS COME NOW!!!