1. Tithing
All NKJV unless otherwise specified
Tithing will be covered below as a separate topic to giving. This will be covered in later bible study notes.
Oxford Dictionary Definitions
Tithe
• noun 1 one tenth of annual produce or earnings, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the Church and clergy. 2 a tenth of
a specified thing.
• verb subject to or pay as a tithe.
Abram (before he was renamed Abraham) gave the first recorded tithe
Genesis 14 v17-20 CEV
17
Abram returned after he had defeated King Chedorlaomer and the other kings. Then the king of Sodom went to meet Abram
in Shaveh Valley, which is also known as King’s Valley. 18
King Melchizedek of Salem was a priest of God Most High. He
brought out some bread and wine 19
and said to Abram: “I bless you in the name of God Most High, Creator of heaven and
earth. 20
All praise belongs to God Most High for helping you defeat your enemies.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
Is tithing a requirement?
Malachi 3 v8-12
8
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9
You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the
windows of heaven, And pour out for you such blessing, That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11
“And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for
you in the field,” Says the LORD of hosts; 12
“And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the
LORD of hosts.
 If a person is robbed, then something is taken away from that person which belongs to that person
 The bible mentions that the person who does not tithe actually robs God. What does this mean? This means that the
person withholds from God the tithe which is due to God. Lets explore this another way.
How much of this earth belongs to God?
Let’s see……..
Psalm 24v1
1
The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
 Everything belongs to God. He is our Creator, and He created everything, and everybody.
John 1v3
3
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
1 Corinthians 6v20
20
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
 Even more so, we who are Christians were bought at a price. God laid down His life for us. What value could be
ascribed to that?
Q: So if God owns us (having bought us at a price), how much of what we own belongs to God?
A: 100%

2. Deuteronomy 8v18
18
“And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His
covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
 God gives us the power to get wealth
 The fact that we have any money at all is purely by God’s grace, whether we acknowledge this fact or not.
 God requires only one-tenth of our increase from us, and He allows us to use 90%.
 This does not mean that we are not accountable for the 90%. As custodians of God’s resources on earth, we cannot be
reckless or unwise in our spending decisions.
Leviticus 27v30 NLT
30
“A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.
 The bible is not talking purely about farming here. This principle is applicable to all of your increase, whether from
business activities, salary, capital gains, etc. See Deuteronomy 14 v22-29.
Deuteronomy 14v22
22
“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.
Matthew 22 v15-22
15
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16
And they sent to Him their disciples with
the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about
anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17
“Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,
or not?” 18
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19
“Show Me the tax money.”
So they brought Him a denarius. 20
And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21
They said to Him,
“Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are
God’s.” 22
When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.
 Tax is no substitute for tithing
 What is due to God and what is due to the taxman are made very clear by Jesus’ words above. There is no overlap.
 In instances where the Church and the State have been the same (this has happened in history), the tax obligation
remains separate from an individuals obligation to God.
 The converse is also true, where a tithe offering does not obviate the obligation to pay taxes, something the Pharisees
above tried to trick Jesus with.
Tithing is done unto God and not unto the church (even though the church receives the tithe)
 The act of tithing is a sacrificial offering to God. It is directed from the giver to God directly.
 Unfortunately this has become distorted in the church (even going back to Old Testament times), where the giving
was done to the church ‘establishment’. This can be seen clearly in the below scriptures:
1 Samuel 2 v12-17 NLT
12
Now the sons of Eli (Eli being the high priest) were scoundrels who had no respect for the LORD
13
or for their duties as
priests. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, Eli’s sons would send over a servant with a three-pronged fork. While the meat
of the sacrificed animal was still boiling, 14
the servant would stick the fork into the pot and demand that whatever it brought
up be given to Eli’s sons. All the Israelites who came to worship at Shiloh were treated this way. 15
Sometimes the servant
would come even before the animal’s fat had been burned on the altar. He would demand raw meat before it had been boiled
so that it could be used for roasting.
16
The man offering the sacrifice might reply, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned.” Then the servant
would demand, “No, give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.” 17
So the sin of these young men was very serious in the
LORD’s sight, for they treated the LORD’s offerings with contempt.
 The offering had to have been properly burned up in order to be an acceptable offering
 The ‘establishment’ demanded the sacrifice ----- transgression.
 Given to Eli’s sons ----- they showed contempt for the Lord. It was their expectation that it was already theirs.
 Judgment was carried out against Eli’s sons (1 Samuel 4v17).
 Because of the above transgression, the Ark of the Covenant was ‘captured’ by the Philistines and taken away from
Shiloh.

3. So the church establishment receives the tithe after it has been offered to God. The church has an obligation unto God to use
the tithes received in an appropriate and responsible way, whether this be for sustenance of the pastor’s and staff (they need to
eat too!!!), upkeep of facilities, church outreach projects, missionary work, meeting the needs of the communities they are
serving, etc.
So lets review more carefully Malachi 3 v8-12
Malachi 3 v8-12
8
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9
You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the
windows of heaven, And pour out for you such blessing, That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11
“And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for
you in the field,” Says the LORD of hosts; 12
“And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the
LORD of hosts.
 The consequence of not tithing is bringing a curse down upon yourself.
 The benefits of tithing on the other hand are so many blessings that you will not be able to contain them all.
 Tithing will rebuke the devil (devourer), and the devil will not be able to touch your finances.
 This is the only place mentioned in the bible where you can actually test God. Verse 10 ‘“And try Me now in this”
says the Lord of Hosts’ – this shows God’s willingness (and desire) for you to test Him in this.
Some Guidance
 This topic may be difficult to some/many reading hearing it.
 We all have very different financial situations that we are in, with some more difficult than others. But God knows
your situation perfectly well. He is more than capable of meeting all of your needs according to His riches in Glory.
Philippians 4v19 19
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
 Tithing may be a very foreign concept to you, and the thought of having to spare 10% of your income for this
purpose challenging, but God knows.
 It is going to take a step of faith. A farmer cannot reap unless he has first sown. A farmer needs to buy a piece of land,
buy seed, hire labour, hire equipment, sow into the ground, and then wait, and wait, and wait. The farmer has hope
that this sown seed will lead to a great harvest. It takes action on the part of the sower. It is the same with us and God.
 An important caveat, we don’t tithe in order to get. We tithe as a gift offering unto God. Receiving from God is a
blessed benefit which comes as a result of giving unto God with the right heart.