Sermon(Gen 14:17-20): Tithe

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025286420

 

>> 17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth (the tithe) of everything. (Gen 14:17-20) <<

 

"Thy right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, thy right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. (Ex 15:6)" Today, Abraham (Abram) has witnessed God's strong and righteous right hand. Enemies, that is, king of Shinar, king of Ellasar, king of Elam, king of Goiim, made war, and took captive Lot, Abraham's nephew. So Abraham took 318 men born in his house and counterattacked them. He defeated the enemies, delivered Lot and brought a lot of booty. Abraham was grateful that he had defeated his enemies by God's help. My brethren, I want you to be victorious like Abraham while living in the world! God's strong right hand will hold you fast and his righteous right hand will destroy all your enemies.

 

When Abraham returned from the battlefield singing victory songs, Mechizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine to see Abraham. Salem means peace. Melchizedek is the king of peace. And the name Melchizedek means 'My king is righteous'. Melchizedek is the king of righteousness. Melchizedek was also a priest of the God Most High. The Scripture says that Melchizedek is higher in rank than the high priest of the tribe Levi, and than Abraham the ancestor of the tribe Levi. Melchizedek blessed Abraham for he was God's priest who was higher than Abraham. "Blessed be Abram by God Most High. (v. 19)" And Abraham gave one tenth of the booty to him. We usually call it the tithe.

 

So the tithe originated from the history that God's people gave God a tenth of the booty which they had acquired when they fought with their enemies and defeated them. My brethren, the tithe is a righteous offering. It is a victorious offering. Only he who has lived a righteous life and won victory can offer up the tithe to God. God does not accept the offerings of those who have lived an unrighteous life. God refuses the offerings of the unrighteous because, if he accepts them, he can't punish them, and such attitude means that he is defending the wicked. You can know from the offerings of Cain and Abel that God declined the offering of Cain who had been living unrighteously. My brethren, do not offer a stinking tithe to God. Take apart one tenth for God from the money you've earned honestly. The tithe is a thanksgiving offering. Only you who have gained something good by God's help can offer the tithe to God. You can't offer tithe if you have no income. Even though you have one billion won, you can't offer tithe if you had no income this month. You can offer a part of one billion won, but you can't offer it as tithe in the original sense. Abraham offered the tithe in gratitude for God who had given Abraham victory and a lot of spoils. How many people would offer tithe to God but couldn’t! What a wonderful and moving thing it is to offer the tithe! My brethren, is the tithe still burdensome to you? The tithe is a trophy celebrating your righteous victory.

 

The tithe is an expression of faith not to lose the promised blessings of God. In today's passage, Melchizedek declared a blessing to Abraham, and Abraham gave one tenth of the spoils to him in gratitude for the blessing. There is another man who promised the tithe to God. He is Jacob. Jacob was very selfish and extremely quick at calculating gains and losses. He was so quick at such calculating that he could buy Esau's birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. To Jacob, such a selfish man, God appeared in the dream, and blessed him. >>And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you. (Gen 28:13-15)"<< Jacob, who had such a grand dream, wakes up. Immediately, in the morning, his extraordinary head starts to work. What is conclusion? God's promise is such a good thing! He must keep close relationship with God to receive it without fail. Therefore he, too, must give something to God. So he promised God one tenth of his income. >>Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that thou givest me I will give the tenth to thee. (Gen 28:20-22)"<< My brethren, do you think God at first forced man to offer tithe? No! Man first promised God the tithe. Abraham first willingly offered up one tenth of his income to God, and Jacob also first voluntarily promised God to offer up the tithe. You know how great the blessing Jacob received was, from the fact that Jacob, a miser who had bought his brother's birthright for a bowl of lentil stew, promised God to offer one tenth of his income. Jacob hated to miss the blessing. So the tithe is offered up to God by only those who have met the God, the God of all blessings. Only those who are truly wise can offer up the tithe. The tithe is an offering that those who have met God and been promised blessings by him promised to God. My brethren, do you want yourself really blessed by God? The tithe is an expression of your faith in the blessings of God, not in the blessings of the world. Later, God established the priest-system, and the tithe-system as a law also in order to secure finances to implement the priest-system. The tithe was spent for the poor people, too. So the tithe is an expression of the willingness of heart to share with others what you've obtained by God's blessing. People frequently talk about social polarization these days. The tithe aims at the redistribution of wealth. The tithe offers the clergy and the poor means to eat and live. So it makes it possible for the poor also to taste the blessings of God. The tithe is the channel of blessing and love between God and man, and between humans. God stipulated the tithe in the law, and warned that you'll be punished for theft of God's assets if you transgress the stipulation. On the contrary, God promised in the Book of Malachi that he would bless those who kept the stipulation. "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. (Mal 3:10)" In the days of Abraham and Jacob, only the privileged class who were blessed by God voluntarily offered up the tithe; while, when the tithe was stipulated as a law, the right to receive the blessing of God was equalized, so that, if anyone offers up the tithe gratefully, he is granted the blessing that Abraham and Jacob received. So far as God has forcibly stipulated the tithe, God obligatorily has to bless those who kept the stipulation. In short, the tithe is a stipulation for me, for my happiness. You are a human being who desperately needs God's blessing. The tithe is a strong band that binds fast you and God who is the Lord of all blessings. Many people, how foolish, try to untie this band. But he who is quick in calculation(?) never loosens the band. Because it is a stupid deed.

