Deuteronomy 14:26

The tithe spoken of here is one of the extra laws in Deuteronomy. It is a second tithe, not the first one, which belonged to God alone. This second tithe was eaten at the sanctuary by the man whose land was tithed, along with his household and the Levite, who was never to be forgotten. So he comes up to acknowledge God's mercies before Him and to enjoy them with God.

The Lord, in His tender care and thoughtful love, took account of everything. He would not leave a single difficulty in the way of His beloved people when they gathered around Himself. He had His own special joy in seeing His redeemed people happy in His presence. And all who loved His Name would be glad to meet the loving desire of His heart by gathering at the centre He Himself had appointed.

If they lived a long way from Jerusalem, they could sell the tenth of their produce for money and bring that money to Jerusalem. There they would spend it on whatever food they wanted to eat "before the Lord" (vs.24:26). For the Lord wanted them to rejoice before Him, not to eat up their produce in selfish greed, away from God's presence.

In the previous books, worship was a matter of how near you came to God in His sanctuary. Here it is thankful enjoyment of the blessings He promised and gave. They enjoyed them only before Jehovah, so that the blessings were never cut off from Him, and they enjoyed them in the spirit of grace… So it is not priestly drawing near to God, but enjoyment of the fruit of His promises, in grace with Him. This characterises the whole book.

The ancient translations, the Greek and Latin church writers, and the dictionary makers of both early and recent times all agree in describing it as a drink that makes people drunk… Elsewhere, it was a man-made wine produced from barley, wheat, honey, or any fruit except grapes.

Here everything was sanctified, because they had presented it to Jehovah. So they owned two things at once: that the people were His, and that all they had came from Him. But in giving Him back what He had given them, they enjoyed these things in fellowship with Him and with their families. They were things common to God and to the people — given by Him, offered to Him, and enjoyed in His presence in communion with one another, God Himself sharing in them, for they had offered the whole to Him.

This shows how kind provisions of the law could be twisted, and were twisted, to serve man's greed. Deuteronomy 14:22-26 gave instruction on this point, and they might argue that they were only doing what the law allowed. The law told them to bring their money and buy what they needed. But it gave no approval to the greedy practices they had brought in, which turned the house of God into a money-making centre.