Genesis 28:20-22 (NIV) 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."
Tithing is giving 10% of our income to the church for God’s work. Arguments about whether to give 10% before or after taxes miss the point and spirit of tithing. It is God we are dealing with and not the IRS, but it is probably good to remember that while we may have to pay our taxes and buy groceries we do not have to give to the church. If we feel we have to give we probably are not giving at all, but rather are paying the church.
The thought of giving a tenth does not spring into Jacob’s mind out of the blue. The first person in the Bible to tithe was his grandfather Abraham who gave 10% of everything he had as a thank offering to God. By giving a tenth Jacob knew he would receive God’s blessings, the most basic blessings being freedom from the firm grip of money and possessions, and freedom from selfishness. When we give we are letting go of some of our false securities.
But why does it take 10%? Doesn’t any amount of giving help accomplish the same thing? It does. But there is something about giving away 10% that meets the power of money with the greater power of giving. We simply cannot give away that much of our income without dealing a deadly blow to our selfishness and without searching for and finding our most basic security in life in our trust in God. We may say we trust, but when we give God a tenth, it feels like we are out on a limb with only God to keep us from falling and failing financially.
It was only in his later years that Jacob tithed not because of example or for blessing, but out of gratitude for God’s grace toward him. The experience of God’s grace and the expression of gratitude have a strange kind of reciprocal relationship. One leads to the other. Giving has a way of opening the gates that hide God’s grace so we see beneath the shabbiness of the world and the glitter of the world to where there is the truth and the peace of God. Giving does not buy us grace. It is simply a key that helps unlock the gate and keep it open. Giving a tenth seems to have the power to clear out the clutter in our heart and in our world so that we can see Him.
Jacob was no spiritual giant. For most of his life he was shrewd, conniving, and a bit greedy, but he was a man with a growing faith in God. If you are waiting until you are a spiritual giant to tithe, or waiting until you are a little bit better person, wait no longer. For you are as spiritually mature and as good as you need to be to tithe right now.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope, 1989
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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