Bible Truth

Tithing Part 2

Does Tithing Predate The Law?

As we saw earlier, the answer is - Yes it does.  In the ancient near east, tithing was a common practice in many pagan cultures. You can find references to tithing in Babylon, Egypt and Messopotania with the minimum amount of research. The question is does the tithe that was part of the Mosaic Law pre-date the law it was part of and the answer to that is - No it doesn't.

There are only two mentions of tithing in the scriptures prior to the Mosaic law and neither example is compatible with either the Mosaic Tithe or the version of it taught today. Let's take a look at why that is.

Abram and Melchizedek

Gen 14:18 - 20 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Genesis 14 is the record of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fighting a battle against King Chedorlaomer of Elam and their various allies, all of whom were pagans. King Chedorlaomer won the battle and as was the custom, took all their food, goods and various citizens as spoil. Unfortunately for King Chedorlaomer, he also took Abrams Nephew Lot who happened to be living in Sodom at the time, along with his possessions, family and servants.

One of the people who escaped being carried off with the spoil came and told Abram what had happened. As you may expect, Uncle Abram was having none of that and took 318 of his trained servants to recover Lot and his possessions and teach King Chedorlaomer a lesson.

Although outnumbered, through God's blessing and various tactical night manoeuvres, he spent the night chasing them around the outskirts of Damascus until he had beaten them into submission. Then Abram took possession of all the spoils King Chedorlaomer had taken from the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah along with Nephew Lot and his possessions and headed for home.

Afterwards the King of Sodom went out to meet him to negotiate the return of his goods but Abram keeps the King waiting while he is met by the mysterious Melchisidek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High God who has brought bread and wine. Melchisidek pronounces a blessing over Abram and Abram gave him a tenth of all the spoil he was carrying.

When Abram is finished with Melchisidek, he then listens to the King of Sodom who suggests he keeps the goods but returns the people. Abram however refuses to accept as much as a bootlace from the spoil of Sodom because he doesn't want people to be able to say it was a pagan king and not God that made him rich, then minus the expenses of the men that accompanied him in battle and the 10% he had given to Melchisidek, he returned everything to the king of Sodom and sent him on his way with his lesson learned.

Is this an example of the Mosaic tithe? Lets sum it up

Abram did not tithe of his own goods.
Abram tithed in response to being blessed, not in order to attract a blessing.
Abrams tithe was a one off, not an ongoing commitment.
Abrams tithe was not commanded of him or done of obligation.

If we are to follow this example, we would be giving 10% in tithes then returning the other 90% of what we receive back to the source it came from. Although this principle would make many employers dance for joy, it is definitely not comparable with the Mosaic tithe commanded under the law.