 

The tithe is God's, therefore you should offer it up to the place where there is God's servant. As the Sabbath is God's day, so the tithe is God's assets. Therefore you must offer it to the church where your name is written in the book of life, and your tithe must be acknowledged by the servant of God, so that he can bless you on account of your tithe. You yourself must not spend your tithe on something that you think is God's work. Isn't it better for you that you pay the tithe so as to be blessed by the servant of God?

 

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue utters wickedness. (Is 59:1-3)" My brethren, do not use the tithe for other purposes. Or do not use it as a means to cover your sins. Some people who, not revering God and not loving others, pay every tithe of all trivial items in order to show themselves as righteous one while committing all kinds of sins secretly or in heart. Pharisees paid tithe to be acknowledged as righteous ones. But our Lord Jesus says they are abominable. If you pay tithe to make yourself look righteous to others while sinning secretly, you may be applauded by people but God does not accept your tithe. Your name may be written in the book of church as one who paid the tithe then, but God does not know your name at all. If you pay every kind of tithe regularly, but live unrighteously, God will not hear your prayer but turn his face from you, and will not stretch out his hand to deliver you when you are in distress.

 

Some people, based on Mal 3:10, say that you will unconditionally be blessed if only you pay tithe. But it's but a pure nonsense. The tithe is the offering up of the one tenth of what you've obtained by God's blessing, that is, it is a kind of thanksgiving offering. Are the unrighteous people the blessed? Do you think God gave help and deliverance to those who were living unrighteously, so that they could have some income? Unrighteous life has nothing to do with God, and the one tenth of the income of the unrighteous people can't be a true tithe for their income is wicked. Such a tithe is paid to cover their sins, and is a bait to catch God's blessings. But, is God a fish? Don't be silly. (Don’t be misled!) The one tenth of your income is a true tithe when you offer it up, in the life and heart of Abraham and Jacob. The tithe that is paid in a righteous life is a true tithe. Therefore God will not accept even the exact one tenth of your income if you offer it up as a tithe to God in stingy and painful heart without the heart of Abraham and Jacob.

 

My brethren, be blessed first. First receive the abundant grace of God on spirit and flesh. You pay the tithe in vain, if you have not received the blessing that God is your God and the blessing that you love God and other people. The tithe is not some amount of what is yours. It is an offering offered up in gratitude for what you have received first from God. So, the external tithing life is important, but on the condition that there should be the relationship of love and trust between you and God and your loving heart to share your blessings with others. Above all, tithing is a means to sustain your relationship with God who promised you future blessings. So, how meaningless it is to pay the tithe in an unjust life! But it will deepen more the love of you and God, for you to trust in God's blessing and promise, to obey his commandments, to live a clean and righteous life, and to offer up gratefully the one tenth of God's blessing you received today. The purpose of the tithe is the unwavering love and trust between you and God. God holds me fast with his righteous strong right hand, and I bind him and me with the cord of the tithe.

 

May all of you be blessed with the blessing of Abraham and Jacob in the life of offering up the tithe.

 

Chong Tack Kim

                      - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -