yesterday my big sister rach rang me sounding super excited. she told me too look up deuteronomy 14:22-30 because she'd just discovered that tithing in the biblical sense was all about putting aside money so you could throw a big party. something they usually don't mention in church ;)
to paraphrase the passage, farmers were commanded to put aside 10% of what they grew in their fields to eat and enjoy in the place where GOD put his name. but if that place is too far away and they had too much to carry, the passage stipulates, then they could sell it for money and use that money to, and i quote, "buy whatever your like" so that the whole household could have a party.
what i love best about this is that the israelites were commanded to share this bounty with widows, orphans, the foreigners, and the levites.
the whole concept is pretty cool, in my opinion.
of course, we are not israelites living under the law, and now we have pastors instead of levites to support, but i still think that throwing a party and sharing food is an awesome way to be generous with our resources.
That is very cool! It changes the purpose and understanding of tithing doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI like how it ties in with hospitality as well- you can't give "10%" of your house, but you can share your bounty (your house) with others to bless them as an act of service to God.
yeah! I think hospitality is really important! It's not my natural gifting but it's something I'm determined to work on :)
ReplyDelete