Word of Encouragement (11/29/2022)
When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, 13 then you shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. 14 I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ (Deut. 26:12-15)
This is another prayer that the LORD prescribed for the Israelites to recite when they offered their sacrifices every third year, which was known as “the year of tithing” (v. 12). The Israelites had to tithe every year, of course, to be given to the Levites as their inheritance in the LORD (Num. 18:21). But this tithing, which was to be offered every third year, was collected not only for the Levites but also for “the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow” (v. 12). So, the tithe was called “the poor’s tithe” (John Gill). We can see that the LORD required His people to share their bounties with the needy in the land, including the sojourners (i.e., the foreigners that resided in their land). The Israelites had to remember that they were not only the beneficiaries of God’s grace but also the conduits of God’s provision for the needy in their community.
This was God’s design for the people of Israel, but they failed to carry this out. One of the things, with which the later prophets charged them, was their neglect of the poor and needy among them (Isa. 1:17, 23, 3:14-15, 10:1-2, etc.). They acted just like the people of the Gentile nations, using whatever means to increase their wealth, having no second thoughts about taking advantage of the poor and needy among them. They belonged to the same family, having Abraham as their father. They were supposed to take care of one another as members of the household of Abraham. Even more so, they all belonged to God as His people, whom He delivered from the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. Mistreating their fellow countrymen was not only hurting their own family but also abusing the people God redeemed unto Himself.
This happened because of their sinfulness, of course. In this case, their sinfulness was manifested in forgetting their identity as God’s stewards, not the owners of their possession. They lived in the promised land, which was granted to them by God’s grace, not won by their own strength and merit. God was the true Owner of the land: they were more like renters than owners. As a reminder of this fact, the LORD established the year of jubilee for the people of Israel. In that year, all the debts were to be forgiven, all the slaves were to be set free, and all the land was to be returned. The LORD said, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev. 25:23).
This idea of stewardship was not just for the Israelites; it is fundamental to the idea of imago dei—our identity as God’s image-bearers. God is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth and all that is contained in them because He is the Creator of all things. Having created man in His image, God gave him dominion over the created realm to take care of it as God’s vicegerent. Man’s chief end is not to live for himself but to glorify God (through his faithful stewardship) and enjoy Him forever.
When we forget that, we try to hoard everything for ourselves and, in the process, use and abuse others for our gain. That was what happened with the people of Israel. When they did that, they became slaves of greed instead of God’s image-bearers, who had dominion over God’s gracious gifts. The law of God, including this injunction for “the poor’s tithe,” was designed to set the free from their slavery and help them reflect God’s generosity to them by sharing God’s gifts with the needy.
The law, however good, could not make them good because their hearts were corrupt with sin. What the law could not do, God did through His grace in Jesus Christ: “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Now we are no longer bottomless pits that take and take without ever being satisfied; we can be generous conduits of God’s love and care for others. May the Lord help us be blessings to others as He has blessed us richly with His grace and love!