The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/numbers/17.htm

I can only assume that many carried rods in those days, a long cane if you will. I won’t presume to know why they did, other than use as a cane. And if you can, imaging a very straight and sturdy tree branch, cleaned of all the twigs and leaves. And since Noah had the ability to build an ark, and others built things out of Acacia wood, maybe they even fashioned their own rods out of a fallen tree.

God wanted to show a sign to the children of Israel that he had selected the tribe of Levi to minister to them, and more specifically, that he had appointed Aaron as the priest.

God commanded Moses to have the leader of each tribe bring for their rods, and write their names on them, and instructed Aaron to write the tribe of “Levi” on his (because he was a Levite, then they put the 12 rods in the Tabernacle of Witness.

The next day, only Aarons rod had changed, another miracle of God. Aarons rod had not only budded and sprouted leaves, it was producing almonds.

And God told Moses to keep the rod in the Tabernacle of Meeting as a sign to the children of Israel, reminding them, to coin a phrase, “who was the boss”.

In Chapter 18, the duties of the Levites are listed, and most importantly, the chapter outlines tithes. The Levites did not inherent land like the other tribes did. And just to review, Joseph’s son’s inherited the land that would though have been his. The Levites were given enough land on which to live and have some livestock, but that was within each of the tribes of Israel, there was no specific area of land, as a whole, they inherited.

So God commanded the children of Israel on what offerings should be made, and most importantly, tithes. A ten of everything they tribes of Israel produced was to go to the Levites, and the Levites themselves gave a tenth of what they earned to God.

And that is still how tithes work today. When you give a tenth of your income to the church, it goes to pay the wages of the pastors. Pastors must have an income on which to survive, and that comes from tithes.

I don’t know how all churches work, but there is generally a “conference” of churches that are under one administration, your tithe goes to that administration, then they divide the tithes up evenly among the pastors within their organization. That prevents a pastor of a very large church from reaping a large benefit, and keeps the pastor of a very small church from starving.

Do you tithe?

I’ve told this story before, but I’ll tell it again.

I’ve always been a believer, but I haven’t always been a Christian, that is, someone who followed Christ. My wife became fell to a terminal illness, an irreparable heart valve. And that, is what caused me to turn to Christ. And in retrospect, and I regret not turning back sooner.

I’m fully confident that the way we led our lives, God had removed his “hedge of protection” from us, and that Satan was responsible for my wife’s illness. I’m sure his motive was to make me curse God, blaming God for my wife’s illness and thus turning me further away from Him than I already was. But fortunately for me, it worked just the opposite. It drew me nearer to God. It made me become a Christian, albeit not necessary a good one, but it made me want to strive to be a good Christian.

As a result, I started praying, I started reading the Bible, and I did everything in my power to love God and obey his commands out of a love for God. And my prayers worked.

When my wife was diagnosed, her mitral valve was so bad, only one centimeter of blood was flowing from her atrium to her ventricles. Normally, it is about the size of a quarter, but hers had been reduced to less than the size of a dime. She ended up homebound and attached to an oxygen machine because she didn’t have enough blood pumping to allow her to do any physical activity at all.

When I turned back to Christ, I told my wife that I wanted to start tithing again. And while my local church had closed due to lack of membership, I was still able to send my tithe to other churches that I watched online.

My wife didn’t think I could do it. We were living payday to payday, not because we didn’t have enough income, but rather because we were spending our income frivolously on things we didn’t need. She warned me that if I gave a tenth of my income as tithe, that I was going to have to give up a lot of the things I enjoyed doing, and I told her I was willing to do that.

Here’s the kicker. When I started tithing, I didn’t notice it one bit. In fact, God blessed me in such a way that I always ended up with more money than I had ever noticed. I was no longer living payday to payday, it was almost as if it were a miracle!

My wife has been deceased for five years now, and I still tithe and I am still blessed. Praise God.

My wife had a bad experience with “the Church”. She tried to attend many churches, but was always discouraged because of the hypocrisy. She often told a story about one church she attended where the pastor spoke about tithing. And I’m paraphrasing, but he basically said, “God doesn’t mean for you to give a tenth of your gross income, he still wants you to pay your bills, then give a tenth”, meaning go ahead and pay your mortgage, your car payment, your insurance, your credit card payments, then give a tenth of what is left”. But that is not what the Bible says.

Having said all of that, I would still urge you to make sure that if you decided to tithe, you make sure you do so wisely. There are many “mega-church” pastors who are making millions of dollars each year, and I don’t believe that is what God intended. You are certainly welcome to do so if you wish, but as for me, I tithe to where I know the money is going to be used wisely and pay the “Levites” of today, what is fair and equitable. We don’t want our pastors living in poverty, but we don’t want them flying around in their private jets either. Just my opinion.

As always, pray for guidance. Have a private conversation with God, and let him lead your conscience.

Amen.