Chapter 6: Tithes and Taxes

Chapter 6: Tithes and Taxes

Beginning of Tithes

The first tithe in the Bible was the one that Abraham offered to Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High when he returned from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. Genesis 14:18-20 states: “¹⁸Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, ¹⁹and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. ²⁰And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything” (also, in Hebrews 7:2-10). The literal translation of ‘Melchizedek’ is king of righteousness. He was not the high priest in the order of Aaron as he preceded Aaron and did not belong to any tribe of Israel as he was not of Abraham’s family. Melchizedek, the eternal high priest as well as king of righteousness and king of peace was a type of Jesus in the Old Testament as the Book of Hebrews describes (Hebrews 5:6-11, 6:20-7:17).

Then, Jacob mentioned a tithe in his prayer to God at Bethel while he was running away from Esau. Genesis 28:20-22 states: “²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that thou givest me I will give the tenth to thee.” Jacob promised God to offer him a tithe conditionally when God would bless him.

Purposes of Tithes

A primary reason why God tells his people to offer a tithe to him is to let them know that all things are of God. Although all things belong to God, God takes only the tenth and lets his people live with nine out of ten. Leviticus 27:30 states: “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s; it is holy to the LORD” (also in Leviticus 27:32).

After the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, the land that the Israelites conquered was divided to Jacob’s twelve tribes (the Levites were omitted, and Joseph took two portions – Manasseh and Ephraim). The Levites were not allowed to have land, except for 42 towns for them to reside and 6 additional towns of refugee (Numbers 35:1-8; Joshua 21). God wanted the Levites to contribute themselves wholly to their work in the temple. Instead, God arranged them to live with the tithes that were offered by other twelve tribes. That is, the offerings (burnt offerings, grain offerings, fellowship offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings) that the Israelites offered were accepted by God, but God let the tithes used for the living of the Levites. God in Numbers 18:21 says: “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service in the tent of meeting.”; and in Numbers 18:28 (to the Levites): “So shall you also present an offering to the LORD from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel; and from it you shall give the LORD’s offering to Aaron the priest.”

Practically, the Israelites separated the tithes for the Levites, the Levites separated the tithe of the tithes that they received for the descendants of Aaron. The descendants of Aaron were the end users of the tithes and they did not separate the tenth of what they received. And every third year, the Israelites separated another tenth for the poor Levites, sojourners, orphans, and widows.

Moses in Deuteronomy 14:22-23 states: “²²You shall tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from the field year by year. ²³And before the LORD your God, in the place which he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock; that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.” 

The New International Version (NIV): “so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.” (Deuteronomy 14:23b)
The Good News Translation (GNT): “Do this so that you may learn to honor the LORD your God always.” (Deuteronomy 14:23b)

The Living Bible (TLB): “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.” (Deuteronomy 14:23b)

As TLB translates it properly, the purpose of tithes is to put God first in our lives and remember that all things belong to God. We should be thankful to God who allows us to use nine out of ten that belong to him.

Moses in Deuteronomy 14:28-29 states: “²⁸At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of  your produce in the same year, and lay it up in your towns; ²⁹and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do” (also in Deuteronomy 26:12-14). This tithe at the end of every three years was a special one to relieve the Levites, sojourners, orphans, and widows. This is another purpose of tithes to remember the poor neighbors.

When there was a king in Israel, the Israelites had to offer another tenth as taxes to the king, in addition to their tithes for the Levites. God in 1 Samuel 8:15-17 says through Samuel to the Israelites: “¹⁵He (=King) will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. … ¹⁷He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.” 2 Chronicles 31:5-6 states: “⁵As soon as the command (of King Hezekiah) was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. ⁶And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the dedicated things which had been consecrated to the Lord their God and laid them in heaps.” (also in 2 Chronicles 31:12) Thus, the Israelites separated 13.3% per year of their income before they had a king and 23.3% per year of their income after they had a king: 10% for the Levites, another 10% for the king; and at the end of every three years, 10% (3.3% per year) for the poor Levites, sojourners, orphans, and widows in their towns.  

