A Question of the Tithe

This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary . . . half a shekel as a contribution to the LORD.   Exodus 30:13

Who Is Numbered – Very few Christians tithe.  I don’t suppose that surprises you.  Something less than 6 percent of evangelicals and less than 1 percent of Catholics actually tithe at all.  For many, tithing has no significant importance in religious practice (After all, God does not need our money.  He has plenty of His own).

There are many suggested reasons for the noticeable decline in tithing over the last decade.  Perhaps they are valid.  But I wonder if we haven’t replaced the intention and motivation of the original idea behind the tithe with something needed to support an institutionalized church and all of its trappings.  A brief glance toward Moses reveals something extraordinary.

Who paid the half-shekel into God’s tabernacle treasury?  Those who are numbered.  That turns out to be every male over the age of twenty.  In other words, everyone in the census – essentially the number of households.  Moses then adds something quite significant.  “The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less.”  Everyone owed exactly the same amount.  Why?  Because everyone had exactly the same need – atonement.  There is no gradation in the need for grace, nor is there any gradation in the expression of thanksgiving for grace received.  At least, not when it comes to financial obligation.

Some important results follow from this equality.  First, everyone has the same stake in the game.  This “tithe” brings communal unity.   No one has more or less status than another – and more importantly, no one can claim any special honor or rights based on giving.  Secondly, the operational budget of the tabernacle is limited to a single, annual contribution from each household.  The organization of religion cannot spin out of control, demanding more and more funds to grow larger and larger.  The ceiling is fixed.  Live with it!  Finally, since the ceiling is fixed, the vast majority of religious activity must be carried out in the household, not the tabernacle-temple.  Church cannot replace worship at home.  Sunday school cannot usurp godly, parental education.  There is no money to support the human temptation to take control of religious activity.

Moses’ stipulation seems entirely reasonable.  So what happened?  How did we become a religion fixated on places, programs, professionals and procedures?  When did we push worship from the home to the “house” of God?  And why do we go on sinking billions of dollars every year into all this infrastructure, not a single brick of which will be present in eternity?

When did we forget that God is the God of the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom?  When did we decide to put Him in the old folks’ home and only visit Him on Sunday?