The Ten Percent: God, Us, and Giving

This isn’t about the one percent or the ninety-nine percent. It’s about the ten percent.

That’s the ten percent that we owe to God.

It’s kind of old-fashioned, that idea. I had a short discussion about it with someone who felt that God did not care if he gave part of his income to God. He felt that his work itself was his offering to the almighty.

That idea, or some form of it, is common.

1. Roads that lead to tithing.

Popular strands of theology support the tithe. Churches that preach the prosperity gospel appeal to the self-interest of their church members. They say that God rewards gifts to the church with prosperity.

Then there’s simple command: Jesus said to do it. (Luke 11:24.)

2. David’s way.

Neither of those ideas should be shunted aside. But King David speaks across the millennia. His words repose in my mind.

David was a giant. His psalms express his love of God. So does his life.

Of course, when he sinned, he sinned big. He had many wives, but he embraced Bathsheba. At the time, Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, David’s servant and a mighty warrior. Bathsheba got David’s child, and David tried to offload credit for the conception onto Uriah, before the child was born. David recalled Uriah from the battlefield and encouraged him to refresh himself with his wife. Uriah wouldn’t do that while his fellow warriors suffered the privations of war. So David told his general, Joab, to make sure that Uriah died in battle. Joab did so; then David married Bathsheba.

But when God rebuked David, David humbled himself before God. That was David’s way.

David could start out wrong-headed, but his endpoint always was humility before God. David wanted to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. He had it put on an oxcart for the journey – the holy, holy ark on a frickin’ oxcart. The oxcart stuttered; one of the men with it reflexedly put his hand on the ark to steady it. He died at that moment. David was furious at God.

But, because he was David, he realized that God was right and he was wrong. He repented. He arranged for the ark to make the rest of the journey on the shoulders of men, accompanied by music and celebration.

But: back to tithing. David wanted to build a house of God. God wouldn’t let him, because he had shed blood in wars. God said that, instead, David’s son Solomon would build God’s house.

But David prepared the way for Solomon to build the house of God. He donated huge amounts of gold and silver and jewels and costly building materials to the project. And he called on the Israelites to do the same. They did.

3. David’s words.

And here’s what David said about the dedication of that wealth to the house of the God of nations:

Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.

Thine, O LORD is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.

Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all.

Now therefore, our God, we thank the, and praise thy glorious name.

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own.

I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart, I have willingly offered all these things: and now I have seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.

O LORD of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee. [1 Chronicles 29:10-18.]

4. A woman without a name.

There’s a lot to comment on in that. Like, do you see how Jesus took language from verse 1 Chronicles 29:11 into the Lord’s Prayer?

But maybe a woman without a name should put King David into perspective. I’m speaking of a widow mentioned in the gospels of Mark and Luke.

Jesus was in the temple.

And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

And he also saw a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

And he said, Of a truth I say unto you: that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. [Luke 21:1-4.]

The Bible has an economy of narrative: it says much with little. Maybe that’s so that we can fill the gaps with our wondering. Like, did this woman know, as she cast in her two mites, that she, with her tiny gift, would stand higher than King David in the sight of God? And what was she thinking? Did she know that she could not live on what she had, so she gave all she had to God, her last refuge? Did God move on her heart, in that place, in that moment, to do something in the sight of Jesus, to become a parable and a blessing across the millennia?

This nameless widow is like the King Melchisedek, from the Hebrew Bible, also mentioned in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews says that Melchisedek was "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life . . ." (Hebrews 7:3.) Like King Melchisedek, no-one knows the earthly origin of this poor widow, nor her earthly fate. She came from nowhere and no-one on earth knows what happened to her.

This talk of Melchisedek seems obscure, and I thought about deleting it. Except for two things. The writer of Hebrews compares Melchisedek to Christ, noting that Melchisedek was "King of Salem, which is, King of peace . . .." (Hebrews 7:2.) Also, Abraham, coming from the slaughter of kings, was blessed by this king, and Abraham gave him a tenth of the spoils. So as I wrote this, I discovered a tie-in to tithing that I did not remember when I started writing.

5. The last word.

It’s tempting to give King David the last word, because his love of God was such that I can only pray for. Or, if not David, then it’s tempting to finish with the nameless poor widow who was, in her way, greater than David. Or with Melchisedek, who stands for Christ.

Maybe it’s bad manners, but I’ll take last word myself. The world is needy. It needs what the church offers, however imperfectly the church offers it. It is a privilege, in the name of God, to give to the healing of a hurting world.