Thus we will not neglect the house of our God. (Nehemiah 10:39)
The Levites were men without a country, so to speak, as they were not given a piece of the promised land. Their lot in life was to serve God full time, and for their service they were provided for through provisions from the people, not as an afterthought, but as a priority, a concept generally known as tithing, and these tithes were to came from the people’s “first fruits.”
Not only was there a special lot casting system for providing a steady supply of fragrant unblemished new wood to the house of God so that the altar fires were constantly burning (10:34), but critical items were to be tithed annually to the priests and Levites (Nehemiah 10:35-37). These were:
- First fruits of whatever came out of the ground
- First born sons and first born cattle, herds and flocks
- First dough and first fruits of every tree
- New wine and new oil
Troubling to me was the contribution of first born sons. Not only are sons particularly useful to fathers, but the first born son always captures a special place in a father’s heart. There was a way, however, to redeem your firstborn son through the paying of five shekels of silver (Number 3:47), no doubt offered in these instances somehow, someway, but not after suffering through a symbolic process similar to that of Abraham and Issac (Genesis 22:2) Surely, this also points to God’s sacrifice of his own firstborn so that he might redeem us!
We are not troubled typically by “tithing” second and third fruits after we’ve skimmed the top for our own purposes. That’s why God baked this principle into the process early on, and we, under the New Covenant, need to in whatever way possible, incorporate the giving of our “first fruits” to him.
The best way to do this is to give until it hurts. Then we know we’re there.
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