Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace

Tithing and the Kingdom

Professor: Rushdoony, Dr. R.J.

Subject: Pentateuch

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 13

Lesson: 13

Dictation Name: RR172G13

Date: Early 70s

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near to the Throne of Grace with true hearts, in full assurance of faith. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we come unto Thee, mindful of all Thy past and present mercies, mindful, oh Lord of how great is Thy power and how great is our need. Speak to us the word that we need. Strengthen us in all our being. Make us effectual in Thy service, and give us grace in the trying days that await us. Grant oh Lord, that the kingdoms of this world might speedily become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And that we, Thy people, serve Thee in the days of battle with all our heart, mind, and being. Bless us to this purpose, in Christ’s name. Amen.

Our subject this morning is “Tithing and the Kingdom,” and our text, Leviticus 7:28-38. Leviticus 7:28-38, Tithing and the Kingdom.

“28 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

29 speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.

30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord.

31 And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'.

32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.

33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part.

34 For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute forever from among the children of Israel.

35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office;

36 which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute forever throughout their generations.

37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;

38 which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.”

With these verses, we come to the end of the laws concerning sacrifice, and begin next week a shorter section on the priesthood. We have here references to the wave offerings in verses 30 following, and a reference in verse 34, and to the heave offering in verses 32 following and also 34.

Some years ago, S.E.Geyford best summarized the meanings of these offerings when he wrote, “The waving was a forward and return motion, representing the offering of the breast to God and His handing it back to the priest for his portion. The symbolism is clear from Numbers 8:10-22. The Levites were offered by the congregation as a wave offering to the Lord, who gave them back to Aaron to assist him in his ministration.

There was a difference between the wave (breast) and the heave (thigh). The breast was given to God, who handed it back to His priest. The thigh was given directly to the priest. So the priest was the guest of God in the former case, and the guest of the sacrifice in the latter. And thus became the mediator between God and man in the common meal. The Hebrew text makes it clear that the breast is a dedication and the leg a contribution, or gift.

To understand the meaning of the heave offering (the leg or the thigh), which was a contribution to the priest, we must examine Numbers 18:25-28 where we read,

“25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

26 thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe.

27 And this, your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress.

28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the Lord of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereto of the Lord’s heave offering to Aaron the priest.”

The rest of the tithe, in other words, 90% of the tithe went to the Levites. As Numbers 18:29-32 makes clear. The Levites were the instructors of Israel. Education was their task. They bore the Ark. They assisted in the administration of civil government. They were the choristers. They were thee musicians, the keepers of the sanctuary, the overseers of God’s work. They had a role in music, as the Psalms make clear. They were connected with the temple treasury and with the royal administration. They served as judges. They assisted the priests, and so on.

The priests, besides sacrifice, had duties as officers of health and sanitation, as Leviticus 11-14 will make clear. The primary role of the priest, however, was the sanctuary and the sacrifices. The Levites had a much broader role; hence they received 9/10 of the tithes because they were concerned with education, with law, with culture, and with more.

With the New Testament, the sacrificial work ended. The work of the ministry became Levitical. So that the clergy in our day are Levitical. We therefore cannot limit the clergy to the ministry of the church that is, preaching; it must be inclusive of far more: education and culture generally; the implication of the Christian ministry for every area of life and thought. Thus, in the Gospel era, the clergy have been ministers or presbyters. Even the English word ‘priest’ as I’ve pointed out previously, is an abbreviation of the English word ‘priest’, or, ah, ‘presbyter.’ Priest is simply a form of presbyter. And as a result, the Christian clergy have had an instructional role which has been basic to their work over the centuries. And we have seen from the earliest days of the Church this instructional duty taken very seriously.

The Christians, who’ve been able to dominate society over the centuries for two very practical reasons, which if neglected have led to the decline of the faith. First, it has been seen as a result of faithful preaching, as the duty of every believer, to exercise dominion over society in his appointed sphere. And second, God’s tax—the tithe, plus gifts and offerings above and over the tithe, have been the financial mainstay of this dominion mandate; so that the tithe has the dominion function. It is Levitical. It extends beyond the scopes of worship. It extends into education, it extends into learning generally. It extends into music. It has a broad function to enable the Christian to exercise dominion.

In the Medieval Era, we saw a steady rebellion by princes and people against the tithe. As a result, the Medieval Church progressively (or we should say perhaps, regressively), had to resort to all kinds of devices to raise money. Ways of charging for a service, inventing services to charge for, in order to maintain itself, because as the faith declined, people’s adherence to the tithe declined. God’s tax. Because it was no longer God’s kingdom, God’s work that was important to them, but their own private projects.

Well, we have seen something similar since then, in that as the tithe has receded and declined, and as in some instances, churches have said the tithe belongs only to the sanctuary to worship, not to these other tasks. We have seen the tithe disappear progressively, and Evangelical churches resort to all kinds of fundraising ventures to replace the tithe; things which again, do little to further the dignity and honor of Christ’s work. Whenever people have tithed, it has been a barometer. It is interesting that in the Old Testament era, the priests and Levites were quite well-to-do when people tithed. God wanted them to be blessed. They were His chosen servants. They were very poor and miserable when there was no faith.

We will return to that subsequently.

