Dt. 26: Firstfruits and Tithes

Deuteronomy 26:18 "And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands."

Here God gives exacting instructions for what he expects the Israelites to do once they enter the promised land. They are to prepare an offering of the firstfruits...whatever they harvest from the land...which will be good if Israel is good because God promised it would be if they would be. The they take it to the priest, and God gives them a line to recite every time they go.

My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me.

That's like 6 verses of stuff they had to memorize...a cliff's notes of their entire history. Useful to not forget what God did for them, where they were...who they were, what they went through, and how God delivered them. And then justify their actions with this offering. It would be easy to think that offerings were a solemn time. But I think time and again, the Bible says to make these offerings while rejoicing...it was a celebration of God's goodness. That they were blessed with so much to be able to give so much.

When it comes to tithing, the Israelites had to have their house in order. They were to give their tithe to the Levite, the widow and the orphan. And again they had a recitation to give.

I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them. I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God; I have done everything you commanded me. Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our forefathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Its a good reminder of why they do what they do, but I'm glad I don't have to say something like this whenever I give offering. Seems these words, while intended to prevent tithing from becoming a mindless ceremony would eventually become a mindless ceremony of their own. And these words had to be true.

And what a promise to finish out the chapter. Can you imagine being a treasured possession of God? Think about what you hold most dear...that's how God treasures you. You. That's pretty amazing. And all this holiness would lead to a place of high esteem among other nations...that's if they followed Gods decrees and kept his commands.

Dt. 14: Food and Tithes

Deuteronomy 14:2 "...for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession."

There must have been some cultural thing that the Israelites were witness to that involved cutting the hair for the dead. Leviticus has rules against cutting for the dead. Is this a command to forget the dead, or to pay them no special remembrance? Is it more of that idea of separation of Israel from the world. Other cultures were apparently, at any rate, creeping into the Israelite way of life. Pervasive this must have been, as it warranted a specific command not to do it. Maybe it was a fashion thing. It would look goofy to shave the front of your head, anyway. And if anyone knows fashion, it's Moses.

The rest of the first half of Deuteronomy 14 is almost a word-for-word reminder of Leviticus 11. Here's what I thought the first time around. You can feed already dead carcass to an alien living among you, but you can't eat it yourself. Why? Israel was separate and holy...aliens were not.

The second half is about tithing, covered previously in Leviticus 27, and discussed here. What an interesting way of offering advice to people who would have to travel a long distance in order to offer their tithes. Some people lived way out in the middle of nowhere, and God's tabernacle was quite a distance. The advice then is to sell the tithe for silver, and redeem the silver to buy what was sold to begin with, and then offer that as a tithe. This makes me wonder about the economics of that, and the business systems that sprang up as a result of this advice. I'd want to sell people stuff and jack up the price. After all, they came with no tithe, and only silver. Perfect for a shark like myself. If I were an Israelite. If I hated God. If I lived a million years ago. Of course I'm kidding, but that was my first reaction. How did they maintain 100% value?

Every three years, the tithes went to the Levites and charity...the aliens, fatherless and widows. Everyone was to come, eat, and be satisfied. God offers a blessing in the work of their hands when there is tithing, and helping out the po' folk.

Lev. 27: Belonging to God

The final chapter of Leviticus discusses what it takes to redeem things that have been given to the LORD, and the value of these things according to something called the "sanctuary shekel." This is 20 gerahs, which was, in my best estimation, the smallest currency used by the nation of Israel.

The equal rights activist in me recoils at the message of Leviticus 27:1-9, and probably made Elizabeth Cady Stanton who she is today. Basically, we have vows being made to God, and people were apparently often the subject of these vows. If a person wanted to make a donation monetarily as opposed to giving a person, they could. The values of certain demographics were as follows:

50 Shekels - Man aged 20-60
30 Shekels - Woman (presumably aged 20-60)
20 Shekels - Male aged 5-20
15 Shekels - Male over age 60
10 Shekels - Female aged 5-20, 60+
5 Shekels - Male aged 1 month - 5 years
3 Shekels - Female aged 1 month - 5 years

What horrifying bigotry. Not really. These pricing levels were for vows, and in no way reflected the value of a person in the cosmic scheme of things. There's a practical level to this as well. It would cost a lot to lose the male breadwinner. Infants and the elderly were not "worth less," look at it from a practical sense. Which is cold, I know, but the Bible hasn't been exactly warm and fuzzy up to this point.

Animals were also vowed, and became holy when given to the LORD. A bad one was not to be exchanged for a good one, and vice versa. Any substitutions make both animals holy. So, if one became the LORD's, it remained holy even if it was exchanged out...Both it and the substitute become holy (Lev. 27:10).

Anything offered an animal, but then redeemed it back, had a twenty percent...penalty? No. Surcharge? No...donation? Eh, works for me. That applied to the animals, a man's house, a field, etc.

Donated land was a monster unto itself. It's value was practically based on how much barley was required to seed it. The time of purchase's relativity to the Year of Jubilee was also part of the equation, as at that time, it would return to it's original owner anyway. During the Year of Jubilee, if there is no owner, it defaults to the priests. A sweet deal, that was probably never abused...right?

Want to dedicate your firstborn animal? Too bad, doesn't count. That already belongs to the LORD by default.

Verse 28 says that nothing a man owns or devotes to the LORD may be sold or redeemed, as it belongs to the LORD, and is holy. A seeming contradiction to verse 13, but verse 28 talks about a man's possessions, not what is offered to God. There could be substitution, but not paid redemption!

A person "devoted to destruction" could not be ransomed. Rather, he had to be put to death. The KJV calls this person "devoted of man," which makes me believe this was a pagan, either captured in battle, or purchased as a slave, or something like that.

At the end of the chapter, we are introduced to the concept of the tithe. This was not just monetary, it was also grain from the soil, and fruit from the trees, and animals in the herd. If a person wanted to redeem their tithe, which I can't really think of a practical reason why anyone would want to do that, there was that 20% redemption donation. Interesting that a person couldn't pick and choose which animals they wanted to tithe, it was "every tenth animal that passed under the shepherd's rod." There wasn't good or bad, it was seemingly random. It was an offering of quantity, not quality. These weren't animals that were going to be sacrificed, just those that would be set apart to the LORD.

I'm guessing that means for use by the priests, who had no time to go out and make a living in the way that the other 11 tribes did, as they were focused solely on tasks related to the tabernacle. It took a 12th of a nation of possibly millions of people to deal with that.

So, Leviticus wasn't too boring or muddy. There were things I read that were kind of shocking to my modern sensibility, and things that opened my eyes. Overall, I'd say that Leviticus gives an idea of what God expects as far as holiness, and just how absolutely serious He is about it. There was no room for error or deviation, as Nadab and Abihu, and the stoned blasphemer found out.