Bible Study: Tithing

So I am excited to start my first bible study! Now don't expect all of these to be bible studies that tells you what to believe because I don't intend to do that. I want you pray for God to open your heart and speak to you about what this bible study means. I will give you scriptures from the bible and let you make your own decisions. So please pray before reading this.

Last night before I went to bed I was working on making a new budget with more expensive health insurance involved. After taking away all of our bills, the health insurance and tithing we were left with practically nothing. I kept thinking how can we do this we need diapers and household products, too but we also need to tithe. I felt like I was told to go look up scriptures of tithing on the internet and this is how this study came about... I learned that I don't have to give 10%, that I give what I can out of the kindness of my heart. Now I will let you make your own decision.

WHERE DID TITHING COME FROM?
In Genesis 14, after the kings were slaughtered, Abraham returned to Palestine with Lot and with a large amount of soil that was taken from the kings. Abraham gave him a tenth of the spoil; the remainder was given to the king of Sodom.
If you read the story you will see that Abraham's tenth was not forced, he chose to offer thankskiving to God for the deliverance of his people. In fact, God does not speak of a law to tithing until Leviticus.
Not until Moses was there an actual law and many believe the law to be an old convenant that was used to help the Levits and priest at the time (like a taxation).

Here is something I found that I liked quite well...

If one decides to tithe under the law, he must:

 1. Give ALL the tithes required by the law. Some count 3-4 different tithes under the law of Moses. One tithe will not satisfy the law. (Remember, no human can change God’s law.)



2. Give your tithes to a Levitical priest. The problem here is that there is no more Levitical priesthood. Modern pastors are not Levitical priests. (Remember, no human can change God’s law.)



3. Give tithes in the form of agricultural produce and livestock. This will not work for urban dwellers -- unless you have a very big garden! (Remember, no human can change God’s law.) As to Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees that they tithe mint, dill and cummin (Matthew 23:23), remember that the New Covenant did not begin until the cross.



4. Bring your tithes to the storehouse, or temple. You will have to go to Jerusalem, but when you get there you will not find the temple. The problem here is that there has been no temple since A.D. 70. Modern church buildings are not the temple. Individual believers are God’s temple. (Remember, no human can change God’s law.)

[source: http://www.choicesforliving.com/spirit/part4/tithing.htm]

SCRIPTURES:
^{Does God want you to give 10% if it will cause you to not be able to pay a bill or take care of your family??
1 Timothy 5:8}But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever2 Cor 8:8-15
⁸ I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

¹⁰ And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; ¹¹ but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. ¹² For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.

¹³ For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; ¹⁴ but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. ¹⁵ As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”^[b]




How does God want you to give?

2 Corinthians 9:7So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.  Matthew 23:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

And to end this study... FOOD was always the tithe:

Leviticus 27:30And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.

2 Chronicles 31:4-6Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the Law of the Lord.
⁵ As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. ⁶ And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the Lord their God they laid in heaps.

If you want more references google scriptures on tithing and you will see it alway spices or some type of food that is tithed, never money. I pray this has been helpful to some out there who question their tithing.

I used biblegateway.com to look these scriptures up and used the New King James version.