We’re continuing with the topic regarding tithing and how it relates to the Law. I want us to consider Abraham just for a moment. And I’m going to use an obvious example, as it’s probably one we can all relate to.
Many of you know Brother Ray. He’s one of the foremost Bible researchers in our church. I remember him teaching one time regarding the Law of First Mention. That is going back to the place in Scripture wherein something is mentioned for the first time. We’ll see where that concept comes into play as we look at the following.
Why did Abram give tithes to Melchizedek? Did you ever think about that? Remember how Sodom and Gomorrah had been raided, Lot had been taken captive, Abram got his guys together, and they went to save Lot? They destroyed the enemy, and then they came back with the spoils of battle. Suddenly there is this strange thing in Scripture, almost like an enigma. Melchizedek, whom we know little about (we don’t know who his father was, who his mother was, where he came from, or where he went), suddenly appears to Abram. He’s the King of Salem, which means, “peace.” Jerusalem means, “new peace.”
So, here’s Melchizedek, and he mysteriously appears out of nowhere, right? He speaks a blessing over Abram, and the Scripture says that Abram gave tithes to Melchizedek. This is the first mention of the tithe in Scripture. Now we know there were other offerings presented to God as early as Cain and Abel back in Genesis 4. I’m really going to zero in on the tithe in this message because if it’s a reasonable question to ask, “Why did Abram pay tithes to Melchizedek,” the follow-up question would probably be, “Why are we paying tithes to God?” You may want to ask yourself that question. If you’re a tither, why do you tithe? That’s really the essence of this message.
You might say, “Because Malachi 3 says that if I don’t, I’m cursed with a curse, right”? So a lot of people tithe in order to avoid the curse. I did that for years, even preached it. God knows how many people I put in bondage including myself. You see, Malachi chapter 3 was really a directive towards the priesthood, the Levites. So we’re all tithing in order to get God to open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to contain, and we do it also because we don’t want to be cursed with a curse. That is living under the Law.
To be cursed, in simple terms, it is not always the pronouncement of something bad happening to you. In other words, we all know that we live under grace. Here’s the problem: we live with one foot under grace and one foot under the Law, depending upon what topic we’re discussing. That’s how the Galatians were. That’s why Paul said, “Who’s bewitched you?” Malachi 3 was written as under the Law, that had to do with Israel living under the Law. What they were doing was a violation of the Law, the Mosaic Law, which had been passed down from generation to generation. It was not because of laws and principles. We are still to live according to the principles of Scripture.
In fact, I would go as far to say that we live according to a higher law. Everybody is familiar with the law of gravity, right? The law of gravity says that if you knock something off the table, it’s going to fall down. I bet if I was standing in front of a table that had a bottle of water on it, and I knocked the bottle off a thousand times, it would hit the floor a thousand times, unless there’s a higher law. It would be the “law of the catch” in this case. It’s somewhat like aviation. Aviation defies gravity; it supersedes it. I believe we live by a higher law than the Law. The principle, or law, that we live under is that of sowing and reaping. And this isn’t just a New Testament principle. In fact, it dates back prior to Abraham! Look at Noah. Genesis chapter 8, Noah gets off the boat, builds an altar, and offers a sacrifice to God. God comes and speaks with him: “I’m not going to do this again; I’m not going to destroy the earth and mankind again the way I did this time.”
And then in Genesis 8, God says, “As long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest (summer and winter) will not pass away.” “Seedtime and harvest” is a law. It goes something like this: You plant a seed, and you get a harvest. That’s easy for us to understand. Nobody ever planted a seed without expecting the seed to sprout. If you did, you’d be wasting your time! You might as well eat the seed.
I will continue with this topic in the next blog. Thank you for taking the time to join me on this journey of bringing clarity to this often misunderstood subject.
~ pg
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