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Why Christians Need to Pay Tithes

by APELLA Magellan
9/19/2015 / Bible Studies

One thing we should know is that God does not need our tithe. After all, he has everything including us. So why will he require us to pay tithe? Is God asking too much from us when he ask us to pay tithe? Does God want to enrich himself while impoverishing us? Not so. God wants the best for us that is why he wants us to pay and for the following reasons.
A) To Sustain the Priesthood.
When God gave the law to the Israelite at Mount Sinai tithe was also incorporated into the law. The priesthood was instituted as a formal institution for the first time amongst the chosen people of God. Because of the importance this institution had in the life of his people, those who are supposed to serve as priests are required to do so on a full time and not on a part time basis. The Levites who were chosen to serve as priests were not given a share of the land but they were given cities. Their inheritance was God and they were set aside for God Numbers 18. As a result, they could not engage in regular secular activities since they were to offer sacrifices on a daily basis on behalf of the people while the people work to feed them. God therefore, gave the Levites his own portion, which was the tenth, reserved for himself. Deuteronomy 14:22. 18:1, 10:9, Numbers 18, Joshua 13:14, 33 Joshua18:7
As a result, the tenth, which God kept for himself, was used for the sustenance of the priests. Then the question one should ask is do we have priests today? This question is answered in the affirmative. In fact, the priesthood today is more demanding than ever before. The priesthood today like the Levites is called upon to work not on a part time basis but on a full time basis and therefore need even more means of sustenance. The sustenance of the priests was so important that whenever the children of Israel refused to pay their tithe the priesthood suffers and always come back to warn the people of Israel of their wrong doing. The lord qualified to robbery.
B) To attract blessing from God.
God has ordained some ways through which he blesses humanity. These blessings are listed at Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and the conditions to avail ourselves of these blessings are to obey all the laws of God. One of this ways is in the payment of tithe and giving offerings. The truth is that God does not need our tithe. God wants us to be concerned about his work and our contribution to it. While tithing commits us to God's work and he really see that we care over his interest, and kingdom work. Through tithe God blesses us. This is stated clearly in Malachi 3:10. The promise of the blessing through tithing was very crucial that even the Levites were required to tithe in order to tap into this blessings.Numbers18:26-28 Nehemiah10:38. Failure to tithe the Levites themselves will not be blessed. This shows that Gods standard do not discriminate in dealing with human beings. One should therefore ask whether those who do not pay tithe do not flourish. God has put in place a mechanism that blesses everybody. His blessings do not exclude those who do not serve him. Even Satan enjoys these blessings. When God sends the sun it shines on everybody. When God send rain it falls on ever ones field and water his crops and the sun can make the crops to grow? Do you know that even though the rain or sun is a blessing it sometimes work against us? For example the rain can flood our farms and destroy our crops? The rain can come with storms and strong winds that can push down our crops? Do you know that the sun can scotch our crops. Think about this.
C) To Avoid the Devourer.
We pay tithe to avoid the devourer Malachi 3:11. Each time we obey God's command He set an angel who keep watch over our properties and us. The devourer who is Satan the devil knows the laws of natural governance and monitors every person to find out in which areas he falters and come immediately to destroy your properties, investments, job, career, farms etc because there is no body to prevent him from destroying what belongs to you. At this time, you are at the mercy of the devourer. It is like a bank that does not have security personnel guarding its money. Any thief can break into it and cart away with whatsoever he finds in the bank. Or if a person has a field instead, the farm will look like an abandoned estate and the enemy can get into it and do whatsoever he wishes and in most cases will destroy it. Once we pay our tithe God provides us a watchman who watches over us, our family, investment and property day and night without slumber. This is the devourer Malachi is talking of. There are many instances in the Bible where God himself sends the devourer to devour our farms. We can read this in Joel 1:4, Amos 4:9, 7:1.How can we explain the fact that God had to send the devourer to devour his people's crops? Certainly part of the explanation is in the refusal to pay tithe. Each time we read of God saying return unto me and I will return unto you God is talking of returning to him in the payment of tithe.
D) For God's store house to have meat.