The Medieval Church built schools and hospitals, universities, cathedrals, charitable organizations, and financed music and the arts. All this waned as faith waned. After the Reformation, the last really notable figure who was being financed (and none too well), out of church funds, in the furtherance of the broader tasks was Johann Sebastian Bach. And even in his day, he was regarded as representing something old-fashioned.

A return to this occurred in this country in the early years and lingered for some time. But again, today, where tithing is affirmed, which is in a limited sphere, it is restricted to the institutional Church. When the tithe again begins to return to its appointed function, we shall see Christian scholarship, Christian music, law, and more begin to dominate society, and we shall see dramatic changes as God required them.

Now the heave offering which is dealt with here, had to be given personally to the priest, even if through the Levite. Christian work is done through persons. Christian institutions are persons working in Christ’s service. The personal aspect is stressed here. The modern world wants to de-personalize everything and de-personalization is preferred. Let’s de-personalize charity, so the recipient has no one to be grateful to--in fact, can be regarded as an entitlement. In one of our journals, we cited the experience of a school in Richmond, California, which when there were a number of lay-offs and serious problems in the area, went around to wholesale houses and to individuals to get foodstuffs, clothing, and so-on to distribute to the poor. And they found many people refusing to take it because it was not a federal hand-out. They did not want to feel grateful to anyone. But it’s the personal aspect that scripture requires, not institutionalization. We see many churches today that will do a great deal for work overseas. I’ve encountered churches who send half a million dollars or more overseas every year for missions. But will not do anything locally. Why? If it’s local, they get involved and they feel a certain sense of responsibility. They feel that they have some obligation to these elderly people in their own midst or to the poor in their area. Whereas if they send it overseas, it’s just writing out a check and they can feel they’ve done their duty to the Lord and there’s no involvement. But the Lord requires that it be personal.

Moreover, as we have seen, the economic status of those in Christ’s service is God’s barometer of the faith of a people. A poor faith means a poor Levite and it means that the people are more interested in personal advantage than in God’s dominion.

Moreover, we have an evil inheritance here from Neo-Platonism. Neo-Platonism has had an ugly influence through the history of the church, in Catholic and Protestant circles alike. As a result of Neo-Platonism, things material are despised and we have an equation of spirituality with poverty and a contempt for material things. This is a false view of spirituality. We are told in scripture it is a blessing of the Lord that maketh rich. Poverty is not seen in scripture as a kind of virtue, but neither is wealth. There is no evidence that either poverty of wealth makes people spiritual or godly. Nor is there any evidence that as you remove poverty or wealth from people they become either unspiritual or spiritual.

Wealth and poverty have little to do with these things. It is God’s sovereign grace that changes the heart of a people, not wealth, not poverty. Our Lord is very clear; the laborer is worthy of his hire. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 5:17, “Those who labor worthily in Christ’s calling deserve double honor,” and the word for honor means also ‘pay.’ To His disciples our Lord said in Matthew 6:31, “Therefore take no thought saying, ‘what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed?’” He did not mean thereby that the disciples would always have necessary provisions. Rather, He was telling them that when we walk by faith, and when we minister to and create by God’s grace a people who move by faith, then they, moved by God, will provide for God’s kingdom. God’s servants, as Paul summarizes these verses in Leviticus, are made partakers with the altar. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14, “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 which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.”

Throughout the New Testament, we have references like this that show us how alive to Paul and all the apostles the Old Testament Law is. Those who believe in New Testament Christianity have no Christianity at all. Because the New Testament is so totally a part of the Old, and the Old a part of the New, and any attempt to separate them is fatal to both; so that an Old Testament religion and a New Testament religion alike, move to death. The whole Word of God is necessary.

What we are told thus, in this passage and throughout scripture, is that the health of a society in God’s sight is revealed by its support of the work of Christian evangelism and dominion, by the preaching of the Word, by education, scholarship, music, publications and more. If we limit our view of what constitutes Christ’s work, we limit His kingdom and our blessings. We cannot therefore limit Christ’s work, nor His church. The very word ‘church’ as we have it in English refers to a building or an institution. Whereas the word in the New Testament is not our word, it is ‘ecclesia’, which means ‘assembly’ or ‘people,’ ‘congregation.’ It is used in the Old Testament at times for the sanctuary, at times for the Army of God, at times for the entire covenant people. It is cognate with what we speak of as the Kingdom of God, and so we have a duty to recognize that the true church is more than the worshiping assembly, it is the entire Kingdom of God, which requires our total support, that we are called to exercise dominion over society in the name of Jesus Christ, and God’s tax—His tithe—is the financial mainstay of this dominion mandate.

Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we pray that Thou wouldst awaken Thy church and make them mindful of their responsibility to Thee in every area of life and thought—their duty to exercise dominion, their duty to tithe and to strengthen the dominion work of Thy kingdom, their duty to serve Thee with all their heart, mind, and being. Oh Lord our God, by Thy grace, arouse Thy sleeping people and make them again a power in this world, to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Well if there are no questions, let us bow our heads then in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thank Thee for Thy Word. Thy Word is truth, and Thy Word is power. Grant that by Thy Spirit, Thy Word be a fire in our bones, a driving force to make us more than conquerors. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always. Amen.