Written by Dynamis Ministries | May 23, 2024
You don’t have to be a churchgoer or a Christ follower to know about the Ten Commandments. Most people have a general understanding, even if they cannot recite all 10. But, did you know that in the first five books of the Bible alone – commonly referred to as the Torah – there are 613 commands? That’s a lot of rules for people to follow! Learning of this out of context could give people a misconception about God; that he is an impossible God to please because of his high standards or perhaps that he stifles his people’s joy with too many rules.
This notion, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, many of these rules were established by God for their personal and communal well-being, not to mention to help his people love others better. Take for example God’s rules about giving. We may be familiar with the tithe — the act of giving 10% back to God, but interestingly there is a second tithe in scripture that is referred to as the “Festival Tithe.” That’s right, check out what God’s Word says in Deuteronomy 14:22-27:
“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.”
In God’s law, he instructed his people to set aside resources for parties! How cool is that!? While the traditional tithe was given to support ministry, this tithe was to be used directly for the people; to build community, to celebrate, to remember the Lord, to include and love others and to party. It’s important to note that we shouldn’t misinterpret this passage to mean that this concept of the festival tithe should replace our regular giving to our church. After all, giving to our church is still vitally important in helping carry out the mission of God in the world. However, this model of the Festival Tithe is something we can all be encouraged to think creatively about and adopt in our own lives today. And, there may be no better time to do that than now.
As we near the beginning of the summer season, a time of year that is so often associated with parties and festivals, let’s try to enact our own Festival Tithe. Whether it’s a backyard cookout with some friends and family or a neighborhood block party, we can plan an event where we invite others and invest our own resources into the party. And just like God’s original design for the Festival Tithe, we too can use this party as an occasion to remember the work of the Lord in our lives and to invite others who are often neglected and simply to rejoice! God first gave this instruction of the Festival Tithe to the Israelites in the wilderness. Let’s bring it back and party like it’s 1399(ish) B.C. again!
