Furthermore, having been aware of the fact that there is no place in the Scripture where God had commanded the payment of monetary tithes, many mercantile and self-acclaimed church leaders have artfully argued that the ancient Israel lived in a farming and bartering culture, unlike this modern day where majority of the people earn a living in paid jobs. Hence, according to them God commanded the Israelites to tithe on agricultural produce, such as grains, fruits, herd, flock, wine and oil. Therefore, in their thinking, it becomes necessary and expedient as self-professed church leaders to act for God and thereby supplant money against the original compositions of tithe since that is what most people earn as wages from different trades and occupations in this modern and industrialized age. Fallacy! The Scripture has made it evidently clear that God’s thoughts and ways are far different from the thoughts and ways of man.
See (Isaiah 55: 8 – 9).
It is unarguably and indubitably true that the actions of these money grabbing pastors have portrayed or depicted the Almighty God, the Ever perfect God, the All knowing God, the Omniscient God as (heaven forbid) a fallible and imperfect God who cannot simply foretell or predict the future.
However, on the contrary, there are overwhelming Scriptural affirmations that do not support this general assertion that money was not much in use when the law of Moses was enacted. Apart from farming, those Israelites who earned a living by other means were not required to tithe.
For example;
(i) garment makers (Exodus 39: 1),
(ii) craftsmen (Exodus 36: 4),
(iii) artistic work designers (Exodus 31: 4),
(iv) artisans (Exodus 31: 6),
(v) lenders (Deut. 23: 19 – 20),
(vi) judges (Deut. 1: 16, 16: 18),
(vii)armies (I Sam. 17: 10),
(viii) singers (I Chronicles 9: 33),
(ix) merchants and Sellers (Neh. 13: 20),
(x) potters (Jer. 18: 2 – 4),
(xi) carpenters, builders and masons (II Kings 22: 6),
(xii) tanners (Acts 10: 6), etc.
All these professionals were all wage earners and none of them were recorded to have paid tithes of their wages. Besides, Malachi 3: 5, (which says “I will come near you for judgment…those who EXPLOIT WAGE EARNERS…”) lend more credence to the fact that there were wage earners when the law of tithing was commanded. And interestingly, from Genesis to Revelation, you can’t find any illustration that suggests that Christians (wage earners or not) are commanded to pay monetary tithes to the church or anyone.
Suffice it to say that it is an act of insubordination, rebellion, mutiny and disobedience for people to speak where God did not speak by rephrasing and repackaging His tithing ordinance against His admonition (see Deut. 4: 2 and 12: 32) with the ulterior motive to settle or satisfy their rapacious and greedy desire for materialism?
…To be continued!
