Give Your Whole Tithe to God in Faith (Numbers 18:21-32)
Today we are going to share the word of God from Numbers 18:21-32 regarding Tithe. Last week we shared the word of God regarding offering that was not Tithe but another kind of offering. It says in Numbers 18:21 “I give to the Israelites all the Tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they serve at the Tent of Meeting.” God is preparing the Levites for all of the work they do in the tabernacle in other words the house of God with the Tithe the Israelites paid to God.
The reason the tribe of Levites are specifically allocated to take care of the Tabernacle is because it should be the case that one member from every single family were to devote themselves to serve the temple, but instead calling one person from every family, they dedicated Levites as the representative of every person of the Israelite community, they didn’t give them any land, and they made them serve the worship so that it may continue forever, and get their livelihood from the offering and the Tithe. So the Levites can then devote everything for the work of forgiving all the Israelites from their sins.
Numbers 18:23, the Levites are to the work of bearing the responsibility for offenses and this a lasting ordinance for generations to come, they will receive no inheritances among the Israelites. Nowadays there’s not a specific tribe of people like the Levite and the priest, or wear a specific uniform like the priest. And the priests are no longer playing the role of forgiving our sins. However as we pass from the age of the Tabernacle and the temple into the current age of the church, God’s principle remains the same.
So in this verse, when God says “this will be the last ordinance for generations to come” means that this principle will flow for the rest of eternity, God is controlling all of the universe and the churches with his word, so if we don’t know God’s word, we’ll look at everything from the standards of the world.
Numbers 18:24 says, “instead I give to the Israelites their inheritances, the Tithes the Israelites offer to the Lord.” That is why I said concerning them, they will have no inheritance among the Israelites. So even in the New Testament, the meaning of the Tithe and offering is the same, that we are giving it to God. It is not that the Israelites are paying and feeding the priests, they’re giving It to God. And God is feeding and paying the Levites, because they are possessions of God. And I’ve seen a lot of situations, as more time passes, the Word becomes very weak in the churches and the world starts to enter in the churches.
It’s because, if we become weak in the Word of God, we’re bound to move according to the standards of the world, then instead of God becoming the Master of the church, humans become the masters of the church. This is actually a great sin, it’s because a person is trying to take over God’s role. It means that the members of the church are not feeding and paying the minister.
But if the Word of God doesn’t go into you, you’ll automatically think in the ways of the world, and we don’t know that this is a huge channel for Satan as well as a huge sin, and it even goes to the point where the members of the church try to control or shake the pastor, and more so than that being the fault of the members of the church, it’s because the Word of God hasn’t gone into them, and that’s why the Word of God is so important.
But in a proper, upright church, the Word of God will be sure and firm. It doesn’t matter how big the church is, if the members of the church have this kind of thought, that means they are not giving proper worship. Because they think their offering will be used to feed and pay the church workers, they do not give offering to God and that’s when worship is destroyed. Then it doesn’t matter how big that church is, it cannot be a correct church before God. The fact that worship is being destroyed means that all the work they do in the world will flow in the opposite direction of God’s will, because God is moving everything in the universe with his word.
So, if you don’t know the Word of God and you just hear the words of the world or hear someone talking from a given church and you don’t know what is right or wrong and bring this into the church then you are wrong before God. Then, the next generations cannot learn what real worship is, then what’s going to happen later? They’re going to be making money, but because they’re losing hold of worship, even their finances aren’t going to work out. They’ve lost hold of worship without realizing it, but even your ignorance regarding God’s Word is a sin, and it’s because the pastor never taught you. Later on, we’ll talk more specifically about this.
In Numbers 18:25-26, the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the Tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that Tithe as the LORD’s offering.’” This means that when the Levites received the Tithes, they had to give a tenth of that Tithe to the Lord.
I looked at a a lot of normal or typical churches, a lot of the pastors and the assistant pastors there, they used their Tithes for their retirement fund later on so that they can keep serving the church even after they retire, or they put it into their social security, so the pastors and ministers also have to give their Tithe and put money into social security for use after they retire.
