(Read Genesis 14:14-20 compared to Exodus 20); and Hebrews states that while Levi was in his loins, Abraham tithed. Even the heathens tithed in ancient days.
When you tithe, you are simply honoring the One who has blessed you. All things come from God. Only a fool would not bless in return the One who has blessed and released finances to him. What you have does not come from your intellect, good luck, or by accident. The One who has blessed you is God.
You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts (Deuteronomy 12:17 NIV).
Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and oil to the storerooms where the articles for the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the singers stay. “We will not neglect the house of our God” (Nehemiah 10:37-39 NIV).
“Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed MeTh But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. 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” (Malachi 3:7-10 NKJV).
Offerings
Offerings are the money that we give over and above the tithe. The word offering in the Hebrew is qorban. This word means to draw near. Offerings cost us something beyond our comfort zone. An offering draws us near to God through sacrifice.
[King David] said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24a NKJV).
Sacrifice is giving something of value for something of greater value. Offering is an act of worship. God sacrificed His Son, “something of value,” for us.
From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze… (Exodus 35:5 NIV).
But if he is poor and cannot afford it, then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, a log of oil, and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford: one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering (Leviticus 14:21-22 NKJV).
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you (Deuteronomy 16:17 NKJV).
Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the East Gate, was over the freewill offerings to God, to distribute the offerings of the Lord and the most holy things. And under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, his faithful assistants in the cities of the priests, to distribute allotments to their brethren by divisions, to the great as well as the small (2 Chronicles 31:14-15 NKJV).
And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:4 NIV).
But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on” (Mark 12:42-44 NIV).
Be A Giver
Giving from a generous heart is the key to a successful, fruitful, and satisfying life. So be a giver! You will be a blessing to others and will your self be blessed.
[Remember] this: he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously [that blessings may come to someone] will also reap generously and with blessings. Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver [whose heart is in his giving] (2 Corinthians 9:6-7 AMP).
[Always] treat with great consideration and give aid to those who are truly widowed (solitary and without support) (1 Timothy 5:3 AMP).
So we ourselves ought to support such people [to welcome and provide for them], in order that we may be fellow workers in the Truth (the whole Gospel) and cooperate with its teachers (3 John 8 AMP).
One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed (Proverbs 11:24-25 NIV).
Many entreat the favor of the nobility, and every man is a friend to one who gives gifts (Proverbs 19:6 NKJV).
A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor (Proverbs 22:9 NIV).
He