Tithes continued even after the Babylon captivity. Nehemiah 10:37-38 states: “³⁷and to bring the first of our coarse meal, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our rural towns. ³⁸And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes; and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, to the storehouse.”

Full Tithes

Malachi 3:8-10 states: “⁸Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How are we robbing thee?’ In your tithes and offerings. ⁹You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you. ¹⁰Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” Offering tithes is not to show off to other people but is a relationship between God and us. What kind or quality of tithes we offer tells us (not others) how much priority we place God in our life.    

Tithes in the New Testament 
Jesus in Matthew 23:23 states: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” (also, Luke 11:42) Jesus’ saying here is equivalent to God’s saying in Hosea 6:6: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.” God does not mean that he does not want to receive sacrifice and burnt offerings but emphasizes the priority – the practice of steadfast love and knowledge of God are more important than sacrifice and burnt offerings. What Jesus emphasizes in Matthew 23:23 is not a tithe itself but the spirit of tithe – why do you separate a tithe for God? It is to acknowledge that all things belong to God and give thanks to him (by separating the tenth) who allows his people to live with those of God’s. Some biblical scholars regard the tithes that God told his people to separate and offer for the Levites as taxes to God under his sovereignty.

Jesus and Taxes

What was Jesus’ attitude toward taxes? When Jesus and his disciples came to Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel (or two-drachma) temple tax asked Peter whether Jesus would pay the tax (Matthew 17:24; cf. Exodus 30:13-16). Jesus in Matthew 17:27 says to Peter: “However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.” Jesus did not reject the secular rules and regulations although he did not enthusiastically support them.

There is another passage regarding taxes, where the Pharisees tried to entangle Jesus (Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; and Luke 20:20-26). The Pharisees asked Jesus in Matthew 22:17: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not.” Jesus in Matthew 22:21 wisely responded to their malicious question: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Christians and Taxes 
Paul in Romans 13:6-7 says: “⁶For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.” Although the Roman emperor was Nero in his time, Paul tells his fellow Christians to respect the earthly authorities. So, believers should pay taxes duly. Tax avoidance to minimize tax liability within the law by reviewing all the items of tax exemptions and reductions is proper, but tax evasion is illegal and thus Christians are not supposed to do.

Tithes and Taxes

God used the tithes (taxes that he collected from his people) to provide the Levites with their living as they could wholly devote their time and effort to God at the temple. The Israelites in the Old Testament separated the tenth for God, which was used for the Levites regularly and another tenth for sojourners, orphans, and widows at the end of every three years; and yet another tenth to their king for whom they asked God.  

            What about today? Some Christians separate and offer the tenth to God at their church, which is used for their pastors’ living as well as for the ministry of God, including the relief of the poor people, the support of the local community, missionaries, etc. Their pastors (who are usually not supposed to have a secular job if the church can afford to provide for their living) are equivalent to the Levites in the Old Testament.

All people including Christians pay taxes to the governments – federal, state, and local governments – when they have income and when they purchase goods or services. When people do not have income, they may be supported by the government in the forms of negative income taxes, cash transfers, or in-kind transfers (subsidies by the government), which are similar to the tenth that was separate at the end of every three years in the Old Testament.

When people have income, they pay taxes – the federal income tax and the state income tax, according to their tax brackets. Most people usually pay more than 10% taxes. The federal government’s primary source of income is taxes. The taxes that the federal government collects are used for social security, national defense, major health programs, safety net programs (unemployment insurance, food stamps, low-income housing assistance, etc.), interest on the national debt, and others.

As taxes today are used for more various purposes and goals, majority people pay more than 10% taxes, sometimes 30-40% of their income, including the federal income tax, state income tax, social security tax, Medicare tax, and sales tax. God’s tax system was a proportional tax system (10% for the Levites and another 10% for the king) whereas the current U.S. tax system is progressive (rich people belong to higher marginal income tax brackets).