Numbers 18:28, In this way, you also will present an offering to the LORD from all the Tithes you receive from Israelites. From these Tithes,you must give the LORD’s portion to Aaron the priest, so give it to the High Priest. Numbers 18:29, You must present as the LORD’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you. The best.
Numbers 18:30-31 Say to the Levites: ‘When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress.’ You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for the work you do at the Tent of Meeting. “Wages” means compensation for the work you did for God, you need to have the word properly for the word to come to life in your life, and be fulfilled by God.
Do you know why this is important? It’s because, if the Word of God is not maintained in this way and there’s some kind of hindrance from the priest of the Levite tribes from forgiving the sins of the Israelites, it means there will be disasters for Israel. No human being can ever live a satisfying life before God. Because human beings exist in the world, we cannot live cleanly. So, the only way for us to remain with God is through these sacrifices. The blessing and grace of God can only come upon us if we give the sacrifices according to the way God desires. That is why God chose the Levite tribe that would be fully specialized to take care of it, because if you were really going to take one member from each family to do this work, it would be too confusing.
Then, why is the priesthood so important? This is the Word of God that must be properly imprinted in us today. In order for us to understand these words, we have to look at Exodus 3:18, the message the LORD gave to Moses to send to Pharoah after enslaving the Israelites for 400 years of slavery. The LORD tells Moses to give the message to the Pharaoh, “The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to theLORD our God.’ This means that the only way for the Israelites to escape from 400 years of slavery was only God’s method, the blood covenant.
That’s not their goal, what is the goal? The goal is to sacrifice to God. Those who have salvation sacrifice to God. Salvation is very important but God’s ultimate goal is to have everyone worship God. From the moment we have salvation until eternity, even after we die and go to heaven, we’re always worshiping. Even on this earth, our goal is worship. Depending on how important you think this sacrifice and offering are, your walk of faith will change.
If the importance of worship isn’t really imprinted into you, even after leaving Egypt, your walk of faith will not be working out. That was one of the reasons the Israelites were so confused in the wilderness for 40 years. “Why did we escape from Egypt? Did we escape so we could avoid suffering? Even after escaping from Egypt, we suffer.” What did we escape from? We escaped in order to worship God. Why do we go into Canaan? So that we can worship God there, and worship doesn’t remain in Canaan, but God’s goal is for the worship to spread all around the world to glorify God.
We give glory to God through worship. Evangelism is simply the revealing of God’s glory. If evangelism is the result or revealing of the holiness of God’s power, then worship is when we receive that, when we give glory to God. If glorifying God is our life goal, then worship is the goal of our life, and I want this message to be deeply imprinted in us. If you’re living your life with some kind of silly goal like success, then you will live a useless life and die in the wilderness because you’re not aligned with God.
God desires worship. And during this time the Israelites shouldn’t go in empty-handed, but they should go with some animal like a goat or a lamb. From our perspective, we may ask, “How did they live their walk of faith like that?” But if anyone thinks that way, it really means they don’t understand the meaning of worship at a deep level. Worship means letting go of our life and glorifying God, you go out into the field and give living worship to God in your field.
However, when you come to worship you let everything go and spend time giving glory to God. Then, you give that glory to God all day, and when you go into your field on Monday, that glory is relayed to your field, and that’s where we do all our financial work as well as our missions and evangelism.
You have to know what God’s goal is and the direction we’re living in in order for you to walk with God. But if the Word of God never goes into you deeply, you’ll live your walk of faith the same way that you’ve been imprinted in the world before you were saved, and you’re not going to be aligned with God.
This is what it means for worship to determine everything in your life, so when you come to worship, you don’t just come, but you come with your offering. You don’t come empty-handed because this belongs to God and you give it to God for His kingdom. But if the Word of God hasn’t gone into you, you think it’s a waste of money because God’s word hasn’t gone into you.
