“He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”
~ Deuteronomy 26:19
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you tithing? Ask your ma and dad if they are tithing? Ask your ma and/or dad to tell you what tithing is. A tithe – which is usually considered to be ten percent, could be money, harvest, time . . . tithing is giving a portion back to God from what God has given. Why do you think that your grandpaa would want to give something back to God? Your grandpaa knows that God has given your grandpaa everything that he has. Your grandpaa knows that God has established what your grandmaa and grandpaa will receive to live on each month. God has determined what every farmer will be able to grow each year in their fields. God has created a time piece for every guy, gal and kid to use for whatever he or she chooses to use it. God’s sovereignty has Him at times introducing testing health issues in the lives of guys, gals and kids and initiating taxing financial crises in the lives of guys and gals. God sovereignty has Him at times sending a barrage of hail or stopping rain from falling in order to either destroy or keep a farmer’s crop of corn or wheat or oats or . . . from growing. Tithing is a tangible way for a guy or gal to genuinely say thanks to God for what He has done for the guy or gal through having specially elected the guy or gal to be one of His own adopted guys or gals. Because your grandpaa when he was a young guy made a decision of faith to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior, your grandpaa knows that he has been adopted by God into His specially elected family of guys, gals and kids. Ask your dad and/or ma to show you what ten percent of something is. Your dad and/or ma can use ten cards or ten marbles or ten pennies or . . . now if you take away one of the cards or one of the marbles or one of the pennies or . . . that is what ten percent of something is. Ten percent of something is really not very much. You will still have nine cards or nine marbles or nine pennies or . . . to do with whatever you want.
Just as tithing was something that God unreservedly expected His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, to do, God unambiguously expects His specially elected guys and gals – the guys and gals who have made decisions of faith to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, to do. Tithing really is the very least that God’s specially elected guys and gals can do for God after God expressly chose them to be His specially elected guys and gals. God blessed His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, when He led them to possess the land that He had promised them through Abraham then through Isaac and then through Jacob that they would always have as their very own land to live in if . . . God gave a lot of specific instructions through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals on how they were to live in the land that . . . one of the things that God expected His specially chosen guys and gals to do was to give Him every third year a tithe from what they would harvest from the land that they would soon inherit as their very own land. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals during the other two years to give back to Him – through the priests from the Levi tribal clan, the land’s firstfruits. Do you know what firstfruits are? A firstfruit is something that has ripened first and can be harvested. It was important to God that His specially chosen guys and gals remembered that they were back once again in the land where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had once lived. God wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to remember Him with a tithe of foodstuff from what they harvested from their fields. God had Moses write down in what is now Deuteronomy 26 exactly what He expected that His specially chosen guys and gals do in regards to giving firstfruits and a tithe to Him from their crops once they were in the land that . . .
What do you think happens when God receives something back that He has given to a guy or gal – something such as money, possessions, crops, time, etc.? Moses says in verse 19,“He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.” God will bless the guys, gals and kids who He has specially elected to be His adopted children when these guys, gals and kids give back to Him some of what He has given to them. It is the right thing to do to tithe. It is something that God has asked the guys, gals and kids who He specially elected before He created planet Earth to be His specially elected guys, gals and kids to do. Your dad knows Jim and Sue Briskie. Jim and Sue lived in the same town – Aberdeen, South Dakota, where your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn lived for two years. When Jim and Sue lived near your grandmaa and grandpaa, Jim and Sue would often come over to the house where your grandmaa and grandpaa lived to eat pizza with pineapple and ham and to play Mille Bourne with your grandmaa and grandpaa. When your grandpaa started a systematic door to door evangelism outreach in Aberdeen, Jim went door to door with your grandpaa as your grandpaa wanted the guys and gals to go in pairs to visit homes. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are at least ten years older than Jim and Sue. Your grandmaa and grandpaa got to know Jim and Sue nearly thirty years ago. When your grandmaa and grandpaa left for Bolivia as missionaries, Jim and Sue began to give regular money gifts to your grandmaa and grandpaa. Since your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Guatemala, Jim and Sue have been supporting your grandmaa and grandpaa $1000 a month. Jim and Sue have donated to your grandmaa and grandpaa two computers and the ’95 Ford 150 pickup that your grandpaa drives here in Guatemala. Because Jim and Sue were directed by God to tithe to your grandmaa and grandpaa from the monies that they are earning, your grandmaa and grandpaa believe that this is why God is blessing what He has been leading them to do.
Deuteronomy 26 (164)