GIVING UNDER THE JEWISH LAW

Hugo McCord

I. THE FIRST-BORN

God commanded the Israelites in Egypt to sanctify, to set apart, “to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine” (Exodus 13:2). However, the command to give back to the Source of life the first-born was initially spoken to Abel. He by faith (which comes from God’s word) presented to the Creator “the firstlings of his flock” (Genesis 4:4; cf. Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:4). The One in whom “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28) deserves first place in everything, and he will not accept seconds.

In addition to the principle that God comes first, the fact that God spared the lives of the Israelites’ first-born, when he destroyed the Egyptians’ first-born, would also cause the Israelites in gratitude always to set apart to the Lord all that first open the womb. On this account the Passover celebration is still “a day of remembrance” (Exodus 14:14).

In harmony with the principle that “the first-born of your sons you shall give to me” (Exodus 22:29), the baby Jesus as Mary’s first-born, was brought to the temple at Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord” (Luke 2:23).

II. FREEWILL GIVING AT MT. SINAI

Approximately 3,000,000 (603,550 men plus wives and children, Exodus 38:26) Israelites responded eagerly to the Lord’s request for construction materials to build the tabernacle:

Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me (Exodus 25:2).

And what an assortment of items he requested:

gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece (Exodus 25:3-7).

Where would those desert dwellers get that variety of items? The Egyptians, after enduring the ten plagues, were more than ready for the Israelites to be gone, and as they drove them away they gave them anything they wanted (Exodus 11:1-3): “jewelry of silver and gold,” and indeed “they plundered the Egyptians” (Exodus 12:35-36).

So, with spoils from Egypt in their possession, the Israelites responded with alacrity to the Lord’s request for freewill offerings. “All the congregation,” both “men and women,” everyone “whose heart was stirred,” began to bring gifts, and they kept it up “morning by morning” (Exodus 35:21-22; 36:3). So lavish was the outpouring the workers receiving the materials said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough” (Exodus 36:5-6). So he had to restrain their liberality.

After the tabernacle had been built, at the time of its dedication, another outpouring of many gifts unsolicited came from the twelve tribal leaders (“princes of Israel”} to support the Levites in their work. Astounding is the amount of gold, silver, and incense, filling six covered wagons, plus 252 animals ready for the altar, were placed before Moses. Moses used 89 verses of Scripture (Numbers chapter 7) to list the details. What dedication! What gratitude! What liberality!

III. FIRST FRUITS

The Source of everybody and of everything deserves first place in appreciation. Understandably then the Israelites received the command: “The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God” (Exodus 23:19). The words “first fruits” (bekkurim) do not appear in Exodus 22:29 (in the Hebrew Bible, 22:28), but it is interesting to note what the translators have done with the words that do appear: “fullness” (meleah) and “tear” (dema). They think Moses was talking about harvests of grain and “of olives and grapes, i. e. of wine” (Gesenius), causing a variety of translations: “thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors” (KJV); “thy harvest, and of the outflow of thy presses” (ASV); “your harvest and your vintage” (NAS); “the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses” (NRS); “your full produce and the overflow of your press” NWT); and the whole verse of Exodus 22:29 in the NIV is, “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats.” So it is clear that whatever the ground produced, its first product did not belong to the farmer but to the Lord.

Nehemiah led his people in signing a “sealed document,” saying,

We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our soil and the first fruits of all fruits of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord (Nehemiah 10:38).

Solomon attached a promise to all who kept the first fruits law:

Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine (Proverbs 3:9-10).

IV. THE CENSUS REGISTRATION

Whereas the materials for the tabernacle construction were free will offerings, the half-skekel to be given at the census registration was mandatory. Each man 20 years old and upward, rich or poor, was required to pay a half-shekel (a bekah, about 31 cents) for “atonement money,” a “ransom for each person” (Exodus 30:11-16, NRS).

The total amount that came in at the Mt. Sinai census was 100 silver talents plus 1775 shekels (Exodus 38:25). Each talent was worth 3,000 shekels, and each shekel was worth two bekas (a half-shekel). So Moses collected 603,550 half-shekels (Exodus 38:25-26).

The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary, and the bases of the curtain; one hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent for each base. Of the 1775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals and made bands for them (Exodus 38:27-28).

V. TITHING

The presentation of a tenth of one’s income to the Lord antedates the Jewish law. When Abraham and “his trained men” routed an army and took “all the goods,” that is, “the spoils” of battle,” he returned by way of Salem (afterwards, Jerusalem) and gave to Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a “priest of God Most High, ... one tenth of everything” (Genesis 14:16-20; Hebrews 7:1-4). Moreover,

one might even say that Levi [Abraham’s great grandson] himself ... paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him (Hebrews 7:10).

Abraham’s grandson Jacob, on a trip away from home, shocked to learn that God is everywhere, promised the Lord that if he would go with him on his journey and bring him home safely, then “Yahweh [he knew God’s name] shall be my God, ... and of all that you give me I will surely give one tenth to you” (Genesis 28:21-22). How he planned to get that tenth to the Lord is not revealed.

Under the Israelite law beginning at Mt. Sinai, they were commanded to “set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field” (Deuteronomy 14:22). Then there was a three year cycle of tithing, with one tithe devoted to the support of the Levites and priests, a second tithe for festivals and feast days, and a third tithe for the poor (Deuteronomy 14:22-27; 26:12).

Besides those two tithes [annually, one for the Levites and priests, one for the festivals] you are to bring every third year a third tithe [for the poor] (Josephus, ANTIQUITIES 4, 18, 22).

A tenth of all my produce I would give to all the sons of Levi, who officiated at Jerusalem, and another tenth I would sell, and go and spend the proceeds in Jerusalem each year, and a third tenth I would give to those to whom it was fitting to give it (Tobit 1:7-8).

The tithe given to the Levites was “your payment for your services in the Tent of meeting” (Numbers 18:31). In turn, the Levites themselves were to be tithers, giving “a tithe of the tithe” to “the priest Aaron” (Numbers 18:26, 28; Nehemiah 10:38).

VI. LIBERALITY

Appreciative and generous people kept the Levites and priests very busy. Sacrifices (all requiring considerable manual work) were offered each morning and each night, and there were extra offerings on the sabbaths, at each new moon, and for the three annual “set feasts” (Exodus 29:38-39; 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 31:3).

Besides the regularly scheduled sacrifices, grateful Israelites gave large sums of money to pay for

your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your free will offerings, and the first-born of your herds and flocks (Deuteronomy 12:6).

The money needed for all those activities was not included in the annual and triennial tithing ordinances.

When a friend offered to pay part of David’s expense in offering a sacrifice, love and dedication to his God made him reply: “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).

David’s lavish giving of both money and materials to prepare for Solomon’s temple inspired tribal leaders and many commanders also to bring gifts. “The people rejoiced because these had given willingly, for with a single mind they had offered freely to the Lord” (1 Chronicles 29:1-9). No one knows how much money those appreciative Israelites expended for the most magnificent temple ever erected.

However, in the days of Zerubbabel’s temple, Jewish love for God had vanished. A majority selfishly was withholding “tithes and offerings” (Malachi 3:8). God was incensed, saying, “You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me” (Malachi 3:9).

God has “no pleasure” in cursing his people (cf. Ezekiel 33:11), but they forced him to give them up. “After the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel” (Talmud). An apocryphal book, about two hundred years after Malachi, lamented that “the prophets ceased to appear” (1 Maccabees 9:27).

I do not know how much money was needed to buy bulls and sheep and goats. However, I do know that Paul (formerly, Saul of Tarsus) had to put out a considerable sum of money to help some fellow Jews. He was told,

There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so they can have their heads shaved (Acts 21:23-24).

The “expenses” involved buying one male lamb, one ewe lamb, one ram, a grain offering, a drink offering, and a basket of bread for each of the four men and for himself (Numbers 6:13-15). “The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them” (Acts 21:26). How much money did Paul have to pay for three sheep, plus a grain offering, plus a drink offering, and plus a basket of bread for one man?

But there were four men, and Paul was to include himself in the purification rites. Total expenses then were for 15 sheep, 5 grain offerings, 5 drink offerings, and 5 baskets of bread. Where would Paul get the large sum required? He himself was only a visitor in Jerusalem.

Such an outlay of cash, in this one special occasion, leads one to ask how much a Jew gave of his income to God? Besides the statutory requirements for the three tithes and for free will offerings and vows, a Jew actually was making an additional charity contribution by not harvesting the corners of his field, and by foregoing gleaning in his vineyard, and by foregoing a second beating of his olive trees (Leviticus 19:9-10; Deuteronomy 24:19-20).

Moreover, he actually was making another charity contribution in foregoing collection of money owed him each seventh year (Deuteronomy 15:1-2).

“A DEVOUT JEW GAVE AT LEAST ONE-THIRD OF HIS TOTAL INCOME TO GOD” (V. P. Black, MY GOD AND MY MONEY, p. 13). Moreover, when the Jew had given one-third of his income to God, he still was liable for the royal tithe (1 Samuel 8:15).

A Jewish visitor, attending church services with a Christian friend, knowing how much his Christian friend earned, and seeing him drop about one percent in the collection basket, whispered, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

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