I learned this word when I was a new believer, and so from the beginning I have a personality where if I think something is upright, I’ll follow everyone like that. You all know this because when you hear the sermon you can see how people apply it. There are some people who never really follow it, but there wasn’t a time when you followed this and all the other things worked out well. As a foreign exchange student, as I received salvation and the pastor told me about offering and Tithes, I did it then because I knew it was correct, but the great meaning hadn’t struck me.
But as time passed and I received God’s Word within me, the meaning came to life. During my young adult years, I wasn’t really doing ministry; I was just there, I’ve given my testimony to you guys a few times. One day, I received a thought, “Even if I don’t have any income, I should at least give some kind of Tithe to the Lord, and if my church needs to send out a lot of missionaries then, I need to have the finances to give offering.” If I couldn’t give offering because I didn’t have any money, that didn’t seem to align with God’s Word. No matter how much I thought about it, it didn’t seem right to only give offering when I had money, so I prayed about it.
“God, give me an answer so I can give Tithe. God, give me an answer so I can help missionaries.” Those answers came really quickly, you’re just not able to hold onto prayer topics because you don’t know, because God gives everything to everybody. If you don’t have an income, how are you living right now? You’re still living, all of that is given to you by God.
The Bible tells us that everything in the universe is moved by God, and one day, the grace of God came upon me and I prayed so I could give Tithe and missions offering, and God gave me an answer really quickly. There are some people who really received grace and moved in this direction after I gave my testimony. It’s just that we’re ignorant of this, so we think that we don’t have anything and we keep living in poverty.
The church is God’s kingdom and He continuously maintains and sustains it, and God is constantly doing missions and evangelism. “God, I have nothing right now, but give me the answers so that I can put my life into Your work.” God is so accurate. So, first the Word has to accurately go into you for you to pray properly. If the Word doesn’t properly go into you, you’ll end up sinning greatly against God.
There are a lot of elders in very big churches who are trying to play with and control the pastor, they do this with money. A lot of them look down on the assistant pastors and the workers of the church because they think, “I pay your bills and feed you,” and a lot of them have lost hold of the Word and have become corrupted. They are actually trying to take the place of God, why? Because they’re ignorant; the Word of God hasn’t gone into them. Because the Word of God hasn’t gone into them, they’re doing everything they have learned from the world, so the Word of God is most important.
In 586 B.C., The Southern Kingdom of Judah fell, and they were taken captives to Babylon for 70 years, and then they came back. So that’s approximately 500 B.C., but while they were captives in Babylon, they completely lost hold of worship. Because there is no temple in Babylon they couldn’t sacrifice any lambs. They gave worship through word, and after that went on for 70 years, people had changed in such strange ways.
After they came back to Israel, they were told to rebuild the temple but they didn’t know why they had to rebuild it, because for 70 years, they didn’t have to sacrifice lambs and they didn’t have priests. Then when they tried to rebuild the Temple, the people of North Israel said they wanted to help too. But the South Israel said, “You guys are mixed blood with other Gentiles, so we do not accept your offerings for the Temple.”
At the end of all this conflict, a temple was constructed, but if you look at the book of Malachi, written around 420 B.C., They had returned from captivity from Babylon and they were giving worship, and the book of Malachi tells of how they were worshiping. The 70 years of captivity in Babylon had a tremendous impact on the Israelites.
Let’s look at Malachi 1:6. This is the Word God is saying to the priest, as well as the members of the Israelite community, ,” and he is saying, y”You priest who is showing contempt from my name,” but you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’” They say, “We have been giving worship to you, the how can you say we are showing contempt for your name?” Malachi 1:7, “By offering defiled food on my altar,” the table of bread in the Holy place, “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying the Lord’s table is contemptible.” The Israelites came back from Babylon and ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner with their families, but there is a table of bread in the Holy Place that must be changed out every week. But instead of doing that according to the Word of God, they were showing contempt for God, it means they have lost the importance of this, but they know they have to do it and they force themselves to do it. That’s how frightening the roots laid down by the world are, after they had been captives in Babylon for 70 years.
