[QUOTE=jediwill83;1516047]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tithesmeister
Well he DID give a lot of stuff to Esau.....
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I believe that it is significant that people who want to teach that tithing is for today, will go back beyond the law of Moses concerning tithing, AFTER they concede that we are no longer under the law.
When they go back to the pre-law tithing, there are only two occasions that they can point to. Abram, when he tithed to Melchizedek, and Jacob, when he PROMISED to tithe to God, IF God met some conditions that JACOB proposed.
The short answer to these is that Abram tithed once, on the spoils of war.
Jacob never tithed at all, as far as the Bible is concerned, he only promised to.
So, concerning Abram, it would be truthful to say that if we follow his example, we should tithe on the spoils of war, at least once. If we have no spoils of war, honesty would prescribe that we teach that we would NOT tithe. If the conditions are not met, then the reaction to the conditions would not be met.
Concerning Jacob promising to tithe. How would you even be able to teach tithing at all from his example? There is no example of his ever tithing! Maybe you could teach something about negotiating with God from this passage, but I can't see teaching tithing from a passage that never verifies that he actually did so.
The next thing that those that blindly teach tithing will say is that tithing never stopped after Abram tithed. This is simply untrue. We have an example of war spoils giving in Numbers chapter 31.
In this example there is a crucial difference to Abrams tithing. God commanded Moses and Eleazar what to give and how much to give of the spoils. How big a deal is this? It is huge! In one example (Abram's) we are left to wonder why he gave. People are full of speculation, it seems. In the other example (Moses), there is NO need to speculate. We have it in black and white. The evidence is clear. There is no doubt. The offering was one in five hundred, (if you were of those who actually went to war), or one in fifty, (if you were of the general population who did not go to war). And . . .
Bible, King James Version
Numbers 31:31
[31] And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD
commanded Moses.
This was a clear cut commandment of God concerning the giving of an offering on the spoils of war.
Why do preachers of tithing not teach on this clear example?
Is it because it clearly proposes something that they don't want people to believe?
This example occurred before the major portion of the Mosaic Law went into effect, (before the Hebrews entered the promised land), but even if the law had been in effect, it would have made no difference. The tithing law did not affect spoils of war.
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