Dennis Tuuri

into Mount Zion, and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of a sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

See that you refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth. Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifyth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for calling us forward this day into holy worship before your very presence. We thank you, Father, that we come forward sprinkled with the blood of our savior Jesus Christ that speaks of good things to us and of blessings.

We thank you, Lord God, for forgiving our sins and we freely acknowledge that we do sin and have sinned this past week in thought, word, and deed. But we also thank you, Lord God, for the redemption of ourselves by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, for his efficacious sacrifice and for his imputed righteousness. And we thank you that because of that deliverance, we are no longer enslaved to sin, but are free now to serve you acceptably.

We thank you, Father, that your judgments are in the earth, that all things that can be shaken will be shaken, and that those that were founded upon the rock Jesus Christ will stand firm. Help us this day, Lord God, offer you acceptable worship and go forward from this place strengthened to do that which remains. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord. Praise him, oh ye servants of the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant. Judah is God known. In Salem also is his tabernacle. There break ye the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword in the battle. The stouthearted are spoiled. They have slept their sleep. At thy rebuke, oh God of Jacob, Thou even thou art to be feared.

Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven. When God arose to judgment, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God. He shall cut off the spirit of princes.

1 Corinthians 9:1-14.

Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you. For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forebear working? Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

Say I these things as a man, or saith not the law the same also? For it is written, In the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn? Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt it is written, and he that ploweth should plow in hope, and he that thresheth should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

—

Review just a bit where we’re at. We’re going through a series of six talks essentially around the government of the church as given to us throughout the scriptures and particularly as found in the New Testament based upon the church found in the Old Testament.

The first talk we gave dealt with the three forms of church polity. We examined those three forms of church polity—those being Episcopalian, congregational and Presbyterian—in light of Exodus 18. Found all of them wanting to a certain extent although the Presbyterian system is probably more intentionally biblical than the other two and particularly the congregational system which is pretty well deteriorated into a uh into rule by democracy or by the congregation which is certainly uh not an attempt to base church government on the biblical pattern.

We then went from there into a discussion of the two officers of the church. First we looked at the elder and his Old Testament antecedents. Then we looked at the deacon and his Old Testament antecedents. And then we looked at qualifications for office.

It may be good just to say a few words about some of these things that we’ve talked about so far, sort of bring us up to date in what we’re doing today. We dealt with the two offices at some length. Hopefully we saw when we talked about the eldership the error of the three office position.

Tried to demonstrate that the scriptures explicitly teach a two office position. And we went through a series of seven different proofs of the two office position and a lot of those really one of those that is quite a strong demonstration comes out of the Exodus 18 passage itself where we have the hierarchical courts set up where the judges primarily rule through means of instruction of the word of God.

Remember we talked about that examining Exodus 18 and its implications for government. And so the idea of teaching and ruling is combined with those officers in Exodus 18, the heads of tens, 50s, hundreds and thousands and indeed into the New Testament pattern as well as the Levitical pattern of the Old Testament. We see those two functions of ruling and teaching bound together.

There may be a differentiation of some degree of function amongst a number of elders in a congregation. Some may teach more than others, but all must teach. You cannot rule without teaching and instructing in the law word of God. That’s what is essential to biblical counseling. Counseling is really the application of the word of God. It’s like a sermon in essence, but it’s more practical and more on a one-to-one level with a particular problem that a person has to face.

And so there’s not much difference between biblical counseling instruction in the word of God to a specific person about a specific problem and really the preaching that goes on Sunday mornings as well.

I think it was Jack Phelps we were discussing this a couple weeks ago in our home. He said that people that want to have counseling from him all the time and don’t end up at Sunday services. He tells them there’s counseling that goes on every Sunday morning from 11 to 12 in his case and from 10 to 11 here. This is really biblical counseling taking the word of God and applying it to our lives.

At any event, if you go back over your outlines that you have, you’ll remember the reasons we gave there for the two office as opposed to the three office position. We talked about the diaconate some of course and the fact that the diaconate really is put in place for a couple of reasons. The immediate context in Acts 6 was the care of those who are vulnerable the widows specifically but we said that really had implications for all the temporal affairs of the church.

