Three tithes?

At church yesterday, it was mentioned that the system established by God to care for His church was the system of the tithe and special offerings. Once we realize that God owns everything and we love him a lot, we are given the opportunity to trust God and pass on what he owns to His church. Did you follow all that?

It was also mention that the Levitical guidelines also communicated that there was multiple tithes. In fact there are three. After church, I entered into a conversation with a friend about these three. Following is were it’s mentioned in the Bible.

1st TITHE: Annual tithe for the maintenance of the Levitical Priesthood (Num 18:21-24).
The tribe of Levi received no inheritance (Num18:20, Deu 12:12, Deu 14:27). This tribe was segregated from the rest of Israel (Num 3:39-45, Num 3:5-10, Num 8:14-19) in order to serve the Lord in the Temple, and in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. So the first tithe was necessary for their support, since they had no other means of subsistence.

2nd TITHE: A second tithe was brought to Jerusalem for festival purposes (Deu 14:22-27).

3rd TITHE: A third tithe was required every third year to assist the poor (Deu 14:28-29).
Every third year was known as "the year of tithing," (Deu 26:12-14). When the Israelites had completed tithing of the increase of the land, they were to give this 3rd tithe to the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows. When this was completed, they were to declare unto the Lord that they had performed to the best of their ability in obeying the divine commandments. All the tithes mutually would consist of 23.3% of one's assets.

Now the NT tells us that we should work as hard as we can to give all that we can, so collectively, we can make an impact into our communities that we live. So, it is to that end, we do so.

Have an Awesome Day
David