When the Bible talks of meat, it means food. Malachi 3:10 clearly puts it like this "bring ye all the tithe into the store house that there might be food in the store house in my house and proof me now that I may open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there might not be room for you to store it" The store house of God is in heaven (Deut 28:12). The store house of God on earth is his temple, synagogue or the church and the priests' being in charge of the house. How can we have food in our own houses while the house of God is empty? Imagine the presidential palace of your country lacks food to feed and to entertain the numerous visitors that throngs into the palace on a daily basis. The first impression is that, the people and their president of that country are poor. Nevertheless, this cannot be true because the president is not only the manager of all the resources of that country but also the owner of all these resources. How can the president be living in lack? As long as you have food the more dignity, you have and the healthier you will be.
E) To attract open heavens.
Open heavens is a reality. It opens to special people and on special occasions. There are instances where open heaven is mentioned in the Bible. When the heaven opens something extra ordinary happens. The first mention of open heaven in the Bible is in Gen 7:11. In the six hundred year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day, were all the Fountains of the great deep open up and the windows of heaven were open. This is the day the fountains of the great deep and the floodgates of heaven were open and God released rain from heaven that destroyed the earth. In Malachi 3:10 God promised open heaven for those who pay tithe. Another mention of open heaven is Matt 3:16-17. And Jesus, when he was baptized went up straight away out of the water and Lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo a voice from heaven saying. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. In the discourse between God and his people, spoken of in Malachi concerning tithe, God mentioned many things, which the children of Israel have sinned against him. He reproached them by saying for I am the Lord I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.( Malachi 3:6) The Lord of the Old Testament is also the Lord of the New Testament. He has not changed even today. His ordinances are still in force today as there were in the Old Testament If we wish open heavens in our lives then we must pay our tithe this is God's social security plan for our life.
F) To return unto God.
There are many instances where man departed away from the commandment of God and goes his way. God will always ask man to repent and come back to him. God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In every covenant, there were obligations that were binding each party, if this covenant is to be valid. Once one party does not keep the obligations binding on him, then the terms of the covenant are broken. The covenant cannot longer work and God cannot help the situation until amends are made If the terms of the covenant are to be reapplied, then the terms must be respected. This obliges us to go back to the terms.
This is the reason God asked the children of Israel to return unto him. How? In tithes and offerings. The Bible says, "Even from the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of host. But ye saith wherein shall we return?" (Malachi 3:7). Therefore, until you return, there is no reconciliation. Until you return, you cannot repossess your possession. The prodigal son could not regain his position if he did not return unto his father's house.
G) Not to rob God. The word rob has the following synonyms cheat, steal from, take from, deprive etc. it means that someone is deprived of his rightful possession. I mentioned time and again that tithe is not ours, it is God's own portion. We are just custodians of it. It is like a man that has been asks to watch over something for the owner and return it to him at the agreed time but he chooses to strip the owner off his or her entitlement.
Therefore, God himself in Malachi 3 asked if a man can rob God. The choice of word rob here is not exaggerating. It is just the right word to be used. What are the consequences of a man robbing God? Can a man rob God and get away with his act? Not at all? Consider your stance on the issue. Don't say you were not told. God hates robbery Isaiah 61:8 and in Malachi 3:6-7 God reiterate the point of robbery and said ye are cursed for robbing me. Do you want to be cursed?
Robbery has to be paid back in full and adding a fifth to that which is lost.
Now that you know why you should pay tithes will you still refuse to pay tithes and that the tithes were not paid by first Christians? Remember Jesus asked us to pay tithe Matt 23:23. If Jesus Christ asked us to pay tithes do we have to disobey him? Jesus Christ asked us to do the weightier matters of the law just is we do these other ones. Whom do you obey an instruction from God or a practice by the apostles?
If we say that tithe was not practiced by the first Christians why do we not sell our properties and give the money to the church as the Christian did in the first century? Act 2:44-45. Those who insist that we should not pay tithe because the first Christian did not practice it I say that the day I will see them selling their possessions and giving the money to the apostles because this was practiced in the first century Christians? Why do they not practice this one that the apostles did practice?

APELLA Magellan
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