We looked back to the office of the chazanim or the officers of the Old Testament who were Levites. We’ll talk about that and its application as we get toward the end of today’s talk and that has implications for the diaconate as well. We also talked about an every believer ministry being one of the things that the diaconate teaches the idea of orthodoxy orthopraxy the instruction of the word the service of the tables both are service positions the eldership and the diaconate one instructs in the word of god decides directions in terms of applying the word of god to where the congregation is at the deacon implements those things help puts them into practice and administers the church in a temporal fashion as administers those particular functions.

Roy and I met this last week and he gave me a list of uh an updated list. I had prepared a list some time ago about different positions in the church and who was doing what. And that’s one of the lists I came I brought today to wave before you to help you realize that we’re serious about an every believer ministry. We’ll probably meeting again this week if Roy can find time and we can get a I haven’t talked to Roy about this yet.

We’ll probably meet this week to go over this list again. And if you don’t have a specific function in the church, we may well be probably will be speaking to you in the next couple of weeks about a specific function. And so we’re serious about an every believer ministry. The diaconate is essential to implementing that in terms of administration of the church.

We then talked about the qualifications of office. And I wanted to just take a quick survey here. We passed out a four-page sheet qualifications for office that I said you really all ought to go home the heads of households and go over with their wives to see if your wife could evaluate you using these questions and answers and you do a little self-evaluation.

How many people have actually done that so far? Rubber hits the road. Hands? Anybody have done this?

Very few. Well, I’m encouraging you again to do it and I’ll encourage you again next week. We’ll probably ask the same question next week for a couple of weeks. This is quite important because these qualifications found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 really applied the bulk of them, almost all of them, probably all of them, including the teaching qualification. The husband has to teach his household the word of God.

All of them have an application to every believer and every believer priest who heads a household. So, it’s important you know where you’re going. It’s important that we do periodic evaluations of where we’re at and what we’re strong and weak in and then take some steps to move towards strength in the areas that we’re presently weak in. We’ll do that again next week.

Maybe next week I’ll even take Roy. No, probably won’t.

Okay., all of this, of course, this six series of messages is primarily geared toward a heads of household meeting probably happening in late May. I have a date in the announcements today. If you don’t like that date, you better tell me because we’re going to firm it up. Remind you of that.

Now, the point of a lot of this is to prepare us for that heads of households meeting, the consideration of candidates for the diaconate for the eldership. And it’s important that I say just a word here about these qualifications.

Again, I didn’t mean to imply and Hopefully this didn’t come across this way. If you meet these qualifications, that doesn’t mean it’s time now to get into church office. See, these qualifications we all should be meeting as heads of households to, you know, to a to a good degree. Obviously, nobody’s going to meet these things perfectly. The point is these are general qualifications for godly living under God for all men, for all heads of households.

And so, just because a person meets these qualifications does not mean he’s qualified to serve in special office. Or a better way to put that is It doesn’t mean he’s called to serve in special office. Special office is a calling from God and an enablement. And it would be wrong for a person who doesn’t have that calling and enablement from God for special office in the church to think that somehow he’s second class cuz he doesn’t have that.

It’s just a different calling and in some cases a different vocational calling not more spiritual than what you do in your workplace but a different a separation of function for the institutional church. Okay. So it is a calling. You have to have the specific qualifications for the two offices, elder and the qualifications for elder being somewhat different, of course, and the qualifications for that of deacon because of the specific ways they work.

A deacon must be able to administer things. He must have organizational skills and be able to encourage people and exhort people to work in the ministry, the service of the administration of the church. The elder must be able to teach. He must be able to study the word of God. It must not be some sort of great burden upon him. If he doesn’t do it now, he probably won’t do it or won’t do it as much as he should when he becomes an elder.

And so, you want to look at people who are called qualified to do that and who have a real a love for God’s word and more than just an intellectual study of God’s word the application of that to their lives any church officer has to demonstrate faithfulness in small things by serving he’s got to look at what’s needed in the church and not say well I’ll wait till something better comes along or something more geared what I think might be my abilities you want to try to help out whatever way you can and some that means doing things that are not necessarily great prestige jobs but it’s servicing the body of Christ It’s covenant positions we’re talking about.

And the officers must have a sense of building up the covenant community of Jesus Christ here at Reformation Covenant Church. They must be dedicated to this work. They must be dedicated to helping people prepare themselves for the tasks that go on outside of the four walls of the church into the week.

I mentioned last week some books going used book shopping with Jack when he was down here. And I bought a book on something about biblical women or something like that. I bought it for my daughter. He goes through different women and these different chapters and the first one of the chapters is called the woman of tact and I had one of my daughters read that and he talks about Abigail Nabal’s wife and how tactful she was and I thought that the illustration here that he closes with is a good one to remember in terms of selection of church officers as well.

At the end of this chapter on the woman of tact the author says let me close with the fine words of Ruskin and I don’t know who Ruskin is maybe somebody here does but in any event Ruskin once said this.

In old times, a knight’s armor was often buckled on by his lady’s hand. That which was only a romantic fashion may enshrine an eternal truth. The soul’s armor is often set to its breast by a woman’s hand, and it is only when she braces it loosely that the honor of manhood falls.

So, the idea is, I guess, back then, if the lady didn’t put the knight’s armor on well, then the knight was liable to suffer in battle and die even as the thing fell off or didn’t fit him well else he couldn’t fight well and I guess without being again applying please forgive me for applying a feminine position of this example to the office bearers of elder and deacon in the church but it’s much the same way the elders and the deacons must fit the armor onto you so you can go into battle during the week and all things that you do doing all things for Jesus Christ remember the passage about wherever you put steps from last week from Joshua’s command God with us and we’re preaching the gospel and conquering in his name and so the office bearers must be people who are able to fit the armor onto the rest of the body of Christ here at the church and prepare them for going into the week and conquering for Jesus Christ.

Very important that we look when we examine elder and deacon candidates, we keep that in mind. There is one other thing about the qualifications both specific and general that we want to avoid this next meeting. I think the last time when we chose Roy actually there were a good many questions that probably could have been cleared up prior to the meeting and we have more people now the heads of households meeting is going to run longer and so we want to be very careful about using that time wisely and so I’d encourage you as we go through these list of qualifications as you’re evaluating yourself to also be thinking about the possible candidates that you think may be prepared for church office and be talking to those people about any problems that you have before the meeting.

Now some things have to be brought up at the meeting obviously some general concerns etc but the specific questions that you need answered should be done before that meeting occurs.

Okay, one other thing. I do not believe the primary purpose for more office bearers in this church is checks and balances. And I think that what we need to see is that the emphasis in scripture is not upon a number of office bearers as checks and balances.

Rather, it’s upon a number of office bearers to accomplish the work of the ministry to accomplish the work of reconstruction in terms of the church and then preparing men to reconstruct in their spheres. You know, the reason we need more deacons right now for instance, is not because Roy needs somebody checking or balancing him. It’s because there’s lots of things that need to be done and lots of enablements that need to be performed and there are people that God has brought into our church that have specific functions that can assist men in that task.

It’s for preparing people to move out and that’s the primary thing you should keep in mind again as we select church officers.

Okay. Okay. Having discussed all that then brought us up to speed where we’re at in this series. Today we’re going to talk about support for office bearers. Next week we’ll talk about the honor due office bearers and that’ll be the end of this six week series, a concise series on church government.

And then we’ll start a series of somewhere between 10 and 15 messages on the order of service itself and what we do here on Sundays and why we do it and how it has implications not just for Sunday but for all of our lives. And we’ll start that in two weeks from today. Following that, I’m considering u probably I’m considering very strongly preaching through the seven deadly sins as they’ve been called in times past in the historical church and looking at those and warning ourselves of those sins in our lives.

Okay, having done all that, let’s move to our passage then 1 Corinthians 9:1-14 and talk about the support for office bearers and just again a little bit of still a little more introduction for you here.

The text that we just read verses 1-14 obviously has a context. It’s important to just touch briefly on that context in 1 Corinthians 8 Paul has written concerning things offered to idols. And he tells the Corinthians not to make their weaker brothers stumble by insisting on their liberty to eat those things sacrificed to idols. Okay?

So he’s telling them to give up certain liberties they may have for the weaker brethren and brethren in the midst of them that they may not be caused to stumble. And obviously we’ve talked about the balance of that before in this church. You have to help people to see why these things are okay. But in the meantime, you don’t want them to stumble. A guy who has had a lot of problems with alcohol, for instance, and who is a drunkard and is trying to get over that, you probably don’t invite him over to share a lot of wine with you around the table.

You want to be very sensitive to that. You want to be sensitive to his weakness in that area. And Paul has done that in 1 Corinthians 8. He’s laid out this need for sensitivity to their particular state.

And what he does now in 1 Corinthians 9 builds on his example of what he has done in terms of the Corinthians. What he tells him is that he has a right to be supported in the gospel work that he’s doing by the church he ministers to. And then he’s going to tell them he’s forsaken that right for their sake. And the after verse 14 he talks from verses 15 to the end of the chapter about how although he should be supported for the work of the gospel and it’s certainly his right to be supported in that way that he’s going to give up that he has given up that right for the sake of the Corinthians because they were weaker in this area.

And so he takes the instruction on denial of personal liberties that we have for the sake of our brethren. And then he gives them a practical illustration of it from his very life. But of course, hits right home with them because he’s done it for them. And so he’s saying that you’ve been recipients of grace from my hand because I didn’t insist that you support me when I came to you. That’s grace for me extended to you.

And you then should be gracious in extending also care and concern for your weaker brother and not insisting on your personal liberties in this matter. So we don’t want to miss that point. That is the context for these words. And that really is the primary thing Paul is teaching.

Now we’re taking that out of context and we’re taking his instruction that indeed the ministry should be supported and is three reasons for that but it’s important we recognize this larger context as well in this context then he goes on to say first of all that he’s an apostle in verses 1 through 3 he states his apostolic authority he says I am an apostle and I’ve seen the lord it qualifies me for apostleship and even more than that you are the seal of my apostleship in the lord says certainly you know that I’m apostle because of my work amongst you I was sent one to you from Jesus Christ and that work has been efficacious okay then He says that in verses 4-6 that as an apostle he is entitled to remuneration as an apostle.

Okay, in verses 4-6 he makes some general statements about how he has power to eat and drink. Now he’s not talking about eating and drinking in verse four there. Have we not power to eat and drink? He’s not talking about things sacrificed to idols. Rather he’s saying we have the power or the right of support for our work amongst you to be able to eat food and to drink drinks that you’ve provided because of the work of the service among you.

And then he says in verse 5, have you not have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife as well as other apostles. The point here is he’s saying that even if we had a wife, she should also be supported in a family. The whole family should be supported by the churches we minister in. He says we have that right as apostles that sent ones to you.

and then he says in verse 6, or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forebear working. So again, he’s the point of verses 4 to 6 is that as apostles, he’s entitled to remuneration for his work in the ministry. And then verses 7-14, the right is specifically based on three lines of argument. And that’s what we’re primarily concerned with this morning, those three lines of argument for compensation of the ministry.

First, he says in verses 7-2, he quotes the case law regarding oxen. He talks about that. Verse 13, he talks about the laws of the Old Testament regarding the support of the apostles, Levitical antecedents, being the priests and the Levites. And then he talks in verse 14 about the command of the Lord himself or the law of the Lord. Okay? And that’s the outline we have before us. Three points. First, ministerial support based upon the oxen passage. Second, ministerial support of the Levites. And third, ministerial support and the Lord’s specific command.

First point, ministerial support based upon oxen verses 7-2.

Paul begins this section verses 7-2 with the simple statement in verse 7 of this the right of people who participate in a labor to share from the fruits of that labor. He uses warfare, soldiering as it were, feeding a flock, these sorts of things to talk about. And then he says in verse 8, say I these things as a man or saith not the law the same also.

So he’s saying, I’ve just told you that a guy doesn’t go up to soldier and not get paid for compensation for doing that. And I’m not basing this upon just man’s logic. I’m basing this upon the law of God. He doesn’t offer two lines of reason. First, man’s reason and then the law. He says, “Am I speaking as a man?” And he says, “No, I’m not primarily speaking as a man. I say this based upon the law word of God.” And then he turns in verse 9 to a specific verse from Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 25:4, and he says, “For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.

Doth God take care for oxen, or saith he it altogether for our sakes?” And he says, “For our sakes.” No doubt was this written.

We don’t want to belabor this point. It’s a pretty obvious one that the case law of God here is cited well Paul first says what was the intent of the case law when it was first given and then he takes the principle behind that case law and applies it to the situation which he’s talking about which is remuneration for workers of the gospel preachers of the gospel and that of course is a model for us to follow we want to understand the case law how it applied originally in its original context and then we want to say what does it mean for us today and Paul says when it was originally written the primary thrust of its original statement in Deuteronomy 25 was not oxen.

Now does that mean that oxen are unimportant to God? No. Oxen are important to God. We read in Job and in the Psalms that the ravens cry, God hears. He provides food for the raven and he provides food for the wild beasts. So we know that God is concerned about the oxen himself eating what he’s tread out. But the point of this passage is not primarily geared at oxen. It’s primarily geared to this principle that a person who labors in a field should also receive benefits from that labor while he’s treading out the grain as it were.

While he’s laboring and plowing and reaping, he should receive the fruit of that field as well. Linsky commenting on this said that Luther was really pretty much on the mark when Luther remarked that oxen cannot read. Okay, it is not written primarily for oxen. Here is what Paul says. And Luther says the ox can’t read this commandment. Rather, what’s behind this commandment according to Linsky and quoting from him now is that the sower and the reaper are to rejoice together, namely in the blessed fruits of their labors.

The oxen cannot understand, as Linsky writes, even when they feed while threshing. It is said all together on our account, and it is a pity that we fail to understand it. And so the basic principle is that both the one who sows and the one who is benefiting from that should rejoice together in what’s occurring. And as a result of that, then an implication of that is that the person who’s working in a particular field should get reward from that field itself and should be paid for his labors.

Now, this point is repeated in Galatians 6:6 where we read that let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. So, if you’ve been received instruction from the word, you should communicate all good things and to the one who instructs you in the word of God, you should pay him for his labors. 1 Timothy 5:17 and following says that the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who want who labor in the word and doctrine.

And he quotes the same case why he says for the Scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And again, first Timothy then takes the same specific case law and applies it to the work of the ministry and shows that has a major application is a major application of that case law. Okay, that’s a pretty obvious point.

But then Paul goes on in verse 13 to say the following. He’s made the point of the case law now regarding the oxen.

Now he says, “Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait on the altar are partakers with the altar. And this is obviously now referring back not to the case law given for all the people. This is referring back to the case laws now given for the support of the Levitical ministry and specifically the priests and the Levites who minister at the temple or tabernacle.

And so Paul is drawing a correlation now between his position in the church at Corinth and the position of those who labored at the altar or the tabernacle under the old covenant system, the Levites and the priests. partakers of the altar, the priest ate. Many of the sacrifices that were brought, a specific portion was designated for the priest. And so they would get a portion of the offering itself that was then given up on the altar, okay?

Was consecrated to the priests. And so Paul uses the Old Testament antecedent offices of which the apostleship, the eldership, and the diaconate of the New Testament equivalent to say that that correlation means there’s a correlation in compensation. Then as Well, okay. Because of this, then we’re going to spend most of our time this morning looking at the tithe, an overview of the tithe, because that was the primary vehicle of ministerial support.

The sacrificial system also, as I said, was involved with this, but the primary thing was the tithe. And so, we’ll look now at an overview of the tithe. And I’ve called it an overview of the elephant tithe. I don’t know if that’s the right word or not. It was pretty late when I came up with that word.

But here’s the idea. You’ve heard the story about the blind men who go to examine an elephant and one guy feels the trunk and says I don’t know what he says it is and one guy feels the big side leg and he thinks it’s one thing another feels the tusk another feels the ear well in a way the tithe is sort of like that I think it’s a confusing issue for a lot of people because we have these little pictures thrown throughout the Old Testament and they’re all like different aspects or teachings on the tithe and what we want to do is try to give an overview to bring them all together rather than get bogged down in one specific portion of verse we want to see the whole picture what the elephant looks like as a whole, not just the ear or the tusk or the trunk.

So, we’re going to look at an overview of the tithe and specifically in context as we get along to it here in terms of Levitical support.

First of all, the tithe has covenant history to it in terms of the patriarchs. The tithe and this is very important point. The tithe predates comes before Mosaic legislation. Very important point. Now, we could go back to the offering of Cain and Abel and draw some correlations there.

But we have an even more direct correlation with Abram of course tithing to Melchizedek and then also with Jacob who promised to tithe God a tenth of all that he profited if God was faithful to him and kept him safe as it were. so we have specific Old Testament patriarchal covenant history in which the tithe is documented and as I said that’s very important. It means the tithe is not restricted to Mosaic legislation.

Not that would mean that it isn’t applicable to today, but certainly if it predates Mosaic legislation, then we would expect it to postdate Mosaic legislation as well. And of course, it does. Now, the word tithe here, by the way, as we go through this in the scriptures, really just means the tenth part., there’s been some discussion with the root of the word, but most people are agreed that it means the tenth part or a tenth specifically.

And as we said in the scriptures there in your outline, Genesis 14 and Hebrews 7, we have the account of Abram tithing to Melchizedek. And then in Genesis 28 and Amos 4, Jacob at Bethel. Now that Amos 4 passage you might not normally associate with this but it is important just to touch on it briefly in Genesis 28. Jacob, you know, has gone off. He slept on Jacob’s pillow, the stone and whatnot.

He’s had the dream about the ladder that ascends to heaven, the ramp as it were, whatever it was. And he calls the name of that place Bethel, house of God. And Jacob vows a vow. Then verse 20. If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me the bread to eat and raiment to put on, nourish and guard so that I come again to my father’s house in peace. Then shall the Lord be my God.

And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house. And of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Now without getting bogged down into it, I don’t think he’s bargaining with God here. He’s simply saying that a demonstration that indeed who he has encountered in this dream is God is God’s faithfulness to him. And we can say the same thing. I don’t think it was a bargain he made.

The point was he knew that if it was God that he owed God a tenth of all that he had. He understood the tithe even at that point in early patriarchal history. And so it has deep roots the tithe does far predating Mosaic legislation.

And I mentioned the Amos 4:4 passage because we read there come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal multiply transgressions bring your sacrifices every morning. your tithes every 3 years. And so you have the tithes being described here as being brought every 3 years to Bethel. Some people say it means every 3 days. The context is not a good one. Amos in chapter 4:4 is putting the people down. He’s saying, “You guys have such great shows of religiosity. You want to go up to Bethel, the very place where the tithe in terms of Jacob was originated, and give your tithes there every three years, right?

Clockwork or maybe even every three days is what some commentators say that word means. So they far outdo the actual requirement of the legislation of the tithe. The point is he’s saying, you have all this great outward appearance, but you have no heart for God and for your fellow man. And without that, all this is just empty show.

A very important caveat for us to remember as we think about the tithe that it doesn’t gain us any privilege with God. It’s a demonstration of much greater truths which we’ll discuss at the end of the talk. And if those greater truths aren’t evident in our life, the tithe is worthless to us. Does us no good.

But in any event, the tie to Bethel there in the tithe is interesting. Okay, so that’s the tithe in the patriarchal covenant history. And now we’re going to look at the tithe in the case laws of the covenant.

And I and I you wouldn’t normally think of it that way, the tithe and the case laws. You wouldn’t normally think of Leviticus 27, Numbers 18, Deuteronomy 12, etc. necessarily as case laws, but I’ve used that language for a reason. And that is to say that I think that when you look at the penetuatal references to the tithe in terms of these three books, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You have to keep in mind they would be giving they were being given to a people for a specific mode of administration in a specific cultural context in which they were brought.

And that’ll become more clear as we go through this. But it’s an important point to remember that these are case laws. They teach principles that undergird them which we apply to today and which Paul applied to himself in 1 Corinthians 9. Okay, that’ll get more clear as we go along here.

Leviticus 27 29 and following has a statement of the redemption of the tithe. It’s a helpful passage for a couple of reasons. First of all, it talks about the tithe of the land and then it talks about the tithe of the herds or flocks. And those are the two basic groups of tithe, land and flocks. Whatever produces, you grow things or you have animals that get raised up, they increase and you tithe those. It’s a tenth part. And so really by the tithe of the land and the tithe of the flocks, you have all things that are produced by our labors.

being tithed. These are emblematic of all of our production, all of our efforts, and so everything is subject to the tithe., and then the second thing that’s good about this passage is that this is the last section of the book of Leviticus, the last few verses of it really. And, he’s this whole chapter is concerned with redemption of things vowed and things that are holy or especially consecrated to God.

And he ends this section on the tithe in verse 32 by saying, concerning the tithe of the herd of the flock, whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. And so, Leviticus 27 with the redemption requirements of the tithe shows us that the tithe is holy consecrated. It belongs to God in a special sense. And because of that, if you want to redeem, if one animal goes through and you say, “Well, I just as soon buy that animal back from God and give him the money instead,” you’ve got to add a fifth part, 20% to the value of that animal.

And that’s a penalty. See, because the animal is consecrated to God. God chooses the 10th one as it goes underneath the rod as where they these animals would march by in single procession. Every tenth one would be marked that would go to God. So God chose them through his providence as these animals started coming through this gate and the tithe is holy set apart to God. Very important concept to redeem it.

Then to try to give God something else that you think is an equivalent value means you got to add a fifth part to it or 20% to it. Okay. That’s all Leviticus is really concerned with is teaching on the redemption of the tithe.

Now, that’s interesting because Leviticus assumes that the tithe is in place. It assumes that people may want to redeem the tithe and it assumes that people don’t need instruction that they have to tithe. Okay? All he’s concerned with is redeeming the tithe. And so, the point again is that this patriarchal history, covenant history with the tithe in that is assumed as the writer of the book of Leviticus makes the statements about God’s requirements upon the people in terms of redemption.

Okay. Okay. Next reference in the Pentateuch is Numbers 18 and this is probably the preeminent passage on the specific meaning of the tithe in this particular period of covenant history with the Levitical ministry.

Numbers 18:20 and following through to verses 32 or 33 32 I guess all are concerned with the tithe and primarily with the Levites. and I’m just going to make a couple of mention here of different verses. In verse 21, he says, “I’ve given the children of Levi, all the tenth in Israel, for an inheritance, for their service which they serve.” Now, note here a couple of things. The tithe is said specifically to be for the Levites.

And it’s a it’s all of the tithe, okay? It’s flocks, things that grow, everything, all production of your hand. All of that tithe is given for the Levites. And then he also says that’s because of the service they serve and it is identified as their inheritance. Okay? So there’s work involved for the Levites. They get paid for their work like the oxen get paid for treading out the grain and they get paid with all the tithes of the nation of Israel in the land and that becomes their inheritance.

Okay. Verse 24. The tithes of the children of Israel I have given to the Levites to inherit. And again there’s a connection then with tithe. Levites inheritance. Okay.

going on in that verse, he says they shall let’s see, because I said unto them among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance. So he says in verse 24 there that the Levites get this tenth as their inheritance. Because when they go into the land, the Levites don’t get any land. They get a few cities scattered here and there, but they don’t get any portion of land as their inheritance. And the land is the means of production. That’s what the cows grow on, and that’s what the crops grow on, right? It’s the land. You don’t have land, you can’t have crops and production from the land, crops and beasts rather.

And so the Levites don’t get that, but instead they get the tenth. And so this connection to tithe, Levites, because they have no inheritance in the land, the tithe is their inheritance, their support as it were, their means of providing for their families.

Verse 27 builds on this further and he says in terms of the Levites that This your heave offering will be reckoned unto you as though it were the corn of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the vine press. And he repeats that later on also in verse 31. Ye shall let’s see verse 30 rather. He says the le that the tithe shall be counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor and as the increase of the vine press and ye shall eat it in every place you and your household for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.

So what he saying here is he says that the Levites get the tithe, they take a tenth of that tithe as a heave offering, give it to the Aaronic priest at the temple. Okay? He says once they’ve done that, two things are pictured in that. First of all, their heave offering of the tithe that they’ve received is counted as their production. You’ve got a job. You have productive things that come out of that. You take a tithe of that and give it to the Levites.

