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The poor in Israel did not pay Tithes
“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” Deuteronomy. 15:11
One more fascinating fact about the Old Testament tithe that completely blew my mind, was this discovery. According to Jewish tradition, the poor people in Israel who did not own land did not tithe because the tithing laws only applied to the direct produce of the Land[of Canaan]. Already mentioned is the biblical reality that the tithing Laws under the Law of Moses weren't as exacting as we are all led to believe. Tithing was limited to agricultural produce as such, poor people who did not own land or livestock were not required to tithe.
They were instead beneficiaries of the tithe. And of course, I saved the best for the last! Here is an interesting quote;
'The Code of Jewish Law says, “He who has barely sufficient for his own needs, is not obligated to give charity, for his own sustenance takes precedence over another’s.” The Jewish Mishnah contains other exemptions of poor persons. Unfortunately, it is all too common to find large churches with many poor who give above and beyond their means out of fear of the Old Covenant curse of Malachi 3:9… Such treatment is oppression of the poor and is a modern scandal.” Dr. Russell Earl Kelly.¹
The Jewish Law placed so much emphasis on being good or gentle-willed towards the poor. Oppression of the poor was something that was strongly condemned under the Law of Moses. The Law made lots of exceptions for the poor when it came to some offerings that were required for certain rituals. For example some leniency was shown for the poor when it comes to other sacrificial offerings or purification offerings see(Lev.12:8; 14:21-22)
If a Jew was too poor to offer a sheep or lamb there was provision for them to offer two doves or pigeons which they could afford. In Luke 2:24 Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons for purification which testified of their humble state. Even this text from Leviticus clearly reveals God's attitude towards the poor;
“If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.” Leviticus 27:8
This is money that they were required to pay! Even though God had stipulated these amounts, he also gave a special exception for the poor. If a person was too poor to pay the required amount by the Law, the priest would then adjust the value and set it according to the amount the person could afford. Even though these amounts were written, God still made exceptions for the poor. God never expected or intended for the application of his Law to be oppressive on the poor, but it was rather to protect them.
Special privileges or cheaper alternatives were put in place to cater for the poor, so they too could offer some sacrifices and participate in worship within their means. The Law never obligated or commanded the poor to give beyond their means. What is happening in the Church today is totally at odds with Old Testament Israel or the Early New Testament Church reality. Under the New Testament Church, the believers gave freely so as to minister to the needs of the poor. In today’s church, it is the poor who are expected to give to minister to the needs of the few.
"'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19:9-10
Furthermore, the gleaning laws provide yet another example of how the Law was more exacting on the rich and very lenient on the poor. The rich landowners were not allowed to reap on the edges of their fields or gather any of the crops that fell onto the ground when they harvested their fields. They were to leave these behind for the poor and foreigners living amongst them. Moreover, the poor were not required to give a tithe of the gleanings they gathered to the Lord for Holy use. This shows that God has always been predisposed to helping the poor.
This is all in sharp contrast to what many are being taught and came to accept as truth regarding the tithe. We are taught that the poor needed to give more to God In order for them to be blessed by God. The poor must pay tithes of everything they get more than anyone for this is the only way that God breaks the curse of poverty. If one is poor and doesn’t tithe they will never amount to anything in life. If one wants God to bless them with money, they must first give Him money!
I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one who can perceive that there is something odd with this kind of teaching. We are all made to believe and accept that poverty is a curse and that we need to give ten percent of our income to God for him to break this curse! However, under Old Testament Israel the tithing Laws were only applied to agricultural produce on landowners. The poor who didn’t own land so as to give tithes were never required to give ten percent of their wages to God instead. “Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it”. More so, this is what God actually said about the poor;
“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” Deuteronomy. 15:11
Hence this teaching that the poor must give ten percent of their income in order to break the curse of poverty can not be supported by the scriptures in both Testaments. Isn’t it a bit ironic that even though the tithing Laws were given to the Israelites, yet God still acknowledged that there will always be poor people in the land of Israel? As such, the whole nation was commanded to be openhanded towards the poor and the needy! God here didn’t refer to poverty as a curse, he instead required the whole nation to assist the poor.
Isn’t it that all the poor needed to do was to give ten percent of their income so as to break the curse of poverty? But instead God required or commanded the whole nation to help out the poor in any way possible. This teaching can’t be supported by the Apostolic instructions in any way. Here are a few examples from the Apostolic teachings about what the Apostles had to say regarding the poor.
“They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor.” Galatians 2v10-11
“God is not unjust, he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them" Hebrews 6v10
“Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" James 1v27. “Suppose a brother or sister is without food and daily clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them “Go in peace; keep warm and we’ll fed" But does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it" James 2v15-16.
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need and has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person” 1 John 3v17. “Dear friends, since God loved us, we ought to love one another. No-one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us" 1 John 4v11-12
These verses accurately portray the Early New Testament Church attitude towards the poor. Poverty was never seen as a curse, the instruction from the Apostle James is the one that really struck a nerve “Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”. But in today’s Christianity, the true religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is paying tithes of one’s income to God!
This doctrine that teaches that the poor need to tithe themselves out of poverty or that the only way to break the curse of poverty is by paying tithes is dangerously heretic and goes against the core teachings of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Moreover, this teaching encourages selfishness and greed In believers as people are motivated to give through ego or selfish ambitions of wanting to get rich rather than showing the love of God. We give in order to be a blessing to others. Our giving must be motivated by charity and not our desire to be rich or breaking the curse of poverty.
In his book “Why Non-Tithing Christians Become Poor and How Tithing Christians Can Become Rich" Dag Heward-Mills claimed that all Christians who don’t pay tithes become poor because they are under a curse! He also claimed that Christians who don’t pay tithes become poor because the devourer constantly eats their wealth, fruits of their fields are constantly destroyed and they lose their fruit before they get their chance to harvest! “Another reason why non-tithers become poor is that the fruits of their harvest are lost before they get a chance to harvest them. Non-tithers are cursed with the “failed harvest.” A failed harvest is the failure to reap the corresponding and appropriate harvest for what you have invested.” 3
What teachers like this one overlook is the simple fact that no one was ever required to give a tithe of their income by God. No Jew under Old Testament Israel was ever cursed for not paying ten percent of their income to God. The curse that Dag is talking about is nothing but myth to a Gentile Christian. This whole ideology of breaking the curse of poverty through payment of money to God is predicated upon the misinterpretation and misapplication of Malachi 3:9-10. Like I said, no Israelite was ever cursed by God for not paying a tithe of their wages!
Rhodes Thompson had this to say in his book Stewards Shaped by Grace, “Some disagree that people are ever too poor to tithe. But my experience in the Third World [India] and inner-city St. Louis exposed me to people whose poverty I had wittingly or unwittingly helped to create and whose liberation from it still receives too little of my time and resources… Watching poor folks in St. Louis facing the winter choice between ‘meat’ and ‘heat,’ I could not lay on them the burden of tithing that would have forced them to forego both at the risk of health and life.”5
It is quite unfortunate that the Christianity of today, refuses to accept the reality that, there are some people who are too poor to tithe. A landless Israelite, was exempted from tithing, because the tithe only applied to the Land. No Israelite was required by Law to tithe from every source of income they had.
1 Dr. Russell Earl Kelly: Should the Church Teach Tithing. pp.62;65-66
2 Dag Heward-Mills: Why Non-Tithing Christians Become Poor pp.6.
3 Rhodes Thompson: Stewards by Grace.