Malachi 1:8 says something more severe, “When you bring blind sacrifices for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?” try offering them to your governor, will he be pleased with you? Will he accept you?” They were supposed to give sacrifices of a lamb, 1-year old, perfectly clean and unblemished, but in Malachi 1:9, God explains why they are doing that. “Now, plead with God to be gracious with us with such offering in your hands will be accept you?” –says the LORD almighty. The priests received the sacrifices from the Israelites and they sacrificed it and gave the blood offering to God, and He is saying, “Priests, what have you done to allow this? Why did you guys do this even after knowing the Word?” So, starting from the priests, everyone was corrupted.
Malachi 1:10, “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty,” and I will accept no offering from your hands.” He is saying He will close the doors of worship and not accept it. God is saying, “I gave you the laws to follow in order for you to sacrifice in over for you to repent for your sins and transgressions, but because you don’t know the meaning of your sacrifices, I will not accept them and close the doors to worship.
Does God’s worship really disappear, then? This is in Malachi 1:11, “My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD amothgyt. He is saying that, even if the Jews won’t give proper worship, God will allow every member of the world to give worship, what does this mean? It means God will remove the lampstand, saying, “I won’t use you.” However, there are so many people beyond the Jews who are able to give glory and worship to God among the Gentile nations.
Malachi 1:12-13, “But you profane it by saying of the LORD’s table, ‘It is defiled,” and of its food, ‘It is contemptible,” You say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemputationsuy, ‘ says the LORD almighty, when you bring injured or diseased animal as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the LORD. It means they are forcing themselves to give offering. The reason they force themselves to give offering is because they’ve lost the reason and goal of their offering. These people lived a long time like this. He is telling this to the same people today, who have worshipped for such a long time that they don’t know why but have to because they’ve done it for so long.
So, in Malachi 2, God warns the priests, “You have not taught them properly.” Malachi 2:7, it says the priest is the messenger of the LORD and he should preserve the word and they shared this role with the prophets. The priests are the ones who are to accurately relay the Word of God’s law to the members of the community, but in Malachi 2:8, “But you have turned form the way and by your teachings have caused many to stumble, you have violated the covenant with the Levites, says the LORD Almighty.”
Malachi 2:9, “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.” Because of that, God is saying the priests are the ones who caused the Israelites to be in contempt of God. Do you think the priests thought they were defiling and corrupting God’s name? God receives glory through our worship, but the priests were so reluctant and unwilling to worship, that they were defiling and corrupting God.
In Malachi 3, God talks about Tithes and offerings, that’s in Malachi 3:8. talks about the Tithe and offerings, last week we talked about offerings, and today we’re talking about the Tithes. Malachi 3:9, “You are under a curse–the whole nation of you–because you are robbing me.” You know the word “robbing,” right? It means your Tithe and offering must be given to God, but you do not.
Why does God need money? God is the background and inheritance of the Levites, and God is feeding and paying the Levites, but you rob God from doing that. That’s what it means for you to be robbing God, then what do you think will happen to robbers? The life of a robber is not a comfortable life, but most members of the church go to church without realizing this. Because the Word of God hasn’’t gone into them, they don’t know the reason why they have to give offering and Tithe so they think of it as a temple “I’m too embarrassed to go empty handed, so I will bring some offering, “ it means they go back and forth from church without knowing what it means to glorify God or what worship is.
Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the whole Tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house.” What is God’s house? Is it a heavenly storehouse? That’s not a place where physical, tangible money goes. That’s God’s temple, that’s the church, that’s God’s storehouse, why? Because these are the things that will be used for God’s work.
“Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing.” The church is poor, but the members of the church are wealthy and eating well? It means something’s wrong. If God’s house is lacking but the pantries of the members of the church are overflowing and full, there’s something very wrong, it means they’re all stealing.
Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness,” and the background of that text is that “You cannot serve both God and Money.” The content we read about in Numbers and Malachi is now connected to Matthew, “First seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness.” Before Jesus says these words, He says, “You cannot serve two masters, money and God, so first, seek God’s Kingdom.”
What is God’s Kingdom, exactly? It is the church, God’s temple. Why do you think Apostle Paul explained so much about Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God wherever he went? Because we’re no longer in an age of the Temple where we’re sacrificing animals. Now, the Kingdom of God has gone into an age where by the filling of the Holy Spirit, the members can be the church.
That’s why Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness,” you need to think about the meaning of this word first. It’s not talking about “first ” chronologically or based on time, it could mean our first purpose in life. The number one priority for which I live my life is worshiping God. But because people don’t understand this, they live life for the things they need in life and that’s what the Gentiles and unbelievers do. God even takes care of the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, and you guys are people of God. This means that we don’t worry about the physical needs, but worship is the number one priority of our life, and every time we worship, it includes Tithes and offering. That is the reason for which we live. That’s what it means to live for God’s glory.
You guys have to know the Old Testament to know why God is saying everything in the New Testament, because the New Testament was the Word given to the Jews, but if the Word of God doesn’t go into you, you’ll live your life like a Buddhist. You’ll come to worship so you can beg for blessings. Or you come to church and give a little bit of offering so you can take care of the problems in your family. You have no choice but to live that way unless you receive God’s Word. That’s why God cannot receive that worship.
When we talk about offering and Tithes, it’s not talking about money ; it’s talking about our life. Whatever you do in the world costs money, and every time you work from morning to night, it returns to you in the form of money. The reason why kids go to school all their lives and get a job is so that they can get money. But if the Word of God does not go into you properly regarding those things, then you cannot give proper worship, you cannot give glory to God.
It says in Malachi 3:10, it says “Give the whole Tithe.” It means there is also a partial Tithe. The bigger someone’s enterprise is, or the more money they have they give a they give a partial Tithe because a whole tenth could be a lot of money. They think they made the money themselves. When people are poor, they give their Tithe because it’s not a lot of money, but the wealthier you become, you don’t give your whole Tithe because you will be revealed for what you are, then you only give a little bit of money.
“I’m giving my money to God so there’s no reason to check the ‘Tithe’ box,” but if you see how this person give the offering to God, you can see their financial life out in the world. If someone is dishonest and unsure about their offering to God, they will decide the people with money outside in the world. Don’t you think that’s obvious? Of course it is. The fact that they’re trying to rob God means they’re going to be even worse with people. Do you think that person will pay proper taxes to the government ? No. What happens if you don’t pay, then the government will not run properly so holistically, these problems are being revealed.
So, God says, “Try me, bring the whole Tithe into the storehouse and see what I will do,” and I hope you will all be the witnesses of God’s blessings as you give your whole Tithe in faith. You give this in faith and do it in faith because God promised. That’s your vessel of faith for God. If you don’t have a faith that allows you to give your whole Tithe to God you live according to the level of your faith, so do it very holistically. That’s how God’s Kingdom will go according to God’s will.
Malachi 3:11, “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops,” meaning God will stop our finances from being eaten away and going into the negative, “and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” if the rain falls to hard and all the food falls to ground before it is ripe then you have no money, but this isn’t talking about money. It’s talking about glorifying God through your worship. That means, our goal is worship. The reason we do missions and evangelism is because God desires to receive glory from that location, too. It means that worship and evangelism to God happens to all nations, that means we are evangelizing. We evangelize to people so they can give glory to God through their worship.
You shouldn’t just end it with evangelism. You evangelize to them so that you can change them into people who give glory to God through worship. You teach them holistically so the purpose and goal of their life is to worship God. Everything is connected so that their social life and financial life is to give glory to God. The fact that the Israelites’ temple was destroyed means the priests were not able to give glory to God through their worship.
Malachi 3:12, even more importantly, “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the LORD Almighty.“ This is very important, God will bless the land you’re farming on to the point where non-believers will look at your land and say, “Wow, that is a very blessed land,” but you shouldn’t misunderstand that.
“Does that mean I have to give my tithe to receive blessings?” That’s not worship, that’s just your investment. Through your worship you glorify God, then finances will follow naturally. Then, God’s glory will be revealed in a way that’s visible to nonbelievers through your finances and job. For people who have a business, God will reveal His glory so unbelievers can see it, too.
Employees might not receive much of a salary, however, God will set you apart and make it so that no one can compete with you. Either way, God will make it so that unbelievers look at you and say, “Wow, this is the work of God.” For example, maybe employees get a few promotions or have some ideas and say, “Wow, this is the work of God,” but this only takes place when worship becomes your priority and goal.
When receiving blessing is no longer your goal but worshiping God is your goal, then God does everything naturally. May these words of blessings be be imprinted,rooted and natured in you, so that the next generations will be witnesses of this blessing.
Prayer
Let us hold onto the Word God has given us today and pray together.
Let us pray now because your goal is to make sure that this word and worship will be relayed to every member of the church. If the word doesn’t go into them, they don’t know, so they will live according to the ways of the world. If you don’t give them the Word, it means you’re just helping the person dry and wither up. That’s what it means for you to enjoy the blessing of Immanuel. This isn’t something that only people who are good at speaking should do but every single member of the church should relay to someone else. Especially if someone is a new believer and they haven’t reduced the word of God before, you have to help them to receive the word of God properly, and follow God’s Word accurately.
It doesn’t matter if you’re good at talking or not, it doesn’t matter whether you’re very artistic or not, what’s most important is how accurately you’re relaying God’s Word. “I’m not very good at speaking,” that’s okay, you can stumble and stammer and accurately relay God’s Word. It doesn’t matter how logically you relay the message, if it’s not the accurate Word of God, it’s all unnecessary.
We need to have a complete movement arise where people come to church to give glory of God and go into the field to reveal God’s glory. You need to teach this to your children first. If you don’t teach them, they’re going to live with something else. Let us pray for the members of the church.
On Labor Day and the day afterward, beginning in September, there’s going to be the North America Business Evangelism Conference, and right before that, there’s a college retreat, so I pray that everyone who is related to these fields may be lead properly. Let us pray in particular about the region that the church is serving as well as the 50 states of America. We need to hold onto the prayer topic where the accurate Word movement can go to all the regions to fill the empty places. If the Word of God doesn’t accurately go in, it will change into disasters. People may go to church, but their life will be difficult. That’s why it must be the proper Word of God. Let us pray.
Let us pray together, there are a lot of big things happening in Afghanistan right now. When you guys pray holding onto God’s covenant, then even as you pray here, God’s light will appear there, transcending time and space. The very first thing you must do every morning when you wake up is to save yourself and your thoughts through God’s Word.
I’m especially warning the young adults and the remnants , if you don’t want to suffer in your later years, make this into your nature. The more successful people are, the earlier they will wake up in the morning because the work you do shouldn’t be the work you do when everyone’s eyes are open. You need to go and prepare yourself before anyone else has woken up.
If you just want to eat and live comfortably, you can just live according to your nature, but if you do that, even after receiving the blessings, you will keep getting dragged around in the flow of the world. So, as soon as you wake up in the morning, raise yourself up spiritually and then pray for all of the world and the field, and when you go into the field, you can confirm the answers to prayer. Let us pray for the light of Christ to shine upon Afghanistan, the 237 nations, the 5,000 unreached people groups who are doing the Qi movement, the mysticism movement, and the shamanism movement to control souls.
We’ll sing one praise, have the Benediction, then we’ll have the church intercessory prayers, personal prayers, and then return home.
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of all the people of the church, the multiethnic people and the remnants who desire to give glory to God by fulfilling the word in the worship exactly as you have given it ,to them, from now until forevermore always, amen.