He’s got a job, but he’s not growing anything. He’s receiving tithes from you. But what he receives is then tithed to the Aaronic priesthood at the temple and that becomes as if it was things he had grown. Okay? So the wheat that he tithes for instance is as if he grew that wheat and then after he’s done that the 90% of what he’s been given that remains with him is counted as his increase. You see so the tithe of the inheritance that’s the Levites increase that’s their means of production and they can eat it.

God says without feeling bad even though it’s holy to the Lord. Remember we said that Leviticus 27 says the tithe is holy even though it’s holy to the Lord. You can eat it as long as you’ve tithed it and it’s okay. You and your family can eat it. Okay. So, Numbers 18 is the basic teaching on what the tithe is all about. And it says that it’s for Levites and it is their production. It is their livelihood as it were because they have no inheritance or means of livelihood apart from that tithe in the land.

And this is going to be very important as we go through some of these other verses. Okay. Now, we have four passages in the book of Deuteronomy. First, three passages.

First, Deuteronomy 12. And now I remember I said that these are case laws. And we have here what I’ve called in the outline a change in the in the administration of the tithe. That probably is I don’t mean a change from Exodus, Leviticus. I just mean that now the people are being prepared for entering into the land in the book of Deuteronomy.

They’re being given instructions for what happens when you go into this specific portion of land. And that fact that they’re in a specific country, specific portion of land at a specific period of covenant history has implications for what they do at the tithe. And he explains that in Deuteronomy 12.

Deuteronomy 12 begins the law code of God. These are the judgments and statutes. He says in verse one of Deuteronomy 12, the first thing he says is, “Knock out the pagans altars. Don’t let those things stand. Get rid of them because I’m going to choose one place where I’m going to put my name to reside.” And that’s going to be Jerusalem, of course, eventually. One place and that’s where you’re going to have to go to worship. I don’t want you worshiping like these guys did at all these little altars all over the place. There’s one place and when you take your tithe, he says later in the chapter in verse 6, you take the tithe, burnt offerings, vows, anything you take to give to me, bring it to that place.

Don’t be like these pagans, knock out their altars, come to my sanctuary in Jerusalem, and there present your tithe. So, he’s not telling them anything new about the tithe here. He’s telling them obviously the tithe is still in place from that from uh from Numbers 18 as being for the sustenance the Levites. He’s telling now how to actually give it to the Levites. Okay? And what he says in Deuteronomy 12 is here’s how you give it to them.

You bring it to Jerusalem. Okay? And while you’re there, you use that tithe to rejoice before me. Says in verse 7, you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand unto. Now, that eating doesn’t just refer to the tithe. It refers to various other things that they brought as well., they also had a part in eating some of these sacrificial meals there. But the point is that the tithes be brought to Jerusalem when they get together three times a year for special convocative worship with God.

The feast of the Passover or unleavened bread, the feast of first fruits, and the feast of in gathering of the harvest, the end of the harvest time. Those three times when they had to go up to Jerusalem, you’re going to bring your tithes there. That’s how you’re going to distribute it. And you’re going to eat there as well and rejoice before God. So, it’s the means of administration of the tithe. Doesn’t change the primary use of it.

It just adds this aspect that it has to be it’s part of a covenant meal with God and it’s part of a rejoicing time with God as well at these three particular periods of time. And it’s interesting that this is repeated then later on in the passage in Deuteronomy 12 in 11 and following. And specifically in verse 12, he says, “You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye and your sons and your daughters, your manservants, your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates.

For as much as he hath no part of inheritance with you, you. Now, he does have an inheritance, doesn’t he? It’s not as if he needed to be included in this rejoicing time because he doesn’t have produce. The Levite has produce. He has from the tithe that’s been given to him. God said specifically in Exodus 18 in Numbers 18, that is your produce, the tithes you receive from people. He can take that just as well as they could take theirs and go to Jerusalem to rejoice.

Why does God say, “Remember your Levite in Deuteronomy 12?” Well, I think it’s to avoid the error of saying that, “Well, now we don’t give the tithe to the Levite anymore. Now we just go to Jerusalem and have a feast with God. Forget the Levite. No, no. He says, “Remember the tithe is for the Levite. He doesn’t have the inheritance. You don’t give him the tithe. He’s got no support.” Okay? He reminds him of that with the phrase about